A Poem of Lament, one of the “Uzura Fragments” (Uzura-gire)

Traditionally attributed to Fujiwara Akisuke Japanese

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 223

With eye-catching variations in ink density and elongated vertical strokes that indicate a rapidly moving yet controlled brush, this transcription from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Kokin wakashū) displays the shift toward expressive and experimental calligraphy that occurred by the thirteenth century.

The poem, by the courtier-poet Ki no Mochiyuki, reads:

花よりも　人こそあたに　なりにけれ
いづ[れ]をさきに　こひむとかみし

Even more so than cherry blossoms,
a loved one’s life is transient.
Alas, never did I expect
to muse over which of them
I would have to mourn first.

—Trans. John T. Carpenter

A Poem of Lament, one of the “Uzura Fragments” (Uzura-gire), Traditionally attributed to Fujiwara Akisuke (Japanese, 1090–1155), Section of a page from a bound booklet mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper patterned with mica powder, Japan

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A Poem of Lament, one of the “Uzura Fragments” (Uzura-gire), Traditionally attributed to Fujiwara Akisuke (Japanese, 1090–1155), Section of a page from a bound booklet mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper patterned with mica powder, Japan
A Poem of Lament, one of the “Uzura Fragments” (Uzura-gire), Traditionally attributed to Fujiwara Akisuke (Japanese, 1090–1155), Section of a page from a bound booklet mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper patterned with mica powder, Japan

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