Poems from the Shin kokin wakashu anthology

The fifteen colored-paper sheets of this handscroll are woodblock-printed with various designs by the Kyoto artist Tawaraya Sotatsu. Originally produced as covers for luxury editions of classical literature known as Saga-bon, the colored papers bear patterns printed in inks flecked with gold, silver, mica, or a combination. Sotatsu’s frequent collaborator, Honami Koetsu, inscribed the pages with love poems from the anthology New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Shin kokin wakashu), compiled around 1205 under the direction of the retired Emperor Gotoba (1180–1239). Shown here are two poems from the end of the scroll. Koetsu omitted two lines of the last poem (seen here), possibly as a way to leave room for his artist’s seal.

With the morning dew
Rising left me blind to grope
Through a drooping sky
In such fading as the heart
Knows only its lost retreat.

asatsuyu no
okitsuru sora mo
omooezu
kiekaeritsuru
kokoromadoi ni
—Imperial concubine Minamoto Shushi

What should one call it,
Dew that forms on what is dew...
This body of mine?
Vanish, I say, let the grieving,
The fainting be over.

okisouru
tsuyu ha [ikanaru
tsuyu] naran
ima wa kiene to
omou wagami o

—Author Unknown
—Translations by Edwin A. Cranston