Twelve Poems from the New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern

This elegant silk handscroll includes twelve 520 poems from the Shin kokinshū (New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern), an anthology commissioned by the retired emperor Go-Toba (r. 1183–98). The compilation was completed about 1206 by a committee headed by Fujiwara Teika (1162–1241), the foremost poet of his time (cat. no. 39). It fills twenty volumes and includes 2,008 poems.

The poems in the Shin kokinshū were often a source for the calligrapher Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637). The twelve included on this scroll—numbers 515 through 526—are from the chapter on autumn, Kōetsu's favorite season:

515
No one comes
along this path,
now that it is buried
under the fallen leaves.

516
Iridescent tears
wet my sleeve.
Cold and lonely
are the autumn fields.

517
Desolate fields
beneath a chill moon.
Crickets chirp
in the frost of late autumn.

518
Crickets chirp
in the night of winter.
I lie alone
on my cold mat.

519
Cold wakens me
this September dawn.
Chill winds
have beckoned forth the frost.

520
The color of autumn deepens
on the Isle of Awaji.
The salty breeze over the ocean fans away
the fading glow of the morning moon.

521
The crescent moon
of dying September
illuminates the fields.

522
The magpie's bridge of heaven
is a fluffy, cloud.
As the color of autumn deepens,
the frost sparkles in the frigid night sky.

523
When did the mountain
cherries change their colors?
Only yesterday I wept
to see the flowers fall.

524
Crimson leaves
barely visible
punctuate the
rising mist.

525
Showers on the mountains
of these autumn days.
How are the trees at Mount Mimuro,
where the ancient gods have so long resided.

526
Fallen leaves crowd the waters
of Suzuka River.
I count the days and listen to the sleet
as it falls on the fields of Yamada.

Kōetsu's calligraphy shows sensitivity and restraint; individual characters are less robust and less tightly organized than in the two shikishi in the Burke Collection (cat. no. 84). The scroll is dated by inscription to the second year of the Gen'na era, which corresponds to 1616. There is, however, some doubt about the authenticity of the inscription: its calligraphic style and ink tone do not match the text, which resembles that of Kōetsu's inscribed tanzaku (narrow strips of decorated paper used for writing poems) in the Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo, dated to shortly before the Kan'ei era (1624–44).[1] Thus, the Burke and the Yamatane examples may both be dated to about 1620, when silk began to supercede paper for handscrolls.

This scroll is decorated with plant motifs imprinted by stamping. As the scroll is unrolled from right to left, the flowering plants are gradually replaced by other species. Tips of cypress appear at the top, ivy vines hang from above, and delicate ferns fill the field below. At the end is a rising hill lined with small pine trees. The signature and date and the large "Kōetsu" seal follow at the very end. Across the entire scroll, at top and bottom, tiny flecks of gold are scattered in drifts, as in maki-e lacquer (cat. nos. 45, 46), a technique not seen in the earlier shikishi associated with Kōetsu and his frequent collaborator Sōtatsu. Two hues of gold dust can be discerned, the more luminous perhaps a later addition. The use of stamps or carved blocks, probably made of wood, was a departure from the traditional method of blockprinting. Some stamps were employed repeatedly throughout the scroll, in different combinations and in different positions, thus allowing for a variety of designs with a limited number of blocks. The paper backing is printed with a design in gold of butterflies and pine needles.

The scroll begins and ends with two rectangular seals, both reading "Kamishi Sōji," stamped on the backing sheet. "Kamishi" (paper master) traditionally meant a supplier of paper and a mounter of scrolls; in addition, it probably denoted a printer who used mica for decorative designs such as those favored during the Heian and Kamakura periods (cat. nos. 19, 20). We know that this particular supplier, whose name was Sōji, lived across the street from Kōetsu in Takagamine.[2] He is also mentioned in three of Kōetsu's letters, in connection with paper supplies.[3] Nearly one third of all the handscrolls with Kōetsu's calligraphy and with decorations attributed to Sōtatsu have Sōji seals; as well as printed designs of flowers, butterflies, pine needles, and other motifs, on their backing sheets. Some of these designs are found even on the front of the scroll proper. It is conceivable that Sōji may have contributed more to the creation of these beautiful and innovative paper decorations than was previously thought. His seal disappears from Kōetsu's handscrolls after 1626. While it is not yet possible to differentiate designs made by Sōtatsu from those perhaps made by Sōji, the prospect of doing so is intriguing. No doubt there were close ties between the two artists, who shared significant professional and aesthetic interests, as well as part of their names, "Sō."

On the back of the scroll is an inscription which implies that it was once owned by Akiba Kōoan, a noted seventeenth-century calligrapher who worked in the Kōetsu style.[5] The scroll was sold at auction in 1934, along with other objects belonging to the Asano family, descendants of the governor of Aki Province.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] Minamoto Toyomune 1967, p. 5.
[2] Nakabe Yoshitaka 1989, pp. 30–42; and Tsuzuki Etsuko 1991, pp. 9–28.
[3] Hayashiya Tatsusaburo et al. 1964, p. 11.
[4] Tsuzuki Etsuko 1991, p. 11.
[5] I am grateful to Gen Sakamoto, Ph.D. candidate, Columbia University, New York, for his assistance in deciphering this inscription.

Signature: Koetsu

Inscription: dated to the second year of the Gen'na era (1616)

Marking: Seals: Koetsu; Kamishi Soji, on the back of scroll

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.

Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.

Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," July 13, 1985–August 11, 1985.

Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.

Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.

Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.

New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.

New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Word in Flower: The Visualization of Classical Literature in 17th Century Japan," September 22, 1989–November 12, 1989.

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan I," March 1–September 21, 2003.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Post-renovation opening exhibition: Japanese galleries," April 11, 2006–January 17, 2007.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 150, cat. no. 177.