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I'd be really curious to know if this painting really refers to the "Ode to the Red Cliff". Is it Chinese or Japanese? Is there the author's name or a date? Many thanks in advance for your attention.

Andrea

Japanese I think. The painter seems to be using a pseudonym: 東臺蛻道人. Your photos don't help but I don't think it is intended to be illustrating "Ode to the Red Cliff".

Many thanks Rat for your suggestion. Evidently only reading the collophon could clarify.
Cordial greetings,
Andrea

The translator for 東臺蛻道人 gives me back Dongtai Taoist. Dongtai is a county in China (in Jangsu province). I thought it was an illustration from "Ode to the Red Cliff" because there are three men in the boat looking at the cliff, like in the Chinese story of Su Shi.

Thanks for following up, I think you are right. The upper inscription seems to be a poem that the artist composed and refers to the Yangtze River 長江, along which the Red Cliff site is located. I was scanning it and the bottom inscription for text from the Ode or references to its author Su Shi, in the process missing the entire point! The bottom inscription seems to be a commentary by the artist. Will try to read them both more carefully, (if I. Nagy doesn't get to them first). I don't get any hits online or in the main Chinese references for the name this painter is using. Dongtai is likely but not necessarily the artist's home. Chances are the painting by a Qing painter from there, but the brushwork's seeming emphasis on pattern over depth/volume (especially in the top half) suggested Japanese to me, and Japanese artists have certainly painted Chinese subject matter, taken Chinese-style names for themselves, and emulated Chinese literati (using the term Nanga painting).

Hi Rat, thank you for your attention and help. The painting is generously sized (with mounting it is 220 x 90 cm) and the cliff has a certain grandeur. Despite being, as you say, rather "frontal". Even if in the lower part with the diagonal position of the boat and the trend of the rocks it acquires a little depth. The paper is very fragile and I'm wondering if it's worth a restoration. I am very sorry when a painting degrades, regardless of its objective value.
Cordial greetings.

I took another look at the upper inscription again and am having trouble identifying a couple of the characters, but it does seem original to the picture (not transcribing lines from an existing poem, for example). In the process, I noticed a date, summer 辛酉 year (1921 in this case, perhaps; or 60 years earlier/later).

Here's what I've got as a partial transcription (each row is one column of text):

十x長江逐勝游輕舟徐(?)掉x溪流扣舷吟咏麤(with a土 underneath it)情

絕轉覺(?)山川趣味畫(?) 辛酉夏x餘題蕪詩

Many thanks Rat. I hope, with Peter's help, I know something about the seals as well.

Hi Andrea,

You are right about the poem. The topic is especially popular with Japanese amateur painters. The size is rather ambitious.
Your pics are not good enough for me to read the complex seals and characters.
As the painting is paper and condition not to bad it could look like new than cleaned and newly mounted. What type is the mounting now?
peter

Thanks Peter for your interest. In fact, the assembly is quite recent but the restoration was not carried out correctly and the paper has some breaks and lifting. I'm sending you photos, hopefully more readable.
A friendly greeting,
Andrea

Pic.1,
扣舷吟咏塵情蕪詩
東台蛻翁人
I recite a poem about dust and weed by seizing the boat`s side
Signature,
Tōdai Zeihōjin
Seal,
蛻道人　Zeidōjin

Pic.2,
Signature,
蜣翁人　Zeihōjin
Upper seal,
蜣翁　　Zeihō
I can`t decipher the lower seal,

The inscriber/painter and writer? of the classical style Chinese poem was Yanada Zeigan 梁田蛻巌　1672-1757
He was a Confucian scholar serving the Kaga Domain in Harima. He was revered as a master of classical Chinese poetry.
His pseudonyms were: 蛻翁、蛻翁人、蜣道人 etc.

With regards,
I.Nagy

Dear Andrea,

some better photos triggered alraedy a quick and helpful response by Mr.Nagy.
It seems highly improbable someone would attempt a 2 m high forgery of a confucian scholar without a real market value.

Into the new scroll was pasted the old honshi. there was no restauration at all.
One would have to take apart the scroll, clean the honshi and remove all old backing papers. Properly done the painting would be much cleaner and could be mounted in a new scroll again. There are a few worm holes but I would not call the condition very bad.

Best wishes, Peter

Wow! Nagy, many thanks for your indispensable help. Are you telling me that the painting and calligraphy could be the work of Yanada Zeigan, who uses two of her pseudonyms? Was he a poet and also a painter?

Dear Andrea,
Since there is no signature and seal imprint on the painting other than that of Zeihōjin, Zeidōjin and Zeihō, he must be the painter, too.
It is quite normal that artists (painters, calligraphers, poets, literati etc.) have used different pseudonyms on the same work.
Furthermore, the 18th century Japanese literati were also able to paint.
Regards,
I.Nagy

Nice! Therefore making the 辛酉 date of the painting equivalent to 1741. I was way off, better stick to Chinese pictures...

Many thanks to Rat, Peter and Nagy. With your expertise and availability, this Forum is an indispensable resource for anyone who has questions about oriental art.

Andrea, if you are able to post similarly enlarged images of the second inscription on the picture, we could probably help with that one too. I suspect it's somewhat more interesting because what I could parse from your earlier photo suggests that it is the painter's commentary on his own work/state of mind. I think it includes a dedication to someone as well.

Hi Rat, it would be great to have the translation! I attach two photos with higher resolution. Many thanks for your help and interest.

Andrea

Thanks, I will give it a try when I get a bit of time

Ok, finally trying to sort this out but my ability to translate older Japanese in classical Chinese style is pretty bad, so some of the following is speculation that I've tried to render in idiomatic English, possibly taking some unacceptable liberties in the process, so I trust that others will improve on this effort :)

The text seems to be something like this:

交/友(?)人致堂三畫,夜忘寢食,苦心製此図窮使半溪畫伯添加点体樹木及扁舟人物等為一幅之山水畫,而贈予題詩,是亦風流,可謂學能因法師之作策者乎? 呵呵! 蜕山翁人

An incomplete translation is hopefully not too far away from something like:

A friend(?) brought three paintings to me, and (in my excitement?) I forgot to eat or lie down all night and I made extra efforts to create a landscape painting with trees, a skiff and passengers (am uncertain exactly how to render this part of the text: 窮使半溪畫伯). Then I added a poetic inscription (presumably the poem in the top inscription). (Then there's what seems to be a rhetorical question I can't quite figure out:) This is also 风流 (has varying meanings, from "dissolute/louche" to "accommplished/outstanding"). Could it be that such actions are steps on the path to enlightenment (toward becoming a Buddhist master)? Could it? Zeizanhojin (a name Yanada took for himself).

Wow Rat! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generous commitment. I suppose it's really difficult to translate, not only the individual signs but above all to reconstruct the meaning of the sentences and the author's thought.
This is a truly intriguing story of the scholar who, in front of the paintings received as a gift (who knows what they were?) feels such agitation
that prevents him from sleeping and eating. And then he tries to express himself by painting and writing and he still asks himself questions....
Now, every time I look at this roll of paint I will think back to that sleepless night of the scholar. Three hundred years ago....

glad you appreciate it, hopefully someone will can complete/improve on my effort

Other photos

I think the undeciphered second seal in I Nagy's amazing posting could be 醉興.

Thanks Mikeoz, for 醉興 the translator returns me "drunk". Could it be a art-name?

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