著者

伊東 卓治

雑誌

美術研究 = The bijutsu kenkiu : the journal of art studies

巻号頁・発行日

no.184, pp.39-65, 1956-03-25

---

The Hyōsei-shū written in four horizontal scrolls and the Kanjō Ajari Senji Kanchō in one scroll, recently discovered in the Shōren-in Monastery in Kyoto by Prof. AKAMATSU Toshihide of the Kyoto University and Mr. ŌTA Kizō of the Kyoto Municipality, attract out attention as they have valuable writings inscribed on the back sides of their paper base. The Hyōsei-shū in Chinese : Piao-chih-chi) is a record concerning the T'ang priest Pu-K'ung San-tsang, its original being in six scrolls; the latter is a collection of Imperial documents investing kanjō ajari (ācārya or masterpriests qualified to baptize others) in the Enryaku-ji Monastery, and documents from the Prime Minister investing ajari (ācārya) in the Gangyō-ji and Hosshō-ji Monasteries, its original probably consisting of two scrolls. Both are manuscripts associated with the Esoteric Buddhism, and are imagined to have been possessed by Ryōyū, the head priest of the Shōren-in in its second generation from the eleventh to twelfth centuries. Both the documents were inscribed on the blank reverse sides of used sheets of paper. The obverse sides are chiefly manuscripts and letters addressed to a priest, presumably the above-mentioned Ryōyū, and some other letters and discarded documents. (Translator's note: In early times when paper was precious, back sides of already used paper sheets were frequently utilized for writing. Very often the second writings are more important historically, so that the original obverse sides with the first writings are treated as if they were the reverse sides. In these cases the original writings are called "paper-back writings".) The Hyōsei-shū was inscribed by priest Shunchō in 1087. The Kanjō Ajar i Senji Kanchō was inscribed about the same time by an unknown calligraphist, probably on the model of the same documents originally owned by the priest Jikaku Daishi. The present study is devoted to researches on the contents, characteristics and the significance in the history of Japanese calligraphy, of the manuscripts and letters on the original obverse sides of the scrolls. They comprise sixty--five items altogether, consisting of eight documents, seven letters in Chinese characters, and fifty letters in kana (Japanese syllabaries). Most of the letters are by members of the family of the courtier FUJIWARA Tamefusa (1049-1115): eleven Chinese-character letters by Tamefusa, forty-two kana letters by Tamefusa's wife, and two Chinese-character letters supposedly by Tamefusa's son. Their dates are mostly in the Ōtoku era (1084-1086). Other items include documents with dates of Eiho 3 to 4 (1082-1084) and Ōtoku 2 (1085), and kana letters whose writers and dates are unknown. It is interesting to find in one of them a statement about smallpox, for it is recorded in history that the Crown Prince Sanehito died of smallpox on the eighth day of the eleventh month of Ōtoku 2 (1085). The kana letters by Tamefusa's wife are the only examples of the sort known to date. They are very important materials in the history of calligraphy, for they enable us to date the surviving portions of the anthology Reika shu (known as "Kōshi-gire", calligraphed by Ko-ōgimi) and of the Collected Poems by Lady Saigū (known as "Kōjima-gire", calligraphed by Ono-no-Tōfū) showing marked resemblance in style to them, in approximately the same period as these letters. Furthermore, some of the kana letters by unknown writers contain early specimens of calligraphic style akin to those of the "Indigo Paper Version" of the anthology Man-yo-shu ascribed by some scholars to the hand of FUJIWARA Koremochi, and of the record of a poetry contest known as "Jūgo-ban Uta-awase"; the kana letters by Tamefusa written to his children also are unique examples. To summarize, the discovery of the writings on the back of these scrolls supplies us valuable materials of kana writing which help us in chronological editing of other specimens in the second half of the eleventh century. It is significant also that they include kana letters with dates and the names of writers.

著者

伊東 卓治

雑誌

美術研究 = The bijutsu kenkiu : the journal of art studies

巻号頁・発行日

no.214, pp.1-34, 1961-03-30

---

This article is a study, from the viewpoint of the history of calligraphy, of a letter written in kana (Japanese syllabaries) on the reverse side of a copy of a ge (document from a governmental office to a higher governmental office) from the governor of Inaba Province dated the 2nd day of the 11th month of the year Engi 5 (A.D. 905). This ge is found in the first part of the 2nd scroll in the 4th box of the “Tōnan-in Archives” preserved in the Middle Section of the Shōsō-in Repository of Imperial Treasures in Nara. The letter under discussion, which appears to be by a female hand, is hard to decipher, and it does not bear the date of copying nor the name of the copyist. This study is therefore concentrated on how the letter reads and when it was copied. The letter, or more exactly the sheet of paper on which the letter had been written, was utilized to supplement the shortage of writing-paper (i. e. to use the plain side) at the time of making a copy of the ge. If we know when the ge was copied, therefore, it becomes known that the letter is earlier than that date. Because the date of copying is unknown we have to study first of all when it was done. The document is related to a dispute between the Tōdai-ji Temple and the courtier Fujiwara Arizane concerning the jurisdiction over an estate at Takaniwa, Takakusa-gun in Inaba Province (now Tottori Prefecture). Researches on the procedure of this dispute suggest that the ge was copied either in the 5th year of Engi (905) or by the 12th or 13th year of the same era (912–913) or some time during the Enchō to Tengyō and Tenryaku eras (923–956). From the calligraphic style the resent author is led to attribute it to the lastmentioned period, namely between the 3rd and 6th decades of the 10th century. The author then tries to guess the age of the kana letter in the light of the early history of kana writing. Due to insufficiency of known materials, however, the history of kana calligraphy in the first half of the 10th century has not yet been established, and the author had to begin with classifying them in order to get a rough survey of kana script of this period. Through his research it has been made known that in this field of writing in the first half of the 10th century there existed, side by side and often mixed up, two different ways of writing: one following the traditional mode, that is, to write in the so script with each character written separately from the ones above and below (doku sō or “separate” style), and the other in what was probably a new way, i. e. to write in the sō and hira-gana scripts with the characters of words, phrases or sentences in continuing strokes (remmen or “continued and entangling” style). (Translator's note: The sō script, as referred to in literature of the time, is a simplified form of cursive style of Chinese ideographs, to be read in Japanese-style pronunciation and each character standing for one sound or syllable, from which hira-gana or Japanese syllabaries seem to have evolved. That is to say, it is a script transitional from Chinese ideographs to hira-gana syllabaries. It should not be confused with the sō or cursive style of writing as contrasted with kai, gyō and other such terms referring to the flourishing, angular, iutermediate and cursive styles.) The fact can be interpreted to illustrate a still immature stage of development in kana writing during the first half of the 10th century, contrasting with the fully progressed kana calligraphy in the late 10th to the 11th and 12th centuries. The “separate” and “continuing” styles appear to have been maintained firmly as two different ways of writing, the former probably for male writers and the latter for female. When we take these circumstances into consideration and attach due importance on the rather “continuing” aspect of the letter under discussion, and when we note that the brush work in this letter shows characteristics in common with that of a chō (report from an official to an upper governmental office) from Tamba Province dated the 22nd day of the 9th month of the year Shōhei 2 (A. D. 932), we are led to regard led to regard the age of this letter to be in about the Shōhei era (931-938). If so it is the old existing example of a letter in kana writing.

著者

伊東 卓治

出版者

文化財研究所東京文化財研究所

雑誌

美術研究 (ISSN:00219088)

巻号頁・発行日

no.214, pp.1-34,図巻頭2枚, 1961-01