A pair of six-fold screens with applied tanzaku (poem slips) from the 17th century.

Each tanzaku was executed by a court noble or priest of imperial lineage; they rest against a background of wavy horizontal lines in purple and blue, dispersed with sunago ‘clouds’ (sprinkled gold dust).

The boarder of this pair of screens is of particular interest as it is from an antique kimono textile with a design of sails. The screens were mounted by Nakagawa Chinkai of Kyoto.

Ink, colour and gold on paper.

Poem slips, 17th century, Edo period; screens mounted in 1937.

Tomobako (original box): dated September 1937, signed Nakagawa Chinkai and sealed Chinkai.

Tanzaku are rectangular sheets of paper used for calligraphic poems or paintings. Since the mid-Heian and Kamakura periods, such papers, termed shikishigata, were inscribed with poetic calligraphy and attached to screens or sliding door panels. Often these slips are highly decorated with gold or silver cut into small pieces or sprinkled like mist or finely painted with various motifs, as exemplified by the current example.

On this pair, some tanzaku are accompanied by slips inscribed with the names of kugyō (court nobles) and monzeki (priests of imperial lineage) from the 17th century who executed the calligraphy on the corresponding tanzaku.

Calligraphers of tanzaku on the right screen (from right to left, only where indicated):

- Minase Ujinari (1571-1644, court noble)

- Kawabata Sanetsura (1635-1706, court noble)

- Ōgimachi Kinmichi (1653-1733, court noble)

- Manshuin Ryōshō (1623-1693, head priest of Manshuin temple, Kyoto)

- Washinoo Takakazu (1606-1662, court noble)

- Takenaka Sueari (act. 17th 7803 century, court noble)

- Takakura Nagataka (1615-1681, court noble)

- Takenouchi Koretsune (1636-1704, court noble)

- Hiramatsu Tokitsune (1599-1654, court noble)

- Chikusa (unknown)

- Reizen Tametsune (1654-1722, court noble)

Calligraphers of tanzaku on the left screen (from right to left, only where indicated):

- Higuchi Nobutaka (1600-1658, court noble)

- Itsutsuji Toshinaka (1629-1657, court noble)

- Uramatsu Sukekiyo (1626-1667, court noble)

- Nakamikado Nobuyori (1613-1664, court noble)

- Sanjōnishi Sanenori (1619-1701, court noble)

- Enmanin Jōson (1604-1671, head priest of Enmanin temple, Shiga)

- Hamuro Yorinari (1615-1675, court noble)

- Tominokōji Yorinao (1613-1658, court noble) (appears twice on the fifth and sixth panels.)

Although not all the poems on the tanzaku are legible due to highly stylised and cursive characters, from what are legible, some might have been composed by the nobles at the time of the early 17th century but most seem to have been taken from the classical masterpieces of the Heian period (794-1192) and Kamakura period (1192-1333), such as Kokin-wakashū (Collection of Japanese Poems Ancient and Modern, compiled in the early 10th century) and Shin-kokin-wakashū (New Collection of Japanese Poems Ancient and Modern, compiled in the early 13th century). The themes are varied, yet they refer to the seasons and nature, as can be read from some of the poems below.

- Poem by Ōshikōchi no Mitsune (898-922), written by Kawabata Sanetsura

Tsukiyo ni wa

sore tomo miezu

ume no hana

ka o tazunetezo

shirubekarikeru.

When the plums blended into

the moonlit night

I should have sought for

sweet fragrance

to find where the blossoms were.

- Poem by Ariwara no Narihira (825-880), written by Ōgimachi Kinmichi

Yo no naka ni

taete sakura no

nakariseba

haru no kokoro wa

nodoke karamashi.

If this world had never known

the ephemeral beauty

of cherry trees,

people’s hearts in spring

would have been calm and tranquil.

- Poem by Ki no Tomonori (850-904), written by Hiramatsu Tokitsune

Akikaze ni

hatsukari ga ne zo

kikoyu naru

taga tamazusa o

kakete kitsuran.

Cries of the first goose

floating on the autumn wind;

I wonder whose letter

he has carried

all the way from the north.

- Poem by Kamo no Chōmei (1155-1216), written by Chikusa

Akikaze no

itari itaranu

sode wa araji

tada warekara no

tsuyu no yūgure.

The autumn wind

blows across every sleeve;

yet my sleeve alone is

dampened with my tears

like evening dewfall.

- Poem by Ki no Tomonori (850-904), written by Reizen Tametsune

Yuki fureba

ki goto ni hana zo

sakinikeru

izure o ume to

wakite oramashi .

Snow has fallen

and piled on every tree;

how can I pick a plum branch

when the snow resembles

white blossoms?

- Poem by Minamoto no Shunrai (1055-1129), written by the unnamed

Asu mo kon

Noji no tamagawa

hagi koete

iro naru nami ni

tsuki yadori keri.

I shall come tomorrow again

to the Jewel River of Noji

where waves behind bush clovers

reflect the colours of blossoms

and glitter under the moonlight.

- Poem by Jakuren (1139-1202), written by Tominokōji Yorinao

Sabishisa wa

sono iro toshimo

nakarikeri

maki tatsu yama no

aki no yūgure.

Sadness cannot be confined

to any specific colours

as the mountains with cypress

evoke sorrow

in this autumn evening.

- Poem by Sakanoue no Korenori (act. early 10th century), written by Tominokōji Yorinao

Miyoshino no

yama no shirayuki

tsumoru rashi

furusato samuku

narimasaru nari.

The while snow

must be piling up

on the Yoshino Mountain

as I feel bitter cold

in this ancient capital