The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection

With a shared reverence for the arts of Japan, T. Richard Fishbein and his wife, Estelle P. Bender assembled an outstanding and diverse collection of paintings of the Edo period (1615–1868). The Poetry of Nature offers an in-depth look at more than forty works from their collection that together trace the development of the major schools and movements of the era—Rinpa, Nanga, Zen, Maruyama-Shijō, and Ukiyo-e—from their roots in Heian court culture and the Kano and Tosa artistic lineages that preceded them.

Insightful essays by John T. Carpenter and Midori Oka reveal a unifying theme—the celebration of the natural world—expressed in varied forms, from the bold, graphic manner of Rinpa to the muted sensitivity of Nanga. Lavishly illustrated, these works draw particular focus to the unique intertwinement of poetry and the pictorial arts that is fundamental to the Japanese tradition. In addition to providing new readings and translations of Japanese and Chinese poems, The Poetry of Nature sheds new light on the ways in which Edo artists used verse to transform their paintings into a hybrid literary and visual art.