伝藤原為頼筆　『古今和歌集』　断簡|Three poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Kokin wakashū)

Fujiwara no Tameyori

13th century · Page from a booklet mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper · Asian Art

Connoisseurs in the past attributed this work to the hand of courtier-poet Fujiwara no Tameyori. In doing so, they seem to have made a speculative connection between the content of the calligraphic fragment, in this case poems from Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (ca. 905), imaging that it was from an early transcription of this literary classic. This style of court calligraphy did not appear until two hundred years later. Each of the three anonymously composed poems is rendered in two columns. The poem on the far left reads: Tobu tori no koe mo kikoenu okuyama no fukaki kokoro o hito wa shiranan If only my lover knew my deepest feelings, deep as these remote hills, where even the songs of birds can’t be heard. —Trans. John T. Carpenter

Artist

Fujiwara no Tameyori

Date

13th century

Medium

Page from a booklet mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015