Takasago 高砂

Yamaoka Tesshū was a pivotal figure in the turbulent world of late 19th-century Japan, closely serving both the last ruling shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, and the new Meiji emperor. He was also a master swordsman, serious practitioner of Zen Buddhism, and a respected calligrapher.

Takasago references a play by Zeami Motokiyo 世阿弥 元清 (ca. 1363–ca. 1443) from the classical Nō theater. In it, a Buddhist priest meets a loving, elderly couple who sweep the grounds of the Takasago Shrine. He comes to realize that the pair are the spirits of two famous “wedded” pine trees for which the shrine was known. It was a subject Yamaoka revisited many times. His calligraphy reads:

“You’ll reach one hundred,
I’ll reach ninety-nine,
as our hair turns white together.”

—Translated by John Stevens, 2001