Letter by Sakawada Masatoshi
- Person
-
作者佐川田昌俊
- Date
-
制作年 AD17
- Title
- サカワダマサトシヒツショジョウ
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
His original family name Takashina, Sakawada Masatoshi (also Shoshun, 1579-1643) was a warrior and a well-known renga poet of the Edo Period. At first, he went into the service of Kido Gensai, a vassal of the Uesugi family, and was later adopted by Gensai. It was the influence of his adoptive father that led Shoshun to study poetry writing under Asukai Masatsune (1569-1615) and Konoe Nobuhiro (1599-1649) and eventually reach mastery in the art. Sakawada Masatoshi especially excelled in renga composition. The prominent renga master Satomura Shotaku praised Shoshun’s abilities, saying that the “eastern regions have Master Masatoshi.” In studying sado (or chado, “way of tea”), Masatoshi trained under Kobori Enshu and earned a reputation as a tea-loving warrior. His military career was equally remarkable as he served under Nagai Naokatsu and Masakatsu, the father-and-son warlords, and excelled in many campaigns, especially the Winter Battle at Osaka Castle. Masatoshi retired from active service in 1638 and lived a leisurely life of artistic pursuits, associating with Hayashi Razan (a famous Confucian scholar), Kinoshita Chochoshi, Shokado Shojo and other renowned intellectuals of the era. Despite the differing family name, the addressee of this letter, Nakanuma Sakyo, is Shokado Shojo’s elder brother. Sakyo (a name he got when appointed Sakyo-no-Suke in 1620) was noticed when still very young by Regent Konoe Nobuhiro and appointed to a good office, linking him to the Nakanuma family, which traditionally held a staff member’s position at the Ichijo-In sub-temple of Kofukuji Temple. Sakyo was later adopted into the Nakanuma family and married the younger sister of Kobori Enshu. So Shojo, Enshu and Nobuhiro, all close friends and associates, were actually related through complicated family ties. This letter discusses flowers to be used in a tea ceremony and says that camellia can be obtained in Kyoto, while peonies are still needed. Sakawada Masatoshi asks Sakyo for a branch of orange or white peonies from the gardens of Ichijo-In at Kofukuji Temple. Then, revealing a humorous side, Masatoshi concludes with this poem: “The man cleaning the temple compounds / is chubby and seems to be blossoming / like the peony.” The excellent calligraphic hand belongs to the Shoren-In School, which was the craze at the time.
猶以一門様ニかきいろの牡丹きいろの牡丹御座候由承候一筆令啓達候二色之内一色申請度候然者竹田権兵衛へ共申出候事ハ如何と方迄花之儀ニためらひ有事ニ候故御状給候椿牡丹貴様にて申入候此段色々御接せ可給拝領奉願上候由忝存候乍去掃除する男も椿ハ大形京都ニ而肥て牡丹哉求申候間入不申御一笑／＼白牡丹御分可被下之旨是又忝存候此者花をも御添可給候若花散候て蘂成共此通之花と被仰て可給候猶期面談之時候恐々謹言三月十一日佐川田喜六中沼左京様
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 Sakawada Masatoshi
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.