Two Waka Poems Composed at Zenrinji Temple

Ueda Akinari 上田秋成

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This waka-kaishi (poetry sheet with 31-syllable court verse) records two poems inspired by a visit of the noted writer, poet, and calligrapher Ueda Akinari to Zenrinji, or Eikandō, near Nanzenji in the foothills of the Higashiyama district of Kyoto. Akinari had moved to Kyoto with his wife in 1793, and played an active role in the networks of poets, artists, and scholars of ancient Japanese literature and culture (kokugakusha, including many included on the Imperial Prince Shinnin collective painting and calligraphy composition in the Cowles Collection). Originally, these poems must have been composed around 1801, and then later included in Akinari’s poetry collection and literary miscellany “A Basket of Writings” (Tsuzura bumi 藤簍冊子, 1806–07). Based on the calligraphy style, and the way Akinari signed himself Shūō (Old Man Aki[nari]), the researcher Nagashima Hiroaki dates this transcription to around 1803 or 1804. Akinari’s archaically elegant but limpid kana reveals his indebtedness study of Heian-period (794–1185) models of sōgana (highly cursive kanji used phonetically).

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art