Letter

Active during the mid-Heian period, Yoshishige no Yasutane was a court noble and man of letters. This letter was written by Yasutane after he renounced the world. This is a letter written by Yoshishige no Yasutane, a noble who was active in the fields of scholarship and art in the imperial court during the mid-Heian period. In his later years, Yasutane took the tonsure and received the Buddhist name Jakushin. This letter is signed Jakushin, so we know it was written after Yasutane became a Buddhist priest. The addressee is unknown, though the content suggests it may have been someone of higher rank. During Yasutane's time, Japan had stopped sending envoys to China and it was developing its own independent culture.

Calligraphy was also becoming less Chinese and more uniquely Japanese in style. This change is on full display here. Some of the Chinese characters are firmly delineated, though others are omitted or joined together in cursive fashion to create a calligraphic style filled with a soft roundness. With its powerful, hefty, composed script, the letter retains elements of traditional Chinese calligraphy, though it also captures the transition to a more relaxed, elegant Japanese writing style. This is a rare example of a private letter with name attached from the mid-Heian period. It also provides a valuable insight into a period of great cultural changes.

— Museum description: Tokyo National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.