An Ode to Ko-imari, by Kamitsukasa Kai'un

  • 20c
  • Hanging scroll, ink on paper
  • H-54.2 W-52.3
Catalogue Entry

Kamitsukasa Kai'un (1907‐1975) was the head priest of Todaiji temple. He was a friend of Shiga Naoya, Sugimoto Kenkichi, Suda NAME and others, and was known as the “Jar Priest" for his collecting habits and inordinate love of old ceramic jars.

In this poem likening a ko‐Imari dish to the moon, the reader gets a sense of Kai'un's pure and simply daily life in which the beauty found around him was reflected in his heart.