Letter by Hayashi Razan
- Person
-
作者林羅山
- Date
-
制作年 AD17
- Title
- ハラシラザンヒツショジョウ
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
- Ref. number
- AW-CEN-000032-0002
- 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
- Handwriting Black-and-white Style Font Art
A Confucian scholar of the early Edo Period, Hayashi Razan (1583-1657) was born in Kyoto. He later received training in Zen Buddhism under the priests of Kenninji Temple, but became a disciple of Fujiwara Seika (1561-1619) in 1604. The name Razan was a Confucian name given him by his master, Seika. Quite early in his academic career, Razan was drawn to the teachings of Zhu Xi and showed extraordinary talent in the pursuit of this discipline. In 1605, he was received in audience by General Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) at the Nijo Castle in Kyoto. Ieyasu ordered Razan to take the tonsure and start using the Buddhist name of Doshu. In due course, Hayashi Razan went down to Edo to serve as a lecturer to three generations of Tokugawa shoguns (Ieyasu, Hidetada and Iemitsu). Razan also attended to various matters of state--organizing receptions for Korean emissaries, drafting official documents, laws and regulations, and compiling history books, to name a few key activities. In 1629, Razan was named Hoin (honorable title for a priest or artist) of the Ministry of Popular Affairs and was awarded a mansion in the Ueno area of Edo, where he opened a private school. The great fire that later engulfed wide areas of Edo consumed many books and publications stored in the Edo Castle archive. Greatly depressed by the loss of these priceless historical documents, Razan fell ill and eventually died at age 75. This piece is a cover letter that accompanied a letter by Nijo Tameuji, shown as Exhibit 32-1 in the current collection. Razan had successfully deciphered the contents of Tameuji’s letter, which he was returning to Bishop Tenkai (1536-1643). Tenkai, a confidant of the first three Tokugawa shoguns, namely, Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu, wielded great power in the government. In the letter, there is a blank space before the Chinese character for “agreed,” insinuating that Tameuji’s letter was owned by somebody of supreme rank, perhaps, the shogun himself. Later, this same letter was passed down to the Tayasu family, a branch family of Tokugawas descending from the second son of the eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune.Razan’s cover letter sheds light on the earlier history of Tameuji’s letter, while also offering insight into the close relationship between Razan and High Priest Tenkai.
［端裏書］南僧正様…………………………………………即刻被仰付候書付共点を付進上仕候安間之御用ニ御座候昨朝者御立寄千萬辱奉存候被仰候通従余所之様ニ申上候へは一段能あなたニ御合点被成候可被成厥足謂候昨晩も書状進候へ共御他行之由候キ恐惶謹言八月七日道春（花押）
Overview
Rights
Depository and ID
Components
OPEN DATADESIGN
Keio Object Hub makes data on cultural objects open and tries designing various experiences using open data.
Details
Identifiers
- Title (EN)
- Letter by Hayashi Razan
Physical description
- Weights and quantities
-
Quantity 1幅
As a prototype feature, the Keio Object Hub uses AI (machine learning) to generate keywords for searches and filtering.
For the first launch, Google Cloud's Vision API will be used to analyze the images of each object and automatically generate keywords.