Section of the Sutra of Wise Men and Fools (Kengukyō) known as the "Ōjōmu gire" (Great Shōmu fragment)

Handwritten copies of sutras, or sacred Buddhist scriptures, were essential to promoting the faith. All temples required copies for use in ritual recitation. The text is read from top to bottom, right to left. Since the 1400s, collectors prized the beauty of scribes’ calligraphy. Many sutras were cut up like this fragment and pasted into albums as treasured objects, sometimes to preserve the undamaged parts.

In Japan, sutras are generally written in regular script Chinese characters. This is the most legible of all Chinese calligraphic scripts, equivalent to clear printed lettering in the Roman alphabet.