Literary Gathering in the Orchid Pavilion

Maruyama Ôkyo

1755–1795

Medium: Six-panel folding screen; ink and slight color on paper
Dimensions: Image: 83 x 191.8 cm (32 11/16 x 75 1/2 in.); Overall: 95.7 x 204.5 cm (37 11/16 x 80 1/2 in.); Open and extended: 83 x 243 cm (32 11/16 x 95 11/16 in.)
Genre: Paintings
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art

Styles

Japanese Art

Tags

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

About

A cheerful gathering of poets was one the most popular themes of East Asian literati paintings. Literary Gathering in the Orchid Pavilion depicts a poets’ party hosted in AD 353 by the famous Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi to celebrate the Spring Purification Festival, observed annually on the third day of the third month. Wang invited 41 scholar-poets to compose poetry and drink while seated along the bank of a winding rivulet. This screen would have appeared on the left and shows preparations for the gathering. The lost right screen is assumed to have depicted the poets sitting along the stream.