National TreasureAutumn Bush-Clover Scroll

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  • Ink on decorative paper
  • 24.0x842.5
  • Heian period/11-12th century
  • Tokyo National Museum

The first sheet of this composite scroll is a piece of mashi, a paper made of hemp fibers, that was dyed a very light blue. The two Japanese poems on it have been brushed in cool, smooth, elegant lines; the script used is an antiquated version of the cursive style (J. sôgana). The remaining nineteen sheets in the scroll were made from fibers of a plant called paper mulberry (J. kôzo). The sheets have been dyed in various shades, including indigo, yellow, brown, green, and white. The texts include Japanese poems written in the cursive style and letters composed by Wang Xizhi (303-361). The dimensions of the last nineteen sheets differ from those of the first, and the calligraphy is in a different and less lively hand. The calligraphy on the first sheet dates from the middle of the Heian period (794-1185), while that on the other sheets was executed in the late Heian period and is sometimes attributed to Fujiwara Yukinari (972-1027) or to Emperor Fushimi (r. 1288-1298).

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