1108-1112

Page from the "Anthology of Poems by Thirty-Six Poets"

This scroll shows a page from the Anthology of Poems by Thirty-Six Poets, believed to have been commissioned for the sixtieth birthday celebrations of the Emperor Shirakawa in 1112. Some twenty of the leading calligraphers of the time worked on this anthology, and the elegant brushwork evident here is typical of the entire collection. Lady Ise (died about 940), the author of these verses, was one of the well-educated aristocratic women of her time, many of whose poetic and prose works have survived to the present day.