Letter by Ishikawa Jozan 石川丈山筆書状イシカワジョウザンヒツショジョウ

Description

A Chinese-style poet of the early Edo Period, Ishikawa Jozan (1583-1672) came from a family who for three generations were vassals of General Tokugawa Ieyasu. However, despite impeccable military service to his lord during the Summer Battle of Osaka, Jozan was accused of breaching some rules, which led to his resignation from office and eventually entering of Buddhist training. In due course, he went on to study Confucian teachings under the noted scholar Fujiwara Seika (1561-1619) at age 35. In 1651, when he was 59, Jozan built a detached hut named “Shisen-Do” (lit: poetic saint’s hall) in a small village in northern Kyoto and lived as a recluse.Together with Hayashi Razan (1583-1657), who was his close friend and associate, Jozan selected 36 outstanding poets of China during the Han through Sung dynasties and patterned them after the Thirty Six Immortal Poets of ancient Japan. The four walls of Jozan’s dwelling were decorated with paintings by Kano Tanyu and Chinese poems Jozan himself had written in the scribe style. In later years, Jozan was often invited by Emperor Gomizunoo to official literary events, which he refused to attend to live as a free-willed artist-scholar associating only with like-minded friends. Jozan’s calligraphy is characterized by the authentic Chinese style, and his scribe-style writing is outstanding. This letter is a thank-you note for a gift of the season’s first cod fish that had been sent to Jozan’s master, Tokugawa Ieyasu during Jozan’s early career, between 1596 and1615. The cod fish was likely sent by Lord Date Masamune (1567-1636) because there is a historical record that Lord Date sent some cod fish to Ieyasu on November 16, 1613. From this, we can assume that the addressee, Ishikawa Manyemon, was a retainer in the Date family. The writing style is very friendly, true to Jozan’s character in his younger days, without a trace of the austere Chinese-style that evolved in his later years.