[The Young Girl Kon from the Eastern Mountains], Shinozaki Shōchiku

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All three of these calligraphy scrolls were created by important Japanese scholar-officials who were skilled in Chinese verse. They each took a special interest in the gifted girl calligrapher Okon, and composed poems and prose extolling her talented brushwork. At her father's request, San'yō, Shōchiku, and Rokudō wrote out texts about Okon on special silk with woven ruled lines. They used combinations of regular and running scripts.

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Shochiku was one of the most outstanding Chinese-style poets in nineteenth-century Japan. He took a special interest in the child prodigy Okon and composed the following verse extolling her talented brushwork. At her father's request, Shochiku wrote out his verse in semi-cursive "running" script on special silk with woven ruled lines.
"The Young Girl Kon from the Eastern Mountains"
When she was a young child, she was able to recite old poems from memory and was expert at grass scipt. The way she wrote was light and confident as though she had divine assistance. Last year she came to the Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka) region and amazed the entire capital. Consequently she was summoned by the Emperor, and thereupon she was honored. Her father sent silk and asked me to write something. I observed that she was named Kon (Carp).* Was it because of her unusual quality, like the purple fungus among grasses, the jade among trees, the phoenix among birds, and the Kon among fish? However, these things with good omens are not like people with good omens. Let men be men, let women be women, let children be children, let the old be old. If you don't push them beyond their time, they will have good marriages and forever preserve their happiness. This is what we call the good omens of people. Kon is now eleven years old. She is of heavenly beauty, and her character is likewise gentle and graceful. As a child she frolics and plays joyfully, oblivious of her skills in calligraphy. Truly she is lovely. She was taught womanly skills and is accomplished in womanly virtues, and therefore will marry a gentleman. She writes with her wormlike or serpentlike bursh, expressing the spirit of ancient Chinese poetry. Isn't it proper to say that she is a good omen among human beings? Otherwise if she is fooled by the adulation of others and plays beyond the proper age, I am afraid she will acquire a reputation which she does not deserve. Then the omen will become a bad one, and honors will become insults. A few days ago I presented a poem in which I said th Kon should be written with a different character [also pronounced Kon which means "earth" in the Book of Changes]. Today I write this again to give to her father.
*The carp is considered to be an auspicious fish in the Orient. Kon is the literal pronunciation of her name, but Japanese often add a honorific "o" as a prefix, and consequently she is usually referred to as Okon.