Calligraphy of Du Fu's Song of the Eight Drunken Immortals

Yamaoka Tesshu (also known as Tetsutaro) was a member of the samurai class who helped facilitate the Meiji Restoration (1868)— the transfer of political authority from the Edo shogun to the Meiji emperor. Founder of the No Sword (Muto ryu) school of swordsmanship, Tesshu was a talented and prolific calligrapher, known as one of three Meiji-period masters of this art form. On this screen, the right-hand one of a pair, he brushed the second half of a well-known Chinese poem using a distinctive and almost indecipherable cursive script. Chinese poetry was popular among members of the samurai class throughout the Edo and Meiji periods. It was also important to artists trained in Chinese-style painting known as Nanga or Bunjinga.

Transcription and Translation of “Song of the the Eight Drunken Immortals”
By Du Fu (712–770)

杜甫の七言古詩
「飲中八仙歌」（壺齋散人注）

知章騎馬似乘船
眼花落井水底眠
汝陽三斗始朝天
道逢曲車口流涎
恨不移封向酒泉
左相日興費万錢
飲如長鯨吸百川
銜杯樂聖稱避賢
宗之瀟洒美少年
舉觴白眼望青天
皎如玉樹臨風前
蘇晉長齋繍佛前
（醉中往往愛逃禪）

He Zhizhang rides his horse like someone trying to steer a boat Walking in his sleep he might fall down a well.

Prince Ruyang drinks three gallons before he goes to court But a brewer’s cart goes by and he starts to salivate— The government post he’d like? Prince of the Royal Wine Spring.

Ten thousand coins a day our junior minister spends On drinks, he drinks the way a whale takes in the ocean And yet he claims to be fastidious and choosy.

Zongzhi is young and handsome a carefree individual He lifts his cup to toast the wide blue sky You’d think he was a jade tree standing there in the wind. Admiring the Buddha embroidered on a cloth Su Jin has vowed to abstain [But he has lots of lapses whenever he gets drunk!]

—Adapted from Du Fu, Du Fu: A Life in Poetry, translated by David Young. (New York: Knopf, 2008): 30–31.

Note: the bracketed line at the end of this translation appears on the left-hand screen of the pair (not shown) and is included here for clarity.