Gonchünagon Fujiwara no Sadaie

Catalog note / 解説

The scene depicts the process of making salt by burning seaweed to extract it. At the right is the earthen kiln where the kelp is burned, producing a huge volume of smoke. At the left is a stack of fried and bundled kelp. The man below is about to fling a bundle to the man above. Two women carry off buckets of ashes from the kiln. The ashes will be mixed with a little water to make saturated salt water, which then is boiled off until the salt crystals form. Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241), one of the greatest poets and an anthologist, compiled the collection of One Hundred Poets. He also compiled the imperial anthology, Shin Kokinshu (1206). Teika's poem reads: Konu hito wo Like the salt seaw…