National Treasure Gallery | The Autumn Bush Clover Scroll
-
The Autumn Bush Clover Scroll (detail), Attributed to Ono no Tōfū, Heian period, 11th–12th century (National Treasure)
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 2
November 3, 2020 (Tue) - November 29, 2020 (Sun)This scroll was named after the first line of a waka poem at the beginning of the scroll. The scroll is inscribed with 48 waka poems by Japanese poets, and eleven letters by the influential Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi (active 303–361). The Autumn Bush Clover Scroll has long been regarded as a masterpiece of early Japanese writing. The writing on the first sheet of the scroll is viewed as marking the transitional period between a script using Chinese characters for their phonetic Japanese value known as man’yōgana, and a script employing cursive Chinese characters to write Japanese, known today as hiragana.
| Designation | Name | Creation/ Excavation/ Provenance |
Period | Acquisition/ Ownership/ Accession Number |
CMT | ||
| Highlight | National Treasure | The Autumn Bush Clover Scroll | Attributed to Ono no Tōfū (894–966) | Heian period, 11th–12th century | B-2532-1 |