Writing Box (Suzuribako) with the Poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Japan

Not on view

Imaginary portraits of Genji author Murasaki Shikibu had a precedent in images of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (died ca. 715), one of Japan’s greatest poets, shown on this writing box. Hitomaro leans on an armrest, immersed in thought, a pose first used in portraits of the author from the Kamakura period (1185–1333). His most famous waka (thirty-one-syllable poem), anthologized in the Kokinshū (compiled in 905), was prominently referenced in Genji:

In dawn’s first dim light,
my thoughts follow a small boat,
going island-hid through
the morning fog and mist
at Akashi-no-ura.

—Translation by H. C. McCullough

The interior is decorated with a scene of distant sails and the coastal pines of Akashi Bay.

Writing Box (Suzuribako) with the Poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Lacquered wood with gold and silver takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, cutout gold- and silver-foil application; lead rim, Japan

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Writing Box (Suzuribako) with the Poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Lacquered wood with gold and silver takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, cutout gold- and silver-foil application; lead rim, Japan
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with the Poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Lacquered wood with gold and silver takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, cutout gold- and silver-foil application; lead rim, Japan
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with the Poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Lacquered wood with gold and silver takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, cutout gold- and silver-foil application; lead rim, Japan

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