Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum Kana no Bi Exhibition "Kumagai Tsuneko traces modern tanka through Masaoka Shiki and Nagatsuka Setsu"

Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum Kana no Bi Exhibition "Kumagai Tsuneko traces modern tanka through Masaoka Shiki and Nagatsuka Setsu"

Date: December 2024, 12 (Sat) - April 21, 2025 (Sun)

Introduction of exhibition contents

　The Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum will hold its second exhibition of Kana no Bi (Beauty of Kana) since its reopening. This exhibition will introduce the kana calligraphy of calligrapher Kumagai Tsuneko (1867-1902), which reminisces about modern tanka through the tanka of Masaoka Shiki (1879-1915) and Nagatsuka Setsu (1893-1986). Modern tanka was created during the Meiji period, when Masaoka and others sought freedom and individuality and tried to improve traditional waka. Masaoka, who was from Ehime Prefecture, began innovating tanka in 1898 by serializing "Calls for Poets" and founded the Negishi Tanka Society. The Negishi Tanka Society, which originated from a poetry gathering held at Shikian, was also attended by Ito Sachio (1864-1913) and Nagatsuka Setsu. After Masaoka's death, Ito organized the Negishi Tanka Society and developed it into the Araragi School, and Masaoka's tanka theory influenced modern poets.

　Tsuneko was fond of modern tanka, and published "Autumn Nights" in 1959. Tsuneko's "Autumn Nights" is based on the posthumous work "Take no Satoka" by Masaoka Shiki, edited by Ito Sachio and others. Among modern tanka, Tsuneko especially chose tanka by Nagatsuka Setsu for her works. "Autumn Sky," which Tsuneko published at the 1962th Nitten Exhibition in 1966, shows a tanka written by Nagatsuka, who studied under Masaoka, about the autumn twilight on the banks of the Kinugawa River in Tochigi Prefecture. Tsuneko's "Winter Peony" (1961), written by Ito shortly after she met Masaoka, describes the appearance of winter peonies blooming on a frost-barred hedge. In addition, Tsuneko's Yohiasaku (1882) is based on a tanka by Saito Mokichi (1953-XNUMX), which depicts the scene of tree frogs croaking, written after the death of her teacher, Ito.

　After the war, calligraphy exhibitions were held more frequently, and new forms of calligraphy expression were born. Tsuneko recommended that people "choose from tanka, haiku, or modern poetry as materials" in order to "learn the basics from the ABCs, thoroughly understand the classics, and then break away from what already exists to come up with something different or create something new." As calligraphy expressions change with the times, please enjoy Tsuneko's works, which pursued graceful calligraphy while respecting the classics and following modern tanka.

Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum Kana no Bi Exhibition "Kana no Bi" "Tsuneko and Kana, starting with "Kumagai Tsuneko's Explorations of Modern Tanka through Masaoka Shiki and Nagatsuka Setsu"

• Press release (PDF)

• Flyer (PDF)

Tsuneko Kumagai, Through the Night (Masaoka Shiki), 1981, Ota City Tsuneko Kumagai Memorial Museum

Kumagai Tsuneko, "I see but it's not red (Nagatsuka Setsu)", 1954, Ota City Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum

Tsuneko Kumagai, Winter Peony (Sachio Ito), 1966, Ota City Tsuneko Kumagai Memorial Museum

Exhibition information