Portraits of Three Famous Poets: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Lady Ise, and Ono no Komachi; Tosa Mitsuoki (Japanese, 1617–1691), Tosa Mitsunari (Japanese, 1646–1710), Tosa Mitsutaka (Japanese, 1675–1710), 1691. Triptych of hanging scrolls: ink, color, gold and silver on silk; Image: 39 1/2 × 17 3/8 in. (100.3 × 44.1 cm); Overall with mounting: 73 3/4 × 22 3/8 in. (187.3 × 56.8 cm); Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2021; Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 at 5pm (ET)
Zoom Webinar

The Japanese Art Society of America welcomes members for their upcoming Zoom talk by John T. Carpenter, Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the themes covered in his recently published book The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting, co-authored with Tim T. Zhang, research associate in the Department of Asian Art. This volume accompanies the exhibition, currently on view at The Met, that commemorates the extraordinary gift of more than 300 Japanese paintings and calligraphies from collectors Mary and Cheney Cowles.

The five primary areas addressed in the book include: kana calligraphy of the 11th to 14th centuries; bokuseki, or Zen monks’ calligraphies of medieval times; courtly styles of calligraphy and paintings of the early modern period; Ōbaku Zen calligraphy of the 17th century; and literati painting of the 18th and 19th centuries. By way of background, please see the in-depth interview with Cheney Cowles published in Impressions 41 (2020), “Cheney Cowles: A Seattle Collector Makes a Statement.”

To learn more and register, click here.