伝藤原行成筆 「荒木切」『古今和歌集』|Three Poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Kokin wakashū), one of the Araki Fragments (Araki-gire)
11th century
Medium
Page from a booklet mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions
Image: 8 in. × 5 3/8 in. (20.3 × 13.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 49 3/4 × 14 3/16 in. (126.3 × 36 cm) Overall with knobs: 49 3/4 × 15 7/8 in. (126.3 × 40.3 cm)
Classification
Calligraphy
Culture & Period
Japan · Heian period (ca. 900–1185)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Accession Number
2015.300.230
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite fragment showcases the calligraphy of Fujiwara no Yukinari (–1045), known as Kō, one of the Heian period's supreme masters of the brush. Titled *Three Poems from the Collection Poems Ancient and Modern (okin wakashū)*, it forms part of the renowned Araki-gire, or Araki Fragments—surviving pages from an early 11th-century of Japan's first imperial waka poetry anthology, compiled in 905 under Emperor Daigo. During the Heian era (ca. 900–1185), courtly culture flourished in Kyoto, where waka poems—evocative verses of 31 syllables—captured fleeting emotions, seasons, and love, often...