After a short introduction reading “At year’s end, I have received [your] bundle of lily bulbs,” Ryokan continues with the following waka:

    The world is an ever-changing flow
    But your honest heart, straight as bamboo,
    Remains unchanged

The letter is dated the eleventh day of the first month. Ryokan expresses his gratitude for a year-end gift in the shape of a poem. The word yuritsuto (bundle of lilies) refers to a bundle of lily bulbs, something that Ryokan apparently was very fond of. Next to the name of the addressee, Shichigen, he writes “Nanukaichi,” which allows to identify the person as Yamada Gonzaemon Nagayoshi, who lived in Nanokaichi and went by the nom-de-plume of Shichigen. Shichigen’s daughter was married to Samon, the son of Ryokan’s younger brother Yushi, and for that reason Ryokan often visited the Yamada family, sometimes staying overnight.

The major anthology of Ryokan’s calligraphy, Ryokan bokuseki taikan, vol. 5: Letters, includes a total of three letters to Shichigen, among them the present one. In each case, these letters express gratitude for bundles of lily bulbs as a year-end gift. Considering Shichigen’s “unchanging heart” (as Ryokan writes in his poem), Shichigen probably every year sent the poet the same gift, certainly to the great pleasure of the receiver. One of the three letters is dated the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month and according to the Ryokan bokuseki taikan likely was written in Bunka 12 (1829). In terms of content and calligraphic style, the present letter probably also dates around that era and therefore should be considered a very late work for Ryokan.

The box inscription is by the nihonga painter Yasuda Yukihiko, who was a fervent admirer of Ryokan’s calligraphy and vigorously collected his works. According to the text on the inside of the box’s cover, Yukihiko was visiting various places related to Ryokan in 1919. In Nanokaichi, he met with Yamada Gonrokuro who gave him the letter as a souvenir from his private collection. The circumstances itself are noteworthy, as it is more and more unusual to acquire such a letter directly from the descendants of the addressee.

This scroll is a precious example of the honesty and gratefulness that Ryokan felt towards the people he was close to, expressing his sentiment in the richly nuanced writing style of his final years, handed down through generations and appreciated by the discerning eye down to the present day.

Ryokan (Zen priest, poet; 1758–1831)
Zen priest, poet, and calligrapher of the late Edo period. Born in Echigo Province (now Niigata Prefecture), Ryokan trained as a monk at Koshoji temple in his home province, and later at Entsuji in Bitchu (now Okayama Prefecture). Leading an itinerant life for many decades, Ryokan counted as a something of an eccentric even for Zen standards, yet his contributions to waka (Japanese-style) poetry and calligraphy remains highly regarded.