Page 131 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

known in traditional Japan as denju (liter- "brush traces of men of antiquity." (By ern Japanese poems). The twenty-volume
ally, "to transmit and impart"). Knowledge contrast, the Chinese or Chinese-inspired Kokinshu, in which the emperor Daigo
of how to read and understand poems of calligraphy produced by Zen monks was (885-930) had contemporary and recent
antiquity, too, was handed down that way. known as bokuseki, or "ink traces") poets' waka (31-syllable Japanese poems)
This document is about Kokin denju, the This is a fragment from an early- collected by imperial edict, is the oldest
transmission of criticisms and interpreta- twelfth-century transcription of the late- anthology of such poems of Japan. Along
tions of the poems in Kokin wakashù (Ko- tenth-century Shuishd (Selected with Shin Kokinshu (New anthology of an-
kinshù for short; Anthology of ancient and gleanings), a private (as opposed to impe- cient and modern Japanese poems), it is
modern Japanese poems), an early-tenth- rial) anthology in ten volumes said to have the most famous imperial anthology.
century compilation. Knowledge of the been compiled by Fujiwara Kintô (966- This fragment is from a kohitsugire
Kokin denju tradition, which was begun by 1041), a courtier and poet of the mid-Heian called Minbugire—supposedly so called af-
the poet Sôgi (1421-1502) of the Muro- period. The fragment is called a shita-e ter an owner who bore the title Minbu
machi period and passed on within the (underdrawing) because there is a delicate (Officer of the Department of Finances).
Nijô school of poetry, was considered a su- drawing on the paper, in silver paint, of Originally the Minbugire was in book
preme achievement in the Japanese po- plants and birds. form. The poems were written in two
etry tradition of the middle ages. Originally from the first of a set of columns each, with eight to ten columns
Hosokawa Yúsai, the calligraphier of scrolls, this fragment presents seven lines on a page. The fragment here, a single
this document, was a member of the Nijô on the theme of spring. The first three page, contains two poems and half of a
school and learned in the art of Kokin columns from the right are a headnote to third copied from the Kokinshu, one poem
denju. The document is a certificate of Ko- the poem, which composes the next two by Oshikôchi Mitsune (fl. c. 900), a com-
kin denju from Yüsai to the imperial columns. The remaining two columns are piler of the Kokinshu, and two by anony-
prince Hachijô (Prince Toshihito, 1579- the headnote to the next poem, which is mous poets. The transcribed poems are
1629), the younger brother of the emperor not transcribed here. The text reads: numbered 793,794, and 795 in the fif-
Go-Yozei (1571-1617). On the eighteenth Priest Ekei, on cherry blossoms in bloom in teenth volume of the Kokinshu, entitled
day of the seventh month of 1600, just be- "Love":
fore the Battle of Sekigahara (cat. 104), the a dilapidated house which nobody was
expected
to visit:
forces of Ishida Mitsunari (1560-1600) laid Anonymous
siege to Yüsai at Tanabe Castle in Tango On a field of wild grass If there were never
Province (part of present-day Kyoto Pre- in an uninhabited house the slightest flow of water
fecture). On the twenty-seventh day, Go- cherry blossoms are in bloom; in the dry river
Yôzei, gravely concerned that the Kokin will they perhaps peacefully of our love, then I would think
denju tradition might_end with Yüsai, had scatter in the wind? the channel doomed to vanish.
Prince Hachijô send Oishi Jinsuke, his Mitsune
councilor, to persuade Yüsai to make Composed while regretting the falling
peace. As a military man, Yüsai declined. cherry blossoms at the house of Has your love then cooled?
This certificate, dated the twenty-ninth Yoshichika, Junior Middle Councilor. Well and good as Yoshino,
day of the seventh month, 1600, indicates The beautiful, fluent kana calligraphy River of Good Fields:
that Yüsai, facing the possibility of death, is ascribed to Minamoto Toshiyori (1055- I will still bear in memory
had decided to make Prince Hachijô his 1129), an attribution that cannot be ac- the words we spoke at the start.
successor in the Kokin denju tradition. cepted with certainty. Several calligraphic Anonymous
Signed at the end Yùsai and Genshi, both works by the same hand are known, in-
of them Buddhist names, the document cluding Gen'eibon Kokinshu (the Gen'ei- In this world of ours,
records three generations of Yüsai's line of era edition of the Kokinshù), Gosenshù- what is it that resembles
transmission of Kokin denju: first Sankôin, gire (Fragments of the later anthology of the human heart?
a courtier also known as Sanjônishi Saneki ancient and modern Japanese poems), and Dyestuffs from the day flower
(1511-1579), who transmitted Kokin denju Sujigire (Fragments of the Kokinshu) all of (all too quick to fade away).
to Yüsai; second, Yüsai himself; and third, the early twelfth century. YK (Translated in McCullough 19853,174.)
Prince Hachijô, to whom Yüsai passed on The flowing calligraphy suggests a
the tradition. YK slow movement of the brush, with atten-
68 Minbugire tion to even spacing between characters
hanging scroll; ink on decorated paper and some characters linked with a consis-
67 Shitae Shuishdgire 25.4 x 17.0(10 x 63/4) tent leftward tilt. The imported Chinese
hanging scroll; ink on decorated paper Heian period, early i2th century paper is decorated with a design of ara-
26.3 X 18.5 (l03/8 X 7^4) Sekai Kyüseikyo (MOA Art Museum), besques, roundels, and phoenixes printed
Heian period, early i2th century in mica. Although the calligraphy is com-
Shizuoka prefecture
Tokyo National Museum Important Art Object monly ascribed to Minamoto Toshiyori
(1055-1129), a poet of the late Heian period,
Beginning in the late sixteenth century, Besides being cut up into fragments to there is no evidence for this attribution.
the connoisseurship and collecting of old adorn the tokonoma during the tea cere- Judging from the calligraphic style, the po-
Japanese calligraphies, particularly to mony, fine old calligraphies might also be ems appear to have been copied in the
adorn the tokonoma of the tea hut during dismembered to be pasted into albums twelfth century. YK
tea ceremonies, led to the systematic dis- known as tekagami, or "mirrors of [skilled]
membering of old Japanese books and hands." These albums of kohitsugire (cat.
scrolls, particularly those of thirteenth- 67) were collectors' items, or copyists'
century date or earlier. These fragments models, or both together. They became
(kire or -gire, literally, "cut pieces") are popular during the seventeenth century.
known as kohitsugire, kohitsu being a The piece shown here is a fragment
shortened form of kojin no hisseki, or of a transcription from the early-tenth-
century compilation Kokin Wakashù (or
Kokinshu, Anthology of ancient and mod-

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