National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This is a poem from the Kokin Wakashu Volume 4 written on white Chinese paper, on which flower patterns (hanadasuki) are created with powdered mica. Originally, this was a page in a booklet bound in decchoso (Japanese original book binding method), where sheets of Chinese paper in different colors are used in an alternating manner. Sakuma Shogen Sanekatsu (1570–1642) obtained 11 pages out of 36 pages that had been pasted on the fusuma (papered sliding door) of Nanshuji Temple in Sakai. He later established Sunshoan in Daitokuji Temple as his family temple, where the 11 pages were stored. The name of this work derives from this Sunshoan. Tsugi-shikishi, Masu-shikishi, and Sunshoan-shikishi are together called San-shikishi (three colored square paper) and famous as top three calligraphic works in kana of the Heian period.