Poems written on the road to Kumano
On the third day of the twelfth month of 1200, at Kirime, a wayside shrine on the long pilgrimage route to the Kumano sanctuaries, the retired emperor Go-Toba and ten of his courtiers each composed two waka and wrote them out in their own hands. They worked to set topics announced that day: "distant mountains in falling leaves" (enzan rakuyō) and "an evening view by the sea" (kaihen banbō). The eleven sheets they produced, joined into a single handscroll with the retired emperor's writing at the head, are the National Treasure kept at Nishi Hongan-ji in Kyoto and registered simply as Kumano Kaishi.
A kaishi was a folded sheet of paper that a Heian or Kamakura aristocrat carried tucked into the breast of the robe, kept ready for jotting down a verse at a poetry gathering. When the gathering was a formal occasion, the poet signed the sheet and brushed one poem under each assigned topic. Go-Toba was passionate about waka, and on his pilgrimages he turned the overnight stops into poetry sessions offered as an entertainment for the gods. The sheets composed at those sessions came to be called Kumano kaishi, and they were treated as treasures almost at once.
This particular scroll records the session held at Kirime-ōji, in what is now Inami, Wakayama Prefecture. Each sheet runs roughly 33 centimetres in height and a little over half a metre across. Read in order, the scroll opens with the retired emperor and continues through ten courtiers, among them the senior statesman Minamoto no Michichika and the poets Fujiwara no Ietaka, Jakuren, and Asukai Masatsune.
Why it became a National Treasure
The Kumano kaishi were designated a National Treasure on 9 June 1951, in the calligraphy and classical books category. Their value is partly documentary. Each sheet carries the writer's signature, and Go-Toba added a slip to the back of the joined scroll recording the place and date of the gathering. That single line, "poetry session at Kirime-ōji, third day of the twelfth month of Shōji 2," fixes both who wrote and when. Securely dated and attributed examples of brushwork from the early Kamakura period are scarce, so a scroll like this becomes a fixed reference point against which undated works of the same decades can be measured.
The poems also catch a circle of writers at a decisive moment. Several of the courtiers here, Ietaka, Jakuren, and Masatsune among them, would soon be named to compile the Shin Kokin Wakashū, the eighth imperial anthology of Japanese verse. Go-Toba issued the command for that anthology within days of returning from his next Kumano journey, in 1201. The Kirime sheets therefore show the poets of the new anthology already at work together, on the road, under the retired emperor's eye.
Surviving Kumano kaishi are not numerous. Counting all collections, only some thirty-odd sheets remain, and almost every one is a National Treasure or Important Cultural Property. The Nishi Hongan-ji scroll is the largest single grouping. A separate set of three sheets at the Yōmei Bunko archive is likewise a National Treasure, while individual sheets held by museums and private owners carry the lower designation.
What to look for
The first thing the scroll reveals is hierarchy. The retired emperor leads; the courtiers follow in an order that mirrors their rank, each adding a signature that states his office and title. The brushwork repays slow looking. Kumano kaishi tend to set firm, ink-dark Chinese characters for the names and topic headings against a softer, flowing line in the kana syllabary, where the rounded grace of Heian writing still lingers. That contrast between the assertive and the gentle, within a single hand, is one of the pleasures these sheets offer to anyone who can read the script.
Worth noticing, too, is how the topics shape the verse. Both subjects that December day were seasonal and scenic, and the poets answer them with images of frost holding the last autumn colour in a mountain valley, of a thin crescent over the evening sea, of distant fishing fires. Go-Toba's own pair sets the tone, placing the year's fading red among bare branches and ending with the lonely light of a three-day moon.
One honest caution: the scroll itself is almost never on view. As a fragile paper work it stays in storage and appears only in occasional special exhibitions, such as the Shinran retrospective at the Kyoto National Museum in 2023. A visit to Nishi Hongan-ji is a visit to the temple that owns and protects the scroll, not usually a chance to stand in front of it.
Around the temple
Nishi Hongan-ji, formally Ryūkoku-zan Hongan-ji, is the head temple of the Hongwanji branch of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism and one of the components of the World Heritage site "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto," inscribed in 1994. The grounds are open without charge. You can walk straight into the vast Goeidō, the Founder's Hall completed in 1636 and among the largest wooden structures of the Edo period, with an outer hall floored in well over four hundred tatami mats.
The temple runs free guided walks of the precinct several times a day, lasting about half an hour, with no booking required, and holds a public morning service from six o'clock that anyone may join. Note that Jōdo Shinshū temples do not issue the goshuin seal-stamps collected at many shrines and temples; Nishi Hongan-ji offers a commemorative stamp instead. For those who want to see related material, the Ryūkoku Museum across the street presents Buddhist art and history and is a short walk away.
The shrines named on the scroll lie far to the south, along the Kumano Kodō pilgrimage roads of the Kii Peninsula, themselves part of a separate World Heritage listing. Travellers tracing Go-Toba's route can still pass the site of Kirime-ōji in Inami, where the gathering of 1200 took place.
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Q&A
- Can I see the Kumano Kaishi when I visit Nishi Hongan-ji?
- Not as a rule. The scroll is a fragile paper work kept in storage and shown only in occasional special exhibitions. The temple precinct, however, is open year-round and free to enter.
- Did Emperor Go-Toba write the whole scroll?
- No. He wrote the opening sheet and added the back slip recording the gathering. The other ten sheets are by ten courtiers who joined that day, each in his own hand and with his own signature.
- What are kaishi, exactly?
- Folded sheets of paper carried in the breast of a robe, used for writing poems at gatherings. At a formal session a poet would sign the sheet and brush one verse under each set topic.
- How do I reach Nishi Hongan-ji?
- It sits about a 15-minute walk northwest of Kyoto Station, or a short ride to the "Nishi Honganji-mae" bus stop. East Hongan-ji is roughly five minutes away on foot.
- Why does the calligraphy matter so much?
- Because each sheet is signed and the session is dated, the scroll gives historians firmly attributed, firmly dated brushwork from the early Kamakura period, which is rare and useful for studying other works of the time.
Basic Information
| Name | Kumano Kaishi (autograph of Emperor Go-Toba and ten others, eleven sheets) |
|---|---|
| Category | Calligraphy and Classical Books |
| Designation | National Treasure, designated 9 June 1951 |
| Quantity | One handscroll (eleven sheets joined) |
| Date | Kamakura period, Shōji 2 (1200); session held on the third day of the twelfth month |
| Lead writer | Retired emperor Go-Toba (1180–1239), with ten courtiers |
| Topics | "Distant mountains in falling leaves" and "an evening view by the sea" |
| Owner | Hongan-ji (Nishi Hongan-ji), Kyoto Prefecture |
| 附 (附属) items | Accompanying letter of Prince Fushimi-no-miya Sadaatsu (one scroll); accompanying letter of Asukai Masaaki (one sheet) |
| Public access | Not normally on display; shown occasionally in special exhibitions. Temple precinct open free of charge. |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Kumano Kaishi
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/579
- Hongan-ji (Nishi Hongan-ji) official site
- https://www.hongwanji.kyoto/
- World Cultural Heritage: Hongan-ji (Nishi Hongan-ji), Kyoto Prefecture
- https://www.pref.kyoto.jp/isan/honganji.html
- e-Museum (National Institutes for Cultural Heritage): Kumano Kaishi
- https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?langId=ja&content_base_id=100373
Last verified: 2026.06.05