Wakan rōeishū

This is a privately compiled collection of waka poems by Fujiwara no Kinto. It is a kind of anthology album of the best of Chinese poetry and Japanese poetry popular in the culture of the Heian period (794-1185), but Kinto has included both Chinese poetry and Japanese poetry asymmetrically, contrasting one Chinese poem with three Japanese poems, or two Japanese poems with three Chinese poems, and so on. This is a method called “Nazorae”.  Kinto made this as a wedding present for his daughter, printed in mica on light red, indigo, yellow, and brown karakami paper with karahana patterns, and finished with a cursive kana script by Fujiwara no Yukinari, a famous calligrapher. The eyes are also twilled with twill.