Moshiogusa Album of Exemplary Calligraphy

From the end of the Muromachi period, Japanese calligraphy aficionados began the practice of collecting fragments of brushwork by famous calligraphers and pasting them neatly into the leaves of albums for viewing and connoisseurship. These compilations became known as tekagami, or sample albums of exemplary calligraphy.
Moshiogusa, a poetic reference literally meaning “brinish seaweed,” is one of three such exemplary calligraphy albums that have been designated as National Treasures of Japan. (The other two are Minu yo no tomo in the collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts and Kanbokujō in the MOA Museum.) Throughout the Edo period, these albums functioned as essential references for the appraisal and authentication of manuscripts attributed to famous calligraphers of the past.
Moshiogusa contains 242 calligraphy fragments dating f rom the Nara period through the Muromachi period. Notable inclusions are the Heian-period fragments Kōya gire (Kōya edition of Kokin wakashū [Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poems]) and Hōrinji gire (Hōrin-ji edition of Wakan rōeishū [Collection of Japanese and Chinese Verses]). It also contains rare examples of the Nan’in gire (Nan’in edition of Shinsenruirinshō [Collection of Poems from the Tang dynasty]) and Yotsuji gire (Yotsuji edition of Saibara [Gagaku] Sheet Music) as well as entirely unique fragments such as the Muromachi gire (Muromachi edition of the Hitomaro shū [Collection of Poems by Hitomaro]). The album is prized for not only its aesthetic qualities but also for the documentary value it brings to our understanding of the history of calligraphy.
Moshiogusa does not contain the authentication certificates found in most tekagami—usually inscribed strips of paper that are pasted into albums next to their corresponding entries. Instead, it is accompanied by a separate, twovolume concordance written by the Edo-period connoisseur Kohitsu Ryōhan (1790–1853). For this reason, scholars believe that Moshiogusa was used for actual practice by calligraphy appraisers, whose livelihoods depended on honing their ability to identif y and distinguish among different hands.