Chinese Romance from a Japanese brush. Kano Sansetsu’s Chogonka Scrolls in the Chester Beatty Library.
 

By Shane McCausland and Matthew P. McKelway; price € 29.00
 

The subject of this book is the pair of fine picture-scrolls entitled Song of Lasting Sorrow (Chōgonka gakan) in the Chester Beatty Library’s Japanese collection. Created by the Kyoto Kano School master Sansetsu (1590-1651) in the early Edo period, the painting depicts the tragic love story of the Tang eperor Minghuang and his beloved concubine Yang Guifei, as told by the great Tang poet Bai Juyi (772-846; Hakurakuten in Japanese) in his epic ballad, ‘Song of Lasting Sorrow’, composed in 806-07. This Chinese subject has had an intriguing history in Japan, ever since it was first mentioned in the Tale of Genji (c. 1008), but the style of the painting also compels deep interest, opening a window on how Sansetsu organised his painting workshop and raising questions about the artist’s pictorial sources in China. Following a recently published facsimile of the Chōgonka scrolls, entitled Kano Sansetsu ga Chōgonka gakan (The Song of Lasting Sorrow picture-scrolls by Kano Sansetsu), this is the first book in English devoted to exploring these issues. The volume is part of a continuing project to publish the Chester Beatty Library’s renowned collection of Japanese paintings and picture-books (Nara ehon).