Designated Cultural Property of Sakata City
By Kitamuki Unchiku
1695
Homma Museum of Art Collection
Known as the foremost Noh calligrapher of his time, Kitamuki Unchiku (1632-1703) excelled in all three different writing forms: the regular script (kaisho), semi-cursive script (gyosho) and cursive script (sousho). He is also famous for being Matsuo Bashō’s calligraphy teacher.
The Wakan Rōeishū is an anthology of Chinese poems and 31-syllable Japanese waka for singing to fixed melodies, first compiled by Fujiwara no Kintō ca.1013. This book contains six Chinese poems and six waka poems extracted from the first volume of the Wakan Rōeishū.
From the date written at the scroll’s end, we know that it was written in 1695, when Unchiku was 64 years old. It was commissioned by Kitamura Koshun, the son of Kitamura Kigin, a scholar of Japanese classics and a celebrated poet of his day.