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

This album of exemplary calligraphic works, which originally belonged to the Takamatsunomiya clan, contains a total of seventy works, including sutras, letters, and poems, on the front and back of eighty pages. In addition to imperial letters representing each period, the album has thirteen detached segments by many outstanding calligraphers such as the poets Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241) and Nijo Tameuji (1222-86) and the calligraphers Sesonji Tsunetomo (1215-76) and Sesonji Yukiyoshi (1179-?). The works are mostly mounted on one or two sheets of cardboard. Noteworthy among the imperial letters is the missive by Emperor Fushimi (1265-1317), which is noteworthy in our overall understanding of the Hirosawa edition (calligraphies by Emperor Fushimi), which also consists of four Japanese poems and five Chinese poems as well as a handscroll that includes a poem on the theme of "bridle" (Important Cultural Property, Nishi Hongan-ji Temple).