Orchids Room / Unge (Taigan)

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About this Item

Record Details

Accession Number
1968/2.25
Title
Orchids Room
Artist
Unge (Taigan)
Artist Nationality
Japanese
Artist Life Dates
1773-1850
Medium and Support
handscroll, ink on paper
Object Creation Date
1823
Object Creation Place
Asia (continent)
Japan (nation)
Creation Place 1
Asia (continent)
Creation Place 2
Japan (nation)
Style/Group/Movement
literati
Inscription
Title calligraphy by Shinozaki Shôchiku (1781–1851); painting inscribed and dated by the artist; colophons by six contemporary scholars
Dimensions
27.9 cm x 670.6 cm (11 in. x 264 in.)
Century
19th century
Primary Object Classification
Painting
Primary Object Type
hand scroll
Secondary Object Classification
Painting
Secondary Object Type
bird and flower
Physical Description
Horizontally oriented. Begins with two large characters then a series of folliage imagery proceeded by calligraphy. Ink on paper, hand scroll.
Subject Matter
Unge was a native of Kumamoto in Ky?sh?, the westernmost of the Japanese islands. Born into a family of Buddhist priests, he was sent to Kyoto to study as a young man. He settled into a comfortable life as a monk scholar, and became close friends with many of the leading literati painters trained in the Chinese style as well as a highly skilled calligrapher of his day. Those friendships are documented in this important handscroll. Unge painted five clusters of orchids in this scroll, only one of which is visible in this short section. Shinozaki Sh?chiku, a well-known Confucian scholar and calligrapher brushed the title sheet that opens the scroll, while six other artists added comments at the end. Text and image are inextricably woven together, recording stimulus and response as an ongoing exchange between friends.
The materiality of the handscroll is intricately tied to its intended use. For example, the handscroll is meant to be unrolled and then rerolled slowly from right to left. This way of reading the handscroll gives the author(s) great control over how the intended viewer or viewers are presented with the art and calligraphy. Naturally, this authorial control has a considerable impact on the way in which it is read and appreciated. Additionally, since the work is executed on paper rather than silk, this suggests a more humble origin. This is further supported by the haphazard sizes of individual sheets of paper that are glued together. A more official or imperial handscroll would have uniform pieces of silk, which provides important clues to the provenance of pieces such as this one.
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Technical Details

Image Size
14853 x 629
File Size
1 MB
Record
1968/2.25
Link to this Item
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1968-sl-2.25/1968_2.25all.jpg

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Manifest
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1968-SL-2.25:1968_2.25ALL.JPG

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"Orchids Room; Unge (Taigan)." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1968-sl-2.25/1968_2.25all.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 29, 2024.
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