A Chinese Verse on “Compiling History”

This hanging scroll with two columns of cursive Chinese verse ranks as among the finest calligraphies by Rai San’yō in his highly regarded late mature style. The upper section of the first column betrays a familiarity with Mi Fu’s calligraphic style, certainly filtered through Ming and Qing models. In the second column, San’yō became more expansive and expressive with his brushwork, writing characters in larger sizes, especially to accentuate the phrase 英雄 (eiyū, “heroism”).

The distinguished historian and Confucian scholar San’yō also established a reputation as a Nanga school painter, calligrapher, and poet. He was born a scion of a samurai family in Osaka and studied in Hiroshima and Edo before settling in Kyoto in 1811, where he opened an academy and devoted himself to the writing of kanshi (verse composed in Chinese by Japanese poets).

Not only is the calligraphy very high quality but the poem reflects on his famous role as the compiler of the Unofficial History of Japan (Nihon gaishi) in twenty-two volumes that was completed in 1827, just around the time this scroll would have been created. His erudite and revisionist rewriting of Japanese history asserting the power of the emperor was a key text that was to inspire many of those of the Sonnō jōi (Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians) movement who would overthrow the Shogunate several decades later in the 1860s. This text that helped inspire the whole imperial restoration of Meiji was still being discussed in honorific terms in the first decades of the twentieth century. Nihon gaishi was hugely famous and influential, which is another reason why getting this personal insight to some of the emotions he had while writing it is so important.

According to a note found in the box, this work was given to Monk Jōshōji Tanzan 浄勝寺 丹山 (1785–1847), who was living in the Fukui area and who was on close terms with noted artists in the Kansai area such as Tanomura Chikuden (1777–1835), Aoki Mokubei (1767–1833), as well as Monk Suehiro Unge 末広雲華 (1773–1850).

The poem paints a picture of a scholar in his study who, buried in his books, faces both his procrastination and his loneliness. No doubt reflecting San’yō’s own challenge of creating a revisionist history of Japan, the subject of the poem is concerned about maintaining an objective stance and not being swayed by his emotions. The inscription can be deciphered and tentatively translated as follows:

螙冊紛披烟海深、
授毫欲下復沈吟。
愛憎恐枉英雄跡、
獨有寒燈知此心。

Residue from silverfish in books spreads,
forming a deep smokey sea.
My desire to begin writing with my brush
is stymied by further procrastination.
Worried that love and hate
may skew the stories of heroism,
The lamp in wintertime
becomes my sole confidant.

(Translation by Tim Zhang)