Three Waka Poems

Signature: Ei sanshu waka/Tonna 詠三首和歌/頓阿 (Three waka recited by Tonna)

Inscription: Outer box inscription: (in raised lacquer on lid) Tonna Hōshi sanshu kaishi 頓阿法師三首懐紙 (Poetry sheet with three poems by Monk Tonna); owner’s label (paper pasted to the lid), Nijūsan 二三 ([No.] Twenty-three)

Inner box inscription, outer lid: (brushed on outer lid) Tonna sanshu waka 頓阿三首和哥 (Three waka by Tonna); (collector’s black relief seal, impressed on a paper label, pasted on the lid) Kōsetsusai kanzōki 香雪斎監蔵記 [Kōsetsusai refers to the previous owner Baron Fujita]

Inner box inscription, inner lid ((brushed on a paper label, pasted on the inner lid, dated 1793): Tonna hōshi Go-Kōgen-in no toki / Waka shitennō no sono hitori nari / Kansei go nen made 442 nen naru
頓阿法師　後光厳院ノトキ / 和哥四天王ノ其一人也弘永年中 / 寛政五年マテ四百四十二年ニ成ル
(Monk Tonna, from the reign of Emperor Go-Kōgen, was numbered among the Heavenly Kings of Waka. From the Kōei era [1342–1345] to Kansei 5 [1793], 442 years have passed.)

Note: This unsigned label from 1793 dates this piece to precisely 1351, but does not give any justification for that precise calculation. There are a few errors in the inscription. Kōei 弘永 did not exist as an era name in Japanese history. Kōei 康永, however, pronounced the same but written with a different first character, was indeed a era name used by the Northern Court from 1342 to 1345. Based on the description in the rightest column, the inscriber dated this piece to 442 years before 1793, which is 1351. The inscriber perhaps meant to refer to the Kannō 観応 era (1350–1352), instead of Kōei 弘永.

Provenance statement (brushed on the inner lid, beneath the paper label): Moto Ueno-chō Taishi-ya shoji; Yamato-ya Ryōka / shoji; Hosoya Jukan e yuzuru; Ko mata tetsu shoji; Otōto / Hikosaburō shoji; Matasaburō yori yuzuri taru
本上之町大子屋所持大和屋了可 / 所持細屋壽閑へ譲ル子亦た迭所持弟 / 彦三郎所持又三郎ゟ讓之
(Originally, Taishi-ya in Ueno-chō owned [this work]. Yamato-ya Ryōka owned it. Then it was transferred to Hosoya Jukan; Then [his] son owned it instead; [his son’s] younger brother Hikosaburō owned it; it was then transferred from Matasaburō. [Please see the analysis of this inscription in the provenance section below]

Baron Denzaburo Fujita Japanese, thence by descent to his heirs; Fujita family collection , until 1934; sold at auction to unknown collector, Kyoto; [ Matsumoto Shōeidō , Kyoto, until 11/15/2014; sold to Cowles]; Mary and Cheney Cowles , Seattle, until 2022; donated to MMA

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection," August 10, 2024–August 3, 2025.

Inada Toshinori. “Ton’a no jihitsu kaishi・tanzaku・shojō shūsei” 稲田利徳「頓阿の自筆懐紙・短冊・書状集成」Okayama Daigaku Kyōikugakubu kenkyū shūroku 『岡山大学教育学部研究集録』63 (July 1983) Vol. 63, pp. 237–38.

Carpenter, John T., and Tim T. Zhang. The Three Perfections, Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting: The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, [2025], pp. 57–58, cat. no. 10.