Courtly event modeled on the Lanting Gathering
- Date:
- c. 1801/07
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; ebangire, surimono
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
A courtly gathering evokes the famous Lanting (Orchid Pavilion) Assembly of 353 CE, when the Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi and forty-one guests composed poems beside a winding stream — a scene that became canonical in East Asian literati culture. Executed as an ebangire surimono around 1801–07, Hokusai transposes this idealized moment of elegant leisure into a Japanese courtly register, with figures in aristocratic costume gathered beside flowing water.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Courtly event modeled on the Lanting Gathering was created by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) in c. 1801/07.
Courtly event modeled on the Lanting Gathering depicts figures, rivers & lakes, and calligraphy.