By: Sanai Hashimoto
Second year of the Ansei era (1855)
Sanai Hashimoto (1834-1859) was a samurai and a doctor of the Fukui domain at the end of the Edo period, who also went by pen names, e.g. Keigaku.
It was after studying under Kouan Ogata that he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a clan doctor. Earning the recognition of the Fukui Feudal Lord Harutake Matsudaira, he devoted his efforts to reforming the domain administration. He advocated moves to open up trade channels and spearheaded efforts to have Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi (also known as Keiki or Yoshinobu Tokugawa) made Shogun (military dictator), but it failed when Naosuke Ii became Chief Minister, and Hashimoto was executed in the Ansei Purge of 1859. He was renowned as a man with ideas far ahead of his time, based on his ability to envision Japan as a modern state.
Based on the signature ‘Wood/Rabbit New Year’s day brushstrokes’, we can assume this calligraphy was written in 1855, the second year of the Ansei era, when Sanai was 22 years of age. The title, ‘聖得知’, which roughly translates as ‘Holy Knowledge’ , extols the virtue of understanding quickly and comes from the ‘Pond in a Bowl’ series of poems by the Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Han Yu. It also reflects Sanai’s deep understanding of Chinese poetry.