Scroll 1 from Song of Lasting Sorrow (Chōgonka gakan)

Kanō Sansetsu

Handscroll painting, Scroll 1 from 'Song of Lasting Sorrow' (Chōgonka gakan), painted by Kanō Sansetsu (1590-1651) in ink, colours and gold on silk, in Japan in the late 1640s. The Song of Lasting Sorrow was composed by Chinese poet Bai Juyi in the ninth century. It tells of the love affair between the Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756) and the beautiful Yang Guifei (719–756). From their all-consuming romance, to the rebellion blamed upon Xuanzong’s infatuation, and Yang Guifei’s subsequent execution, Bai Juyi’s tragic poem captured hearts across China and beyond, here finding expression through the brush of Japanese master artist, Kanō Sansetsu. Formerly in the collection of Louis Gonse, this pair of handscrolls was acquired by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty in 1954. The scrolls were conserved courtesy of the Art Research Foundation at Handa Kyūseidō conservation studio, Tokyo, between May 1994 and April 1995.