A six-fold paper screen painted in ink andcolour on a gold leaf ground depicting a willow tree with various shikishi and tanzaku (poem slips).

Japan, 17th century, Edo period.

Provenance: a private Italian collection.

An old Japanese collector's label on the reverse inscribed:

(collection number) 142 a small old six-fold gold screen with a painting of a willow and poem slips.

Shikishi and tanzaku are square or rectangular sheets of paper used for calligraphic poems or paintings. During the mid-Heian and Kamakura periods, such papers, termed shikishigata, were inscribed with poetic calligraphy and attached to the upper portions of screens or sliding door panels. Their verses coordinated with the paintings to which they were affixed. Later, shikishi came to be used independently for calligraphy and paintings. Often these squares are highly decorated with mica or coloured patterns overlaid with gold or silver cut into small pieces or sprinkled like dust.

Written on the poem slips are various waka poems, including:

2nd panel :

Akikaze no

fuku ni tsukete mo

towanu kana

ogi no ha naraba

oto wa shitemashi

--

Autumn winds now blow,

but still you do not appear—

if you were amur silvergrass,

you would have rustled,

and at least a sound would reach me.

5th panel :

Ominaeshi

ushi to mitsutsu zo

yuki suguru

Otoko yama nishi

tateri to omoeba

--

Golden laceflower—

I pass by and,

despite her beauty,

find her disagreeable

as she stands on Otoko-yama (Mount Men).

6th panel :

Amanohara

furisake mireba

Kasuga naru

Mikasa no yama ni

ideshi tsuki kamo

--

I gaze far into the sky—

could this be the same moon

that once rose

over Mount Mikasa

in my hometown of Kasuga, long ago?