Letter
- Person
-
作者OYAMADA Yukishige
- Date
-
制作年 Early Kamakura Period (13th century)
- Title
- ハンガヤユキシゲショジョウ
- Measurements
- 29.0×43.6
- Materials, techniques and shape
- Ink on paper
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
- Ref. number
- AW-CEN-001220-0000
- License
- CC BY Images license
- Creditline
-
慶應義塾（センチュリー赤尾コレクション）
- URL
- Classification
- Art
- AI Tagging
- Wood Handwriting Organism Font Writing
Hangaya Goro Yukishige (years of birth and death unknown) was a warrior who fought on the Genji side in the Genpei War between the Taira and Minamoto clans, which were each seeking military hegemony over Japan. Yukishige was local lord of Hangaya, located amidst today’s Futamata Gawa, Asahi Ward, and Hodogaya Ward in Yokohama City. Though his biography is not known, his name appears in war chronicles such as the Heike Monogatari (The Tale of Heike), Gempei Seisuiki (The Rise and Fall of the Minamoto and Taira Clans), and the Azuma Kagami (Mirror of the East).In this letter, written by Yukishige in Kyoto addressed to a friend who was moving east to Kanto (northeastern Japan), he intends to send as gift a costume, gloves, bow, and arrows. The large yet flowing characters are typical of a Kanto warrior finely educated in art and elegance. This letter has survived to this day as an example of shihai-monjo, or writing on waste paper. It was a popular custom to reuse old paper, as it was quite precious in those days.
東國御下向事入見参委細申承候之条本懐候指打着小手一具弓征矢進之候且以使令申候恐々謹言九月十日行重 （花押）
This is a letter written by Yukishige, a resident of the capital, presenting a set of archery equipment to a friend as a parting gift on his way to the Kantō region. Yukishige was the son of Oyamada Arishige (dates unknown) of the Bandō Heishi Chichibu clan, and is mentioned as a member of the army of MINAMOTO no Noriyori (dates unknown) in an entry for the fifth day of the second month of the third year of the Juei era (1184), accompanied MINAMOTO no Yoritomo (1147–99) on a visit to Kyoto on the seventh day of the eleventh month of the first year of the Kenkyū era (1190), and traveled to the main hall of Tōdaiji Temple for a ceremony with MINAMOTO no Yoritomo (1147–99) on the tenth day of the third month of the sixth year of the same Kenkyū era (1195) in the Mirror of the East (Azuma Kagami). In volume 9 of the Kakuichi copy of The Tale of the Heike, Yukishige also appears as part of Noriyori’s army, and in volume 36 of the Record of the Rise and Fall of the Taira and the Minamoto (Genpei seisuiki), the name can also be found. The calligraphy of this letter is quite refined for a warrior from the east. Yukishige’s father was a Heike samurai who had lived in the capital, and Yukishige may have also lived there as a young man. The kanji on the reverse side of the paper are transparent, indicating that the letter was handed down as a document on the back of a scroll. The calligrapher Shunkei Iijima (1906–1966) added the transcription accompanying the letter, and the inscription on the box is by Dr. Shigemi Komatsu (1925–2010). Since several individuals with the name Yukishige can be identified from the same period, further study is necessary to identify the writer of this letter more precisely.
Description from the exhibition Catalogue "Letter-scape: Century Akao Collection, A World of Letters and Figures", Keio Museum Commons, April 2021
Overview
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Identifiers
- Title (EN)
- Letter by Hangaya Yukishige
Physical description
- Weights and quantities
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Quantity 1幅
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