Itsukushima Shrine: Images of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry

Six paintings in Itsukushima Shrine are all that survives of a set of 36 portraits depicting the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry, a canon of waka poets from the seventh to tenth centuries assembled by the court official Fujiwara no Kinto around the year 1009. Records show similar series were gifted to the shrine as early as 1516, though this set dates from the Edo period. Each portrait follows a standard format: a realistic likeness accompanied by a signature verse from that poet's work. These portrait series were a common gift to shrines and temples during the Kamakura period, presented as acts of devotion and to please the enshrined deities.