Letter by Iio Sogi 飯尾宗祇筆書状イイオソウギヒツショジョウ

Description

Iio Sogi (1421-1502) was a renga (linked verse) master during the latter Muromachi Period. He joined Shokokuji Temple at a young age to start Buddhist training. After he turned 30, he decided to pursue the art of renga and studied under Sozei (?-1455), Senjun (1411-76), and Shinkei (1406-75). He studied Japanese waka poetry composition from Asukai Masachika (1416-90), wagaku (the study of Japanese classics) from Ichijo Kaneyoshi (also pronounced as Kanera; 1402-81), and received oral instructions about the secrets of poetry composition and rhetoric, the medieval Japanese literature known as kagaku, from To-no-Tsuneyori (1401-?). This oral teaching of kagaku initiated the practice of giving “oral instructions in the interpretation of the terminology used in the Kokin Wakashu (Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems) which was later passed down to Sanjonishi Sanetaka (1455-1537) and Botanka Shohaku (1443-1527). Sogi traveled across Japan, teaching renga poetry composition. He frequently made journeys to visit the House of Uesugi in Echigo (today’s Niigata Prefecture), the House of Asakura in Echizen (today’s Fukui Prefecture) and the House of Ouchi in Suo (today’s Yamaguchi Prefecture), thus propagating the culture of literary capital to outlying areas. Working with Inawashiro Kensai (1452-1510), Sogi compiled the quasi-imperially commissioned poetry collection Shinsen Tsukuba Shu (a collection of about 2000 renga poems composed in 60 years) and left behind such literary treatises as the Shugyoku-Hen Jisho (a commentary on the Tale of Genji) and Minase Sangin Hyakuin (A Poem of One Hundred Links by Three Minase Poets). The latter work was a collection of renga poems composed by Sogi, Shohaku, and Socho. From this letter, one can see that the former Regent Konoye Hisamichi had learned about Sogi’s scheduled journey to Kyoto and had asked him to visit his household to render a lecture into the heart of “that collection” (which perhaps refers to the Kokin Shu). To this, Sogi replied that he was busy with various affairs and was also suffering a pain in his lower back. The letter is addressed to Shindo Nagayasu, who was the steward of the House of Konoye.