Tabako-bon made with old planks from the ceiling of the Kôdaiji temple

Box cover
"天井板煙草盆一雙
東山高臺寺天井の古板とて
友人某の贈れるかく一雙の煙盆と
なして花のあした月のゆふべの来客ニ
雅談風詠を助くるの具となし
て永く家の寶とす。　　干時
明治第五春三月　蒼翠庵主人
湖上天数翁しるす"

“A friend who offered me old planks from the ceiling of the Kôdaiji temple in Higashiyama (a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism in Kyoto), I made this pair of tabako-bon.

As they are accessories that promote distinguished conversations and refined poetic quotes in my hosts' mornings among the flowers and evenings in the moonlight * they will forever be the treasures of the family."

Meiji 5 (1872), spring, 3rd month. Sôsui [an] shujin (the master of the Blue and Green Hermitage).

Written by Tensûô ("Celestial Fate" the Old Man), above the lake.

• "Hana no ashita, tsuki no yûbe", an allusion to the hanami festivals in spring and tsukimi in mid-autumn.

Traduction by Alain Briot