Heian Japanese calligraphy examples

[gurdymonkey]

For didjiman .  For our purposes, the Heian period ends in 1185. Assume T'ang Dynasty influences.

http://web-japan.org/museum/calligra/calligra01/calligra01.html includes a number of examples, including a few from later periods. The first piece, a Nara period list of national treasures, you can probably read, as it's in kanji.  Official documents like this one and sutras tend to be in kanji, from what I understand.
#5 from the Kokin Wakashu (or another page from the same poetry collection) does appear in Uncovering Heian Japan. The paper is decorated with gold and silver "glitter".

Here's another very cursive one from the Kyoto National Museum.    It's the Wakan Roeishu, an anthology of Chinese and Japanese poems and it has ponies. We like ponies.


Did the Chinese write directly over paintings or decorated paper like this or is this a Japanese development? There's a collection of fan papers with sutras copied over the paintings in the Tokyo National Museum, for example.

http://books.google.com/books?id=8hIdhJnWP08C&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=heian+calligraphy&source=bl&ots=XP6E2HSzdr&sig=wU3UOY5Syuia92J4L8MOO4lhw0I&hl=en&ei=qihBTNiqLYq-sQOOwv2zDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false is the Google Books Preview. The front cover , page 222 and 224 can be viewed and show three of the examples discussed.

Comments

[tatsushu.livejournal.com]

Chinese often have calligraphy in paintings, or even put their seals all over it. They usually leave the main image free enough to see what they are talking about (since the poems and seals are about ownership/scholarship/etc. of the piece in question).

That said, this seems like it was specifically meant to be written over, rather than a separate piece.

Here is a Chinese examples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatsushu/3067282888/in/set-72157623478428752/

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Chinese do it, but I don't currently have any evidence for it.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

That's a beauty. I wish my travel budget and plain ol' budget allowed for a visit. I shall have to content myself with the video proceedings of events from Golden Playne that keep popping up over on FB.