REGISTERED AS A JUYO BIJUTSUHIN [IMPORTANT ART OBJECT] EDO PERIOD (MID-17TH CENTURY)

Spurred on by the revival of classical culture that took place in Kyoto the early years of the Edo period, the learned Emperor Go-Mizuno-o (a keen student of both Chinese and Japanese literature) was especially fond of copying famous early verses, particularly after his abdication in 1629, and several shikishi [poem papers] from his hand are extant. For an example of a poem in the Japanese Imperial collection both composed and brushed by Emperor Go-Mizuno-o, see Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collections (Washington, D.C., 1997), cat. no. 19. The present poem, by Fujiwara no Nobuzane (1177-1265), is taken from the Autumn section (Book 6) of the Zoku Gosenwakashu Imperial anthology (compiled 1248-51) and reads:

Oku tsuyu no
ada no ono no
Makuzuhara
uramigao naru
matsumushi no koe

Makuzuhara -
field laden with transient dew -
the leaves of arrow-
root seem like frowning faces
and the crickets' cries sound sad


Registered as a Juyo Bijutsuhin [Important Art Object] on 12 September 1936