Poet and His Wrting Box

Writing Box (Suzuri-bako) with Portrait of Fujiwara no Ietaka and His Poem about the Tatsuta River

The suzuri-bako was more than just a container; it was a symbol of the poet’s dedication to their craft. Each box was meticulously designed to protect and organize the delicate tools within. The inkstone, or suzuri, was the heart of the box, used to grind ink sticks into liquid ink. 

The Oyster Shell by Kambara Ariake (1876-1952), from The Poetry of Living Japan

An oyster in his shell
Lives in a boundless sea,
Alone, precarious, limited,
How miserable his thoughts . . .

Unseeing and unhelped,
He sleeps behind a sheltering rock.
But in his wakeful moments he must sense
The ebb and flow of the infinite deep.

Though the turning tide at dawn
May flood in to its height,
The oyster's being, destined to decay,
Is tied to a narrow shell.

The evening star, so luminous,
Turns the waves to crests of corn:
Us it reminds of a distant dove –
Of what avail to him?

How sad a fate! Profound, unbearable,
The music of the ocean
Still confounds him day and night.
He closes tight his narrow home.

But on that day of storm
When woods along the sea are shattered,
How shall it survive – the oyster shell,
His shelter, left to die a destined death?