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Source Description
Historian Rai San’yō, whose family came from Hiroshima and achieved elite samurai status from modest beginnings as textile dyers, contributed three calligraphies to these albums, including this preface, in which he explains that the albums were being assembled to show off the beauty of the landscape along Lake Biwa near Hikone Castle in central Japan. The albums also feature one leaf each by San’yō’s father, a scholar, and his two uncles, a physician and a scholar turned local government official.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
146380
label
Preface
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
146380
contentType
object
title
Preface
description
Historian Rai San’yō, whose family came from Hiroshima and achieved elite samurai status from modest beginnings as textile dyers, contributed three calligraphies to these albums, including this preface, in which he explains that the albums were being assembled to show off the beauty of the landscape along Lake Biwa near Hikone Castle in central Japan. The albums also feature one leaf each by San’yō’s father, a scholar, and his two uncles, a physician and a scholar turned local government official.
date
1817
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60472018
creators
35537
genreSpecific
Portfolio
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Each page: 25.9 x 18 cm (10 3/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
cul
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
accession
1972.117.1.1
Source extras
tec
Double-leaf from a pair of folding albums; ink on silk
tombstone
Famous Early Modern Calligraphers and Painters (近世名家書画冊): Preface, 1817. Rai Sanyō (Japanese, 1780–1832). Double-leaf from a pair of folding albums; ink on silk; each page: 25.9 x 18 cm (10 3/16 x 7 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mary B. Lee, C. Bingham Blossom, Dudley S. Blossom III, Laurel B. Kovacik, and Elizabeth B. Blossom, in memory of Elizabeth B. Blossom, 1972.117.1.1
series
Famous Early Modern Calligraphers and Painters
seriesInOriginalLanguage
近世名家書画冊
collection
Japanese Art
formerAccessionNumbers
1972.117a.1
didYouKnow
From a samurai family, Rai Sanyō sought to evade training to be a bureaucrat, leading his father to lock him in his room for three years.
creditline
Gift of Mary B. Lee, C. Bingham Blossom, Dudley S. Blossom III, Laurel B. Kovacik, and Elizabeth B. Blossom, in memory of Elizabeth B. Blossom
updatedAt
2026-06-17 12:46:52.126000
sourceId
146380
dept
Japanese Art
coll
Japanese Art
med
Double-leaf from a pair of folding albums; ink on silk
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
694ecfface969920