Manuscript of Waka Poems

Fujiwara no Teika was esteemed as one of the great literary arbiters of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods and earned lasting fame as one of the compliers of Shin kokin wakashū (New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern, ca. 1205). His own calligraphy was unconventional, generally disregarding courtly conventions for both kana and kanji, but it came to be prized for its distinctive idiosyncrasies, as evidenced in this manuscript. The brush writing manner known as Teika yō (Teika style), associated with Teika’s own manuscripts—and later emulated by his descendants—features characters brushed with striking variation between thin, elongated strokes and thicker, sharply angled movements punctuated by sudden pauses. This controlled irregularity and expressive contrast is characteristic of the Teika yō, giving the script its distinctive idiosyncrasies. While there will always remain connoisseurial debate over whether a poetic manuscript ascribed to Teika is in the poet’s own hand, or one copied by one of his descendants, nevertheless, this work was considered authentic in the past, and no doubt was displayed in tea settings as genuine.

This fragment of what must have been a longer handscroll comprises a series of waka poems that appeared in anthologies such as Shinkokinshū (New Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poems, ca. 1205), compiled by Teika himself, as well as the Shoku gosen wakashū (Continued Later Collection of Japanese Poems, Continued, ca. 1251), compiled by his son Fujiwara no Tameie, as well as other waka collections, suggesting that this sheet once formed part of a group of poems were being singled out for instruction or inclusion in another.