Rai San’yo (1780–1832), Six-Panel Calligraphy Screen

This is a monumental six-panel calligraphy screen by Rai San’yo, inscribed in powerful cursive script with the complete text of Pheasant with an Arrow, a celebrated poem by the Tang-dynasty writer Han Yu:

Across the plain, the hunting fires have burned, leaving the fields silent and bare;
Fearing the hawk, the wild pheasant emerges, only to vanish again.
The general, wishing to astonish the crowd with his skill, wheels his horse and bends his bow, yet holds the arrow.
The ground narrows and the spectators gather; startled into flight, the pheasant rises as the powerful arrow is released.
It bursts upward more than a hundred feet; the red fletching and white arrowhead tilt with its flight.
The general throws back his head and laughs as his officers offer congratulations;
Its five-colored feathers fall in disarray before his horse.

Rai San’yo’s sweeping cursive script mirrors the poem’s movement and mounting tension. Broad, forceful strokes alternate with rapidly turning lines, carrying the viewer across the six panels with tremendous energy and momentum.

Rai San’yo was one of the most influential Confucian scholars, historians, poets, and calligraphers of the late Edo period. In this work, the vigorous scale and uninhibited movement of his brush transform Han Yu’s hunting narrative into a commanding visual performance. 

An old auction record affixed to the reverse indicates a sale price of $4,500 during the 1990s.

{Each panel: Height 69 inches x Width 25 1/2 inches}.

This work was featured in the special exhibition Time Well Wasted: Five Hundred Years of Japanese Ink Painting, held at Michaan’s Auctions from August 16 to 21, 2026, and is illustrated on page 116-118 of the accompanying book by Jingwei Zeng.

Some surface soiling. For condition report and additional photos, please contact the Asian Art Department.