Oh, but what a letter.

While doing my rounds at the auction house the other day, seeing if anything struck my fancy which was aesthetic more than just a humorous or interesting trinket, I was taken aback by a hanging Japanese scroll.  Looking at its description, I found that it was a letter (in scroll form, that is the level of artistry of that culture) written by Kobori Enshu- the aristocrat and artist among whose works are the garden of Katsura Rikyu and who is best known as being a master of the tea ceremony.  Now, this small work would surely brighten up my place, or be a perfect start of a new place entirely- but then I realized (and confirmed today in my reading of a book on connoisseur behavior) that a desire for such material beauty could quickly become a kind of mania.

So, paddle not raised, money kept in the pocket, I let it pass, but not before it had implanted its beauty in my mind, begging me to go forward and backwards to find other such pieces.  By the way, the letter's content was that of Enshu thanking the recipient for an invitation to have tea.

of which the right one is that of enshu.