Letters: Portraits in Words

There is a saying from long ago, "you can tell a lot by someone's handwriting." Along with the message in a letter, the words written by hand clearly display the writer's personal message. This thematic exhibition contains letters from emperors, aristocrats, scholars, tea masters, painters and other famous people, spanning over a thousand years from the Heian period in the 8th century to the Edo period in the 19th century.

Similar to the style books used today when writing letters and other documents, manuals for letters and documents existed in medieval Japan. The manual Koanreisetsu was compiled in 1285 (Koan 8) by aristocrats who crafted laws following the orders of the retired Emperor Kameyama (1249 - 1305). After this, the rules were preserved by aristocrats, warriors and priests. While observing the rules that regulated the manner of official writing, their calligraphy was an area where they could highlight their own personalities.

According to the medieval style manuals, a letter could generally be on only one page. The exhibited items show that the writers used every bit of space to write all they wanted to say by writing along the margins, headings and any additional empty space. This was due to the paper making techniques having a low level of productivity, causing paper to be considered very important and valuable. The various ideas presented through these letters lead one to think about the technology and sentiments by people from long ago.