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The Wakanreishū is an anthology consisting of both poems in Chinese (kanshi) and poems in Japanese (waka) selected by FUJIWARA no Kintō around 1000 A.D. The anthology became popular in the Late Heian Period and many ornate manuscripts of this anthology remain from the period. That transcribed by FUJIWARA no Koreyuki (f. c. 1150-c. 1175) in 1160 (the subject of this presentation) is one such version (Pls. I to IV, figs. 7 to 15). It is composed of two handscrolls containing respectively parts one and two. The second handscroll has a short colophon dated and signed by FUJIWARA no Koreyuki, the copyist of the manuscript and one of the most celebrated calligraphers of the period, representing a family lineage famous for the transmission of its calligraphy tradition known as the Sesonji School. Among decorated manuscripts of poems produced in the Late Heian Period, this version is unique in that the scrolls have as their ornamentation so-called ashide-e type paintings beneath the text and colophon. The ashide-e painting (termed simply ashide during the Heian Period) is a type of playful painting in which letter-shaped rocks, birds etc. and objects representing syllabic sounds form a part of a landscape-like composition together with simple drawings of natural objects. By means of such letters and marks representing syllabic sounds a poem or the like is sometimes concealed in the picture. The fact that certain identical letter forms appear with recurring frequency in the ornamentation of this particular work suggests, however, that no poem or the like is concealed in this case. Houses, small sailboats, horses, cows, deer and other subjects are depicted in addition to usual motifs of ashide-e painting such as water-edges, reeds, rocks, birds and pine trees; even a grasshopper (Pl. Ib) and a rat (fig. 12) appear. There is no direct relationship between the text and the subject of the under ornamentation, but occasional coincidences between the season of the painted subjects and that of the poems in the same portion of the scroll do occur The painting as a whole is done in a very fluent brushwork but somewhat amateurish handling may be seen here and there, particularly in the depiction of the animals. With regard to pigments, green and blue minerals, a reddish brown smooth pigment and a silvercoloured pigment are used, the last appearing to be a mixture of mica powder and sumi ink. A comparative analysis of the brushwork of the calligraphy and the painting leads the author to the idea that the calligrapher of the text and the painter of the ornamentation are the same person : FUJIWARA no Koreyuki. The amateurish character of the painting, the freer choice of painted subjects than normal ashide-e painting and the special device in the use of pigment reinforce this supposition. The author theorizes that the calligrapher used a mixture of mica and ink to resemble silver, instead of an actual silver pigment which would have eventually darkened and might have thereby diverted attention from the calligraphy. The author also indicates that the ornamentation in a scroll transcribed by Koreyuki's father Sadanobu (1088-c. 1155) in the sutra set known as Kunōjikyō made around 1141 (figs. 16, 17) must also have been done by the calligrapher himself, that is Sadanobu. In this instance too, the author bases his assumption on comparison of the brushwork in the text and the ornament painting. If this theory concerning the artist of the ornamentation in the Wakanrōeishū manuscript in question is correct, then it offers interesting material for the study of amateur painters in the Late Heian Period and also for that of Late Heian Period painting in general. A number of contemporary literary works refer to amateur paintings of the period and some other examples of amateur-like paintings survive from that time. The two works brought to attention in this paper are especially wellexecuted examples, however, demonstrating fine harmony between the text calligraphy and the painted ornamentation. Such beauty of orchestration is seen particularly in the closing parts of the two handscrolls of the Wakanrōeishū set transcribed by Koreyuki (figs. 13, 14). |
