Japanese New Year Calligraphy Scroll "First Sunrise" Hatsuhide Waka Poem, Signed Shinohara Gurō 1967 Vintage Kakemono

The Poem — Welcoming the First Light of the Year
This kakemono preserves a short waka-style verse devoted to one of the most cherished moments in the Japanese New Year calendar: hatsuhide (初日の出), the year's first sunrise.

朝ぼけ速き霧も消え去りて
晴れて雲に乃ぼる初日の出

Asaboke hayaki kiri mo kiesarite / Harete kumo ni noboru hatsuhide

"The haze of early dawn, swiftly, melts away — and clearing, the first sunrise of the year climbs into the clouds."

The imagery is simple and immediate: a morning mist that lingers just long enough to heighten anticipation, then dissolves as the sun breaks free and rises through the clouds. In Japanese New Year custom, hatsuhide is traditionally watched with quiet reverence, believed to carry omens of clarity, renewal, and good fortune for the year ahead — the fog's departure mirroring a wish for obstacles to clear and the year to open auspiciously. It is a verse meant to be read on the morning of January 1st itself, pairing the literal weather of a New Year's dawn with its symbolic promise.

Date and Artist
The scroll carries a full colophon dating it precisely: 昭和四十二丁未年元旦 — "New Year's Day, Shōwa 42, year of Hinoto-Hitsuji" — corresponding to January 1, 1967. The sexagenary (kanshi) designation 丁未 (Hinoto-Hitsuji) confirms the Shōwa 42 dating without ambiguity, since the two systems are given together.

The work is signed 篠原愚老書（七十八老）— "brushed by Shinohara Gurō, at the age of seventy-eight" — and carries two red seals bearing the calligrapher's name/title, affirming authorship. The self-deprecating art-name "Gurō" (愚老, literally "foolish old man") follows a long-standing convention among Japanese literati and calligraphers, who often adopted humble or self-effacing names in later life as a mark of modesty rather than literal self-assessment. That this piece was brushed at 78 places it among a tradition of elder calligraphers whose late-life work is often prized for its unhesitating, settled hand — the brushwork here is fluid and confidently cursive, without the hesitation marks sometimes seen in less practiced hands.

We have not been able to independently verify biographical details for a calligrapher named Shinohara Gurō beyond what is inscribed on the scroll itself; the attribution here rests on the signature and seals as written.

A Piece of Living New Year Culture
Scrolls composed specifically for Oshōgatsu (New Year) display were traditionally hung in the tokonoma (alcove) of a home during the first days of January, setting the seasonal and spiritual tone for the year. A hatsuhide-themed verse like this one belongs to that functional tradition of literary art — meant not just to be admired, but to be lived with during a specific, meaningful week of the year. For collectors of Japanese seasonal customs, calligraphy, or New Year ephemera, this scroll is a tangible piece of that ritual culture, rendered in a confident, mature calligraphic hand.

Condition and Presentation
Mounting: Traditional silk/paper mounting typical of Shōwa-era kakemono presentation
As a scroll dated 1967, this piece is vintage rather than antique, consistent with its paper and mounting condition.