Piece from a Kosode with Cherry Blossoms and Poem Slips

Piece from a Kosode with Cherry Blossoms and Poem Slips

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Six poem slips hang from bamboo rods amid branches of a blooming cherry tree. Two of the three poems, which are cited only in part on the fragment, come from the eleventh-century poetry anthology Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing (Wakan rōeishū), and the third is from a twelfth-century collection of Japanese poems, the Anthology of Oral Blooms (Shika wakashū). All of the poems are devoted to springtime topics, with two mentioning cherry blossoms and the other one plum blossoms.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Piece from a Kosode with Cherry Blossoms and Poem SlipsPiece from a Kosode with Cherry Blossoms and Poem SlipsPiece from a Kosode with Cherry Blossoms and Poem SlipsPiece from a Kosode with Cherry Blossoms and Poem SlipsPiece from a Kosode with Cherry Blossoms and Poem Slips

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.