Wine and Tea

Tomioka Tessai is perhaps the most significant literati-painter (a learned person who pursued painting for personal, not professional, reasons) of modern Japan; he was also a skilled calligrapher. The clerical script in which Wine and Tea is executed is rarely seen in Tessai’s body of work. In fact it was created early in his career, before he settled on his expressive running and cursive scripts that are found in his later works. 琹棋書画時儁酒 / 雪月風華日煮茶 When enjoying music, chess, poetry and painting, bring wine; / When there is moonlight on the snow or wind in the flower, drink tea. (Trans. Stephen Addiss)