Autumn Poem by Lady Kunaikyō

Hon’ami Kōetsu was the most prominent calligrapher of his generation, and renowned for his renditions of classical Japanese waka (court poems in 31 syllables) in a mixture of dynamically rendered kanji (Chinese characters and kana (Japanese phonetic characters). He employed an age-old technique of “scattered writing” (chirashigaki) whereby the lengths of columns were adjusted to create an attractive composition. It was comparatively rare for Kōetsu to brush poem scrolls on silk, though this work bears comparison to a section of silk handscroll with poems in the collection of the Asia Society New York. That handscroll also has painted gold bamboo decoration, and is also attributed to Tawaraya Sōtatsu, head of a studio of artists who created fan paintings, screens, and paper decoration inspired by classical painting themes. )

The poem transcribed here is one by Lady Kunaikyō (died ca. 1204), daughter of an emperor, who was considered one of the great poets of early medieval times. Included in the imperially commissioned anthology Shin kokin wakashū (New Anthology of Poems Ancient and Modern), her poem reflects on the mood sad reflection that the end of an autumn day brings on.


Transcription of text:

宮内卿

秋の歌とてよみ侍りける.

思ふ事さしてそれとはなきものを秋のゆふべを心にぞ問（新古365）.



Kunaikyō



Aki no uta tote yomi-haberi keru



Omou koto

sashite sore to wa

naki mono o

aki no yūbe o

kokoro ni zo tou



Composed as a poem on the topic of autumn:



It’s not that I’m now

lost in thought,

but dusk in autumn

makes me ponder

on matters of the heart.