Four or five people / under a setting moon / they all are dancing

This haiku is included in the anthology Poems by Buson (1768), where it follows an introductory comment, “When I was asked for an inscription for a painting by Hanabusa Itcho.” This “Itcho” probably refers to Hanabusa Itcho II (son and pupil of Hanabusa Itcho), but since the son closely adhered to his father’s style, the painting in question must have also been in the manner of Itcho, the senior. Among Itcho’s works, there are many of dancing people, for instance Waiting for the Sun in the Four Seasons (Idemitsu Museum of Arts). It thus appears that Buson created his own painting for an inscription that he originally provided for the works of someone else. Itcho’s work may have been done in a casual manner already, but Buson’s painting is particularly lighthearted. Nowadays known as haiga, he called this style soga (“quickly done works for haikai themes”). The expression “quickly done works” is mentioned in the painting manual The Mustard Seed Garden as a technique that requires the brush to “fly and dance gracefully [on the paper].” The motif of dancers could not be more appropriate for this style.

This pairing of dancers with the same self-inscribed poem exists in multiple versions, and they all omit explicitly showing the moon. The artist maybe thought that painting the moon would make them too descriptive. For Buson, the painting and the poem in a haiga work belong together, they are part of the same world. Yet he also used the same motif of dancers together with different poems. For example, the man holding the folding fan over his forehead reappears in other works as well, and one infers that these people are not limited to animating just one poem. Likewise, the man in the foreground wearing the hood resembles a figure in another self-inscribed painting that includes a poem beginning with the word “Matabei…” (perhaps a reference to the painter Iwasa Matabei). The prototypes of this figure and the man with the fan can be found in the folding screen Gion Festival (private collection). Buson tended to develop his characters from painting to painting, therefore it is not surprising to see them reappear in different works. 

The box inscription is by Kato Zuio, who informs us that he has acquired this scroll in 1818. Zuio is known for writing a number of so-called oraimono educational textbooks such as The Wholesaler’s Correspondence (1815), which refers to the author as living in Fukakusa (Kyoto). Another work with the lengthy title of The ‘One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each’ for Learning the Numerous Ways of Etiquette in Writing for Women lists Zuio as a citizen of Naniwa (Osaka).

Yosa Buson (haiku poet, painter; 1716–1783)
Haiku poet and painter of the mid-Edo period from Settsu Province (near modern Osaka). Buson studied haiku poetry under the master Yahantei Soa. Incorporating elements from various schools, Buson established his own manner of painting inspired by ancient and contemporary Chinese paintings and imported painting albums. As a leader of the second wave of Japanese literati painting in the mid-18th century, and together with his contemporary Ike no Taiga, he counts as one of the genre’s most influential proponents.