A History of Japanese Art
Page 15
Fig. 92. Monkeys, by Mokkei (N.T.)
Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art
Pictures representing Gama and Tekkai, two of Chinese Eight Immortals in the Taoist legend, painted by the Chinese master Gan Ki (Yen Hui) whose works had much influence on Japanese painting of this period, are owned by the Chion-ji monastery of Kyoto and are now preserved in the Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art. One of the pictures, representing Tekkai, is reproduced in Fig. 93. It is painted in harmonious combination of lines and colors. As he was a follower of Zen philosophy, he was always ready to take up his artistic brushes for the sake of Zen temples. When Zen Buddhism was introduced into this country his masterpieces came along with it, and this was no doubt one of them.
It was from such pictures as these that the Japanese painters of the Muromachi Period learned an expression in ink that has never been rivalled.
A Japanese priest-painter called Minchō, 1352-1431, was one of the most noted followers of the style of Gan Ki whose works we have just described. Minchō lived in the Tōfuku-ji monastery of Kyoto and officiated there. His lines are remarkable for a technical peculiarity, an alternate heavy and light line in the same stroke, which gives his drawing much character. He was very famous for his Buddhist and Taoist figures, all of which were painted on large canvasses and distinguished for vigorous strokes. He drew inspiration not only from Gan Ki but also from the Chinese Ri Ryū-min (Li Lung-mien) of the Sung Dynasty. Truly he was a great Buddhist painter who kept the religious spirit.
Most of his masterpieces are still preserved in the Tōfuku-ji monastery and the best of his works will be seen in the portrait of Shōichi Kokushi which is also one of the treasures of the monastery. (Fig. 94) It is slightly colored on paper. The aged priest with austere wrinkled features sits on a high chair over which a large cloth of green and white pattern has been thrown. The tip of his long staff resting on the chair makes a simple note of red in the picture.
Fig. 93. Tekkai, by Gan Ki (N.T.)
Chion-ji Monastery, Kyoto
Fig. 94. Shōichi Kokushi, by Minchō (N.T.)
Tōfuku-ji Monastery, Kyoto
One of the great masters of ink painting in this period was Josetsu. He was born in Kyushu but afterwards lived in Kyoto, and was flourishing in the early fifteenth century. The only existent painting by him, a unique work, is preserved in the Taizōan of the Myōshin-ji monastery of Kyoto. The picture represents a man watching a catfish at the bank of a river in order to catch it with a gourd in hand. The subject is treated with a fascinating power which comes from Zen ideas. The touch of his brush evidently shows the influence of the style of Mokkei; it is very soft and yet the man looks so powerful in will. (Fig. 95) It is now on view in the Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art.
Shūbun, a pupil of Josetsu, is said to have been even greater than his master. He was born in the province of Ōmi and afterwards lived in Kyoto as a priest of the Shōkokuji monastery. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain but he flourished in the first half of the fifteenth century. There are a number of paintings which are attributed to him, but it is most regrettable that there is nothing authorized as his real work. However, it is known that in the year 1430, he colored the figure of Daruma, the founder of the Zen sect, which is owned by the Daruma-ji, a temple of Nara. This figure is now enrolled as a national treasure.
Fig.95. Man Watching a Catfish, by Josetsu (N.T.)
Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art
There are also several famous landscape paintings attributed to him by connoisseurs. One is in the collection of Mr. Hara of Yokohama, another in the collection of Marq. Hachisuka in Tokyo, and the other in the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum, which we reproduce in Fig. 96. This example is in black and white. In it we see the purity and sublimity of nature, excellently expressed in the forms of rocks and trees, by his master hand in black and white.
After Shūbun, there appeared such masters as Sesshū, Jasoku, Sōtan, Nō-ami, Gei-ami, Sō-ami, Shokei, Masanobu, Motonobu, and Mitsunobu.
Among these masters, Sesshū, 1420-1506, was one of the greatest landscape painters Japan ever produced. His real name was Tōyō. He early turned priest and was initiated first at Shōkoku-ji in Kyoto and afterwards lived at the Kenchō-ji monastery at Kamakura. He at first studied the style of Josetsu and Shubūn, but in time he began to display marked originality. In the year 1467 he went over to China in the hope of finding there some masters of the Chinese landscape painting under whom he might study. But, finding that he had more to teach than to learn, he travelled far and wide over the land with nature as his only teacher. His great originality was acknowledged in China and elicited immense admiration from both the Chinese Emperor and the people. The Emperor himself commissioned him to paint the three Japanese views of Mt. Fuji, the Japanese port of Miho, and the Seigen-ji temple near Shizuoka.
On his return to Japan after two years in China, he established himself in a cottage at Yamaguchi under the name of Unkoku-an and did much to spread the Chinese manner of landscape painting.
Fig. 96. Landscape, by Shūbun
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Sesshū developed his originality mostly from nature, thus causing a great stir in the artistic world of Japan at that time. His greatness lies in his power of grasping the essential of what he was representing, and of rejecting the unnecessary. His brush touch is free and extremely sensitive in portraying with ink of deep and light tones the landscapes created in his own mind. His lines and gradation of ink are magnificent and sublime.
There still remain a number of his masterpieces in Japan. Among hem, a landscape painting in the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum, the two landscapes, winter and summer scenes (Fig. 97), in the Manshu-in temple at Kyoto, and the long landscape scroll in the collection of Prince Mōri, are very famous and representative.
Sesshū had many followers. His style was later called the Unkoku School. Among the painters who studied it, Shūgetsu and Sesson are most famous.
Jasoku, ?-1483, studied painting under Shubun and painted landscapes, human figures, flowers, and birds. His brush work is rather rough and does not resemble that of his teacher. The vigor of his stroke and compact composition are almost unequalled. He was born in the province of Echizen in the house of a samurai and flourished as a painter during a period of about thirty years (1452-1483). He was much interested in the doctrine of Zen Buddhism, which he learned from the famous priest Ikkyū. This is the reason why he decorated the interior of the Shinju-an temple founded by Ikkyū, with landscape paintings in black and white, which are good examples of his work.
He also excelled in portrait paintings, an example of which will be seen in the triptych of three patriarchs of the Zen sect, Daruma, Rinzai, and Tokusan, preserved in the Yōtoku-in of the Daitaku-ji monastery of Kyoto. The figures are delineated minutely. As to the drapery the bold lines and the shadings along them are made skilfully to give the desired effects. Daruma occupies the center; to the left sits Rinzai, with one hand tightly clenched (Fig. 98); and to the right Tokusan, with his famous stick. The deep serenity and mental purity reached by Zen spiritual training are represented in their faces and postures by slight coloring, simple technique, and bold expression.
Fig. 97. Winter Landscape, by Shessū (N.T.)
Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art
Oguri Sōtan, ?-1481, also a pupil of Shūbun, is said to have developed great originality. He flourished from about 1462 and died in the year 1481. He served the Ashikaga Shogun to whom he used to present a painted fan every New Year's Day. The Honchō Gwashi says: “He was particularly skilful in painting landscapes. As to details of his work, the varying views of mist or clouds interposed among the woods in spring, evince a spontaneous taste for natural beauty.” But there remains no authentic painting by him.
In the fifteenth century, there lived also a famous trio of landscape painters. They were Nō-ami, Geiami, and Sō-ami, who were father, son, and grandson in this order of relationship, and collectively called “San-Ami” which literally m
eant three Ami. They all served Shogun Yoshimasa, not only as painters, but also as gardeners and connoisseurs.
Nō-ami, properly called Shin-nō, was born in 1397 and died in about 1476. He studied under Shubun and distinguished himself in painting landscapes, human figures, flowers, and birds, which are said to be permeated with the charm of Mokkei, the Chinese master of the Sung Dynasty. He was also versed in poetry, the tea-cult and landscape gardening, while he was a great connoisseur of calligraphy and old Chinese paintings. But there remains no picture which can be proved to be his real work.
Gei-ami, 1431-1485, son of Nōami, was properly called Shin-gei. His painting was unlike his father's and also different from that of his son Sō-ami. He showed originality which was further developed by his pupil, Kei Shoki. His masterpiece (Fig. 99) painted when he was fifty years old, remains. It represents a priest passing over a bridge near a waterfall, and is said to be the best representative work by him.
Fig. 98. Rinzai, by Jasoku (N.T.)
Yōtoku-in, Kyoto
Sō-ami, son of Shin-gei, properly called Shin-sō, flourished in the time of the Shogun Yoshimasa in the later fifteenth century. He was a valet to the Shogun and was noted for his draughtmanship, especially in landscapes, human figures, birds, and flowers, either in black and white or in light color. His style of painting very much resembled that of his grandfather, Nō-ami. He was a many-sided man, and was distinguished equally in poetry, the tea-cult, incense-testing contest, and landscape gardening. Especially he was a great expert in the methods of art appreciation. Landscape paintings in ink on paper, mounted in twenty kakemono which are owned by the Daisen-in temple, are famous works by him.
Keishoki, called also Shokei or Hinraku-sai, flourished in the later fifteenth century. He displayed precocious talent in painting, being especially noted for his Buddhist and Taoist figures, after which his landscapes and secular figures come next in excellence. He studied painting from Gei-ami. But it seems that he drew inspiration from the works by Mokkei and Shūbun.
Fig. 99. Waterfall, by Gei-ami
Mr. Nezu’s Collection
During the later Muromachi Period, there developed a new style of painting, which is called the Kanō School. Three great landscape painters, Josetsu, Shūbun, and Sesshū, whom we have described, had all studied seriously the style of Chinese painting of the Sung and Yüan dynasties, which Sesshū had been foremost in Japanizing. Yet, after all, they were priest-painters, to whom painting was rather a hobby. But now the Kanū masters, Masanobu, and his son Motonobu specialized in painting. They made remarkable progress by adapting the native style of the Tosa School to their own which they had acquired through the Chinese masters and their Japanese followers, finally establishing the Kanō School, which became the most important school of painting in the following two periods, that is, Momoyama and Yedo.
Kanō Masanobu, 1454-1550, called Shirojirō, afterwards Ōinosuke, was born in the village of Kanō, Izu, from which his family name was derived. He studied painting early under Shūbun and Sōtan, and served the Shogun Yoshimasa with his art. He originated the Kanō style. His son Motonobu was the most celebrated master painter in the later Muromachi Period. (Fig. 100)
Fig. 100. Landscape, by Masanobu
Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art
Kanō, Motonobu, 1476-1559, son of Kanō Masanobu, was noted from his early days for his artistic talent, which won high favor from the Shogun who appointed him as his valet. He was made a court painter also and honored with the title “Hōgen.” He is popularly called Ko-Hōgen, or Elder-Hōgen. He did his best in bringing the Japanese and Chinese styles into perfect harmony, and established the canon of the Kanō School that had been founded by his father, Masanobu. The reason why Motonobu grew to be the father of the Kanō School was mainly his Japanizing ability.
Fig. 101. Chinese Landscape, by Motonobu
Nara Imperial Household Museum
He married Chiyo, daughter of Tosa Mitsunobu, the distinguished master painter of the Tosa School. This matrimonial alliance with a representative of the Japanese style of painting did much toward developing the Kanō style. In 1508 he sent a series of his pictures to China. They soon gained him so much respect that not a few Chinese artists of the time wrote him to come over and teach them. With Sesshū he was one of the two most outstanding painters in the Muromachi Period. However, when we compare his painting with that of Sesshū there is a great difference between them. Motonobu showed his masterly finish in landscapes in monochromes as well as in light colors; and his paintings are distinguished by the mellow tones of his strokes and fine delineation, appealing much to the taste of the Japanese. Sesshu, on the other hand, had mastered thoroughly the ink painting of Sung and Yüan, and showed originality. But Motonobu did more for the Japanization of the Sung and Yüan style, and left us a number of his master pieces. His greatest and most representative works are the pictures painted on the sliding screens in the rooms of the Reiun-in of the Myōshin-ji monastery at Kyoto. The pictures are now peeled of and mounted as forty-nine kakemono. Some are in monochromes, others lightly colored, according to the subjects. The Chinese pictures doubtless served the artist as models for landscapes, flowers, and birds, but in composition as well as in expression, there are traces of Japanization. Indeed, in these pictures every characteristic of his painting is well represented. Some of them are preserved in the Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art and in the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum. (See pp. 191-3)
The following are also famous works by Motonobu:
The Eight Scenes of the Shōshō River in China. A national treasure. Tōkai-an temple, Kyoto prefecture. Mounted in four kakemono. Ink painting on paper. Now preserved in the Nara Imperial Household Museum. (Fig. 101)
Flowers and Birds. A national treasure. Daisen-in temple, Kyoto. Mounted in eight kakemono. Colored on paper. Now preserved in the Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art.
Fig.102. Kiyomizu-dera Engi, by Tosa Mitsunobu
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Shaka Triad. A national treasure. Zenrin-ji temple, Kyoto. Mounted in a kakemono. Slightly colored on paper.
The Japanese native style of painting represented by the Tosa School declined very much in this period. But Tosa Mitsunobu, the contemporary of Sesshū and Motonobu, flourished in the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was remarkable that he raised the fame of the time-honored Yamato-e painting, which was almost dying away in the age when the new school of sumi-e, the black and white painting, was so popular. He enhanced his fame by his elaborate and delicate painting in rich colors. One of his best works is the illustrated history of the Kiyomizu-dera temple, which is composed of three scrolls owned by the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum. (Fig. 102)
3. SCULPTURE
The Buddhist sculpture of the Muromachi Period declined pitifully because the Buddhist sects, which had needed many Buddhist figures, did not prosper as before. But noticeable progress was made in portrait sculpture because of the popularity of Zen Buddhism among the leading class of people. The Zen Buddhism, which had little need of Buddhist figures, taught the importance of the individual mind. This attitude of Zen Buddhism naturally valued the greatness of the individual personality and also resulted in the adoration of portrait figures of high priests or great personages. Therefore the greater works of sculpture in this period are found among portrait sculpture.
It should be noticed that for the first time in this period the Noh drama became one of the refined amusements among the feudal barons and aristocratic class. For this the carving of Noh masks became a special work and in this field new progress was attained.
As the medium of sculpture, wood was used almost entirely, and metal work was extremely rare.
As a whole, the sculpture of this period made progress only in portrait sculpture and Noh masks. And all other kinds of sculpture declined. But a few Buddhist sects which needed Buddhist figures still existed and wanted some figures to be worshipped. They showed a certain style and technique, which were peculiar to th
is period.
The Buddhist sculpture, which was made principally of wood, lost the greatness and fluency of the Kamakura style, but tried to imitate the delicacy and flowery effect of the Fujiwara sculpture. But it fell into a feeble delicacy decorated with rather heavy coloring. It was generally covered with golden foils; designs on robes were gold lacquered or wrought in cut gold. Nevertheless, it was far inferior to that delicate and highly refined work of the Fujiwara Period.
In the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum is a figure of Kwannon, the Buddhist god of mercy. This is one of the finest examples produced in the early part of this period, that is, about the fourteenth century. It is a very decorative statue. (Fig. 188)
Among the leading sculptors of this period there were two schools, namely the Middle Buddhist workshop and the West Buddhist workshop, both in Kyoto. The former was represented by the descendants of Jōchō. Inshin, Injō, and Inshō were conspicuous among the sculptors of this school. The latter school was represented by those who were followers of the style of Unkei. Korin, Kōshū, and Kōsei were known as master hands.The portrait sculpture made its development only in wood, and it was decorated with slightly colored designs on plastered or lacquered ground. The eyes inserted were generally quartz, having an intuitive glitter. It was also very realistic in individual form and character.
The portrait sculpture in this period represents usually the figures of founders of Zen temples, because of the prosperity of Zen Buddhism, and they are enshrined in founders’ halls of the monastery. Besides high priests, the donors or patrons of Zen Buddhism are sometimes figured and enshrined in the temples to which they are intimately related. The figure of Shogun Yoshimitsu in the Golden Pavilion and that of Shogun Yoshimasa in the Silver Pavilion are both famous examples.