A History of Japanese Art
Page 20
In the world of painting, the painters of the Kanō School held the highest position all through the entire period of Yedo; but they were all bureaucratic painters clinging strictly to their traditional styles. Among them, Tannyū was the greatest. Other master painters were Naonobu, Yasunobu, Morikage, and Tsunenobu.
The Tosa and Sumiyoshi schools kept up their time-honored traditions in the classical style of painting. The masters of both schools were court painters in Kyoto. However, the painters of the Sumiyoshi School came down to Yedo later and worked for the Shogunate government with the painters of the Kanō School.
In the middle of the Yedo Period, the Chinese painting of the Southern School, or Nangwa, was introduced by I Fu-chiu and other Chinese painters, through Nagasaki, the trading port at Kyushu. This style, originally formed and loved by literary men of China, had a fertile soil for a remarkable development among Japanese scholars because the Shogunate government very much encouraged the study of Chinese classics as an administrative policy. Its great masters were Taiga, Buson, and Kwazan.
However, the most characteristic features of the plebeian art of the Yedo Period will be seen in the school of decorative painting created by three geniuses, Kōetsu, Sōtatsu, and Kōrin, in the early seventeenth century; and in the Ukiyo-e, or genre painting which developed remarkably in the Genroku Era (1638-1704); and in the Maruyama and Shijō schools, the masters of which took great pains to copy nature faithfully in depicting landscapes, flowers, and birds.
It is also notable that in the later Yedo Period European painting was introduced through the port of Nagasaki. Hiraga Gen-nai and Shiba Kōkan studied Dutch painting and left us some interesting Western pictures. Such painters as Bunchō, Hiroshige, and Kwazan were also more or less influenced by Dutch painting.
The Kanō school
The Tokugawa Shogun gave special patronage to the painters of the Kanō School. The spiritual inspiration of the Kanō painters was in Confucianism, the doctrine of which became a leading idea of the administration of the Shogunate government.
In the period of Yedo, society was divided distinctly into different classes according to professions. The highly honored military class had to know the Chinese classics. The painters of the Kanō School who worked for them naturally made these classics the source of their inspiration.
To meet the needs and desire of the military class, the members of the Kanō School usually painted Chinese subjects. For example, the portrait of Confucius, the Seven Wise Men in the Bamboo Grove, or the Four Aesthetic Accomplishments—writing, painting, psaltery, and checkerboard—were favorite subjects. As animal subjects they often painted Chinese sacred animals, such as Dragons, Tigers, Lions, or Kirin. The dragon was one of the divine beasts depicted as a four-footed reptile. It was believed that in the spring it ascended to the skies and that in autumn it buried itself in depths of water. It was usually painted in various ways in association with clouds. The tiger was a beast of many mythical attributes. He was believed to be the greatest of four-footed creatures, representing the masculine principle of nature, and was usually painted with bamboo. The lion was popular for its magnificent form and was usually painted with peonies. The kirin was a pair of supernatural Chinese creatures, the alleged appearance of which was regarded as a happy portent of the advent of good government or of the birth of virtuous rulers.
Of birds, the favorites were cranes and the phoenix. The crane was believed to live more than one thousand years. It is said that its plumage is white because it loves cleanliness, and that its cry reaches heaven. With its powerful wings it flies high over the clouds. It is the king of the birds and the friend of hermit saints. The phoenix is a mythical bird. In ancient legends it is narrated that it made its appearance as a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers. In pictorial representations it is usually delineated as a cross between the peacock and the pheasant, with the addition of many gorgeous colors; and it is usually painted with the paulownia because it never perches on any other trees.
Of the trees, Kanō masters were fond of painting the pine and plum trees and bamboo. These three were traditionally combined as triune friends and were believed to be lucky and happy symbols of the New Ye a r.
In landscape painting, eight famous Chinese views of Hsiao and Hsiang (Shōshō-hakkei) were favorite subjects. As other more bureaucratic subjects, virtuous Chinese kings and loyal subjects were selected from the famous Chinese illustrated book called Teikan Zusetsu (Ti-chien t’u-shuo).
The most suitable style of painting for such subjects as are mentioned above were worked out ably by three eminent Kanō masters, Tannyū, Naonobu, and Yasunobu in the seventeenth century. They were three brothers, but Tannyū was the greatest and his name was very popular. Each opened an academy. The Academy of Yasunobu was called Nakabashi Kanō, because Yasunobu lived in the street called Nakabashi; the Academy of Tannyū was called Kajibashi Kanō, taking the name of the street where he lived; and the Academy of Naonobu was called Kobikichō Kanō.
Kanō Tannyū, 1602-1674, the eldest son of Takanōbu, was initiated by Kanō Kō-i into the secret of the family style of Kanō. He was highly interested in the various styles of painting and mastered almost every branch of them. He acquired different styles according to the subjects he had to paint. For example, when he intended to paint court ladies he used a touch of the Tosa School. When he painted landscapes, the touch of his brush was more like that of the Unkoku style. And when he painted Chinese figures, his own family style was conspicuous. Finally he effected a radical modification in the accepted canon, and gave a new life of great elegance and delicacy to the old Kanō style. His success won him the honor of being the last one of the three greatest Kanō masters, the other two having been Motonobu in the Muromachi Period and Eitoku in the Momoyama Period. He left us many masterpieces that amply illustrate his greatness.
One of his masterly works is a picture representing the history of Nikko Shrine. It shows his power in the manipulation of the Tosa style. The picture is painted on paper in colors and mounted in five makimono, which are owned by the shrine and enrolled as a national treasures. The lions and kirin painted on the panels of the sanctuary of the Nikko Shrine, as well as the tigers in a bamboo grove, painted on the sliding screens at the partitions of the rooms of the Ko-hōjō building of the Nanzen-ji monastery of Kyoto, are also famous works by him. In Fig. 140 is reproduced one of his landscape paintings, which is in the possessions of the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum.
Fig. 140. Landscape Painting, by Tannyū
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Kanō Sansetsu, 1589-1651, was an adopted son of Kanō Sanraku. He made a new departure in the technical method of painting. He usually painted in black and white, quite unlike Sanraku, his father-in-law, who had excelled in the use of rich colors. He became the founder of the Kyoto branch of the Kanō School in the Yedo Period.
Kanō Kō-i, d. 1625, studied at the studio of Kanō Mitsunobu, but was afterwards converted to the style of Sesshū and the Chinese master Mokkei. In the vigor of his strokes, as is shown in his landscape and human figures, he stands somewhat distinct from many masters of the Kanō School. He took charge of the training of Tannyū and his two brothers, Naonobu and Yasunobu.
Kanō Naonobu, 1607-1650, also called Jiteki-sai, brother of Tannyū, painted rather rough pictures of landscape, human figures, birds, and flowers, unlike those of his brother Tannyū who had highly elaborated the details. His style resembled that of the Chinese master, Mokkei. He was patronized by the third Shogun, who bestowed on him a residence in Kobikichō, Yedo; hence he is generally known as the founder of the Kobikichō branch of the Kanō Academy.
In the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum is preserved one of his master works, which represents Eight Famous Chinese Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang rivers. (Fig. 141) This was painted in his prime and shows the broad and powerful touch of his brush in black and white.
Kanō Yasunobu, 1613-1685, followed more faithfully the traditional canon of
the family style, but his brush falls somewhat below that of his two brothers, Tannyū and Naonobu. He painted the figures of Chinese saints on the walls of the Imperial Court. He founded the Nakabashi Academy of the Kanō School.
Fig. 141. Landscape Painting, by Naonobu
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Kanō Tsunenobu, 1636-1713, first studied under his father Naonobu, and after the latter’s death, under his uncle, Tannyū. He was a master painter of the Kanō School, whose best works may stand comparison with those of the great Tannyū.
Kusumi Morikage flourished in the late seventeenth century. He entered the atelier of Tannyū and mastered the Kanō style. But he studied also the styles of Sesshū, of old Tosa, and some Chinese masters, and finally evolved methods different from those of Kanō. In his late years he served the lord of Kaga and had some influence on the designs of Ko-kutani porcelain wares.
Decorative Painting
In the early Yedo Period there lived two great masters, Kōetsu and Sōtatsu, who did much for the development of Japanese taste and laid a foundation for progress in the decorative painting of the Yedo Period. Kōetsu was a genius who was well versed in the arts of pottery, gold lacquer, calligraphy, and painting. He expressed a purely Japanese taste in form and color. On the other hand, Sōtatsu excelled in decorative painting which had a particular beauty of coloring. After him, appeared Kōrin, who developed further the style of decorative painting inaugurated by Sotatsu. He worked for rich merchants in the Genroku Era (1688-1703), and founded the Kōrin School. Hoitsu, who appeared in the later Yedo Period, was the only great master of the Kōrin School after the founder.
Sōtatsu, 1576-1643, was born in the province of Noto and died at Kanazawa. His family name was Nonomura, and his personal name, I-etsu; but he was popularly called Tawaraya Sōtatsu. He had several other pseudonyms beside Sōtatsu; they were I-nen Taisei-ken and Ryūsei-ken. He first studied the Kanō style of painting in Kyoto, and then the old style of the Tosa School. His works may be divided into three periods. In the first period they showed some influence of the Kanō School. In the second period, he combined the Kanō style with that of the Tosa. But in his last period he discarded the Kanō style entirely, and used the Tosa style in an original way. His creative ability was recognized in his third period. The composition of his pictures is rather simple, but full of originality. Usually his lines are drawn in light black ink and their beautiful curves give a soft and calm feeling to his pictures. He always avoided the harsh and straight lines which the Kanō masters had been quite fond of using. The most characteristic feature of his painting was its unique color scheme. This brought him great fame. He understood thoroughly the value and intensity of color. He did not use many different colors, but showed marvellous ability in contrasting various colors with black ink. He mixed black ink with gold or with other colors while the black ink was still wet. Its effect is quiet and sublime and very much decorative. His great merit is evident in several of his masterpieces that still remain.
His masterpiece is owned by the Imperial Household. It is a pair of folding screens of eight leaves. The ground is of gold leaf, on which is pasted paper cut into the shapes of outspread fans and painted with different subjects, such as armored soldiers, court nobles, flowers, and landscapes. The color scheme is wonderful. The brightest tone of the gold ground is beautifully harmonized with the variety of colors used for the pictures, and his colors are full of wet freshness. (Color plt. 7)
The following pictures are also his master works:
Folding screens overlaid with fan-shaped papers on which different kinds of pictures are painted in rich colors. A national treasure. Pair. The Sambō-in, Kyoto.
Folding screens painted with the Genji Monogatari pictures of “Sekiya” and “Miotsukushi.” (Fig. 142) Pair. Baron Iwasakis collection.
Fig. 142. Genji Monogatari Picture, by Satatsu
Baron Iwasaki s Collection
Kōrin, 1653-1716, was an eccentric genius among Japanese artists. His family name was Ogata but he had several pseudonyms, Hōshuku, Jakumei, and others. At first he studied under Kanō Yasunobu and Sumiyoshi Gukei. But he was most deeply indebted to Kōetsu and Sōtatsu, and created a style of his own that is amazingly original in design. He applied gold and silver paste to get the most effective result in decorative painting. When he painted in ink he often obtained a pleasing effect by mixing gold paste with wet ink. He painted figures, landscapes, flowers, and birds with bold sweeps of the brush. He did them all with equal facility but he was most fond of painting flowers. He was the most famous painter of decorative pictures in the Genroku Era (1688-1703), the golden age of luxury for the commoners in the Yedo Period.
Kōrin left us quite a number of his masterpieces. One of them is a pair of folding screens, owned by Count Tsugaru of Tokyo. (Fig. 143) On each screen is painted a large plum tree with a broad stream of water on a ground of gold leaf. The large trunks of these plum trees are painted in black and green with a wet freshness of color; both blooming, one white and the other red, with all the vitality of early spring. The broad streams are painted in silver. The composition is spacious. The form and color scheme are magnificent. Its decorative value is great.
Fig. 143. Plum Tree, by Kōrin (N.T.)
Count Tsugaru’s Collection, Tokyo
The following are also his famous works which still remain:
Folding screen with a figure of Taikō-bō. Colored on paper. A national treasure. Tsunekichi Kobayashis collection.
Azalea by a Brook. Colored on paper. A national treasure. Baron Ino Dan’s collection. (Fig. 144)
Ise Monogatari Picture. Colored on silk. Tokyo Imperial Household Museum.
Folding screen with iris flowers. Colored on a ground of gold leaf. A national treasure. Owned by Mr. Kaichiro Nezu, Tokyo.
Hōitsu, 1759-1828, whose family name was Sakai. He studied the styles of Kanō, Tosa, and Maruyama schools. Later on, however, the works by Kōrin appealed to his fancy and he mastered his style. Among representative examples of his work are two picture scrolls painted with flowers and birds of four seasons in rich colors on silk. The scrolls are owned by the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum. The excellent touch of his brush and his variety of rich colors are the characteristic features which make him a master of decorative painting in the Kōrin style. (Fig. 145)
Fig. 144. Azalea by a Brook, by Kōrin (N.T.)
Baron Ino Dans Collection, Tokyo
Fig. 145. Flowers and Birds, by Hōitsu
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Ukiyo-e Print And Painting
Ukiyo-e, the genre picture, initiated by Matahei and his followers in the early Yedo Period, became the most popular plebeian art. It includes two kinds of pictures, one of which is painted by hand, and the other printed from blocks.
The subjects painted by the Ukiyo-e painters were full of variety. However, the favorite subjects were the famous beauties of Yoshiwara or love scenes. The next favorite subject was the actors, because the theater was then the most popular amusement and provided active subjects for the Ukiyo-e painters. But they did not paint them realistically. In painting beauty each painter had his own ideal. Sharaku, for example, was all the time painting his own type of beauty under multitudinous disguises. Likewise, Utamaro painted his own particular type of beauty.
Ukiyo-e painters were also sometimes interested in making travesties on sacred figures. For example, they painted Fugen, the Bodhisattva of All Pervading Wisdom, on the back of an elephant in a sitting posture, holding a love letter, instead of holding a Buddhist scripture. Daruma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, was often represented as being soothed by a beauty with a love letter.
The development of Ukiyo-e may be divided into four periods, as follows:
The first period, from the Keichō to the Meireki Era (1596-1657). This was just a preliminary period of the Ukiyo-e picture.
The second period, from the Kwambun to the Gembun Era (1661-1740). In this period the Ukiyo-e, painted in
colors, was prosperous.
The third period, from the Kwampō to the Tempō Era (1741-1843). In this period the Ukiyo-e, printed in colors, was prosperous.
The fourth period, from the Kokwa to the Meiji Era (1846-1912). This was the period in which color prints declined.
In the first period, the best known painter of the early Ukiyo-e picture was Iwasa Matahei, who belonged to the Tosa School. One of the most authentic paintings by him is preserved in the oratory of the Tōshō-gū, in the city of Kawagoe, near Tokyo. It represents the famous thirty-six poets. (Fig. 146)
Fig. 146. One of Thirty-six Poets (N.T.) By Matahei
Tōshō-gū Shrine, Kawagoe City
In the second period (1661-1740), a remarkable development was made in Ukiyo-e painted by hand (Nikuhitsu Ukiyo-e). However, on the other hand, Ukiyo-e print (Ukiyo-e hangwa) began to develop.
Hishikawa Moronobu, who appeared in the Genroku Era (1688-1703), was the first great master who contributed to the development of both colored paintings and primitive prints of Ukiyo-e. He learned all the best features in Ukiyo-e paintings that had developed before him and established his own style, which is known by his family name Hishikawa. He was especially fond of painting professional beauties, scenes of flower-viewing parties, and customs and manners in general.
In the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum is a picture scroll which contains a number of his works painted at different times in colors on silk. Therefore the pictures are excellent examples for the study of his paintings. (Fig. 147) Another masterpiece by him is a picture scroll representing customs and manners in Yedo, which is owned by Baron Masuda in Tokyo.
Fig. 147. Ukiyo-e Painting, by Hishikawa Moronobu
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
It was he who enhanced the beauty of prints to a very high standard of art. His work became the foundation of the later development of Japanese color prints. He first made the so-called single sheet print, or ichimai-e, in black and white. On this kind of prints he did not leave any signature. Therefore, it is not certain which ones were by him and which by his followers. He for the first time produced picture books which appealed much to the masses and had a great run among the common people. He embellished such prints in black and white with dull red color by hand. They were called tan-e. He did not at all intend to copy the real colors, giving but a mere touch of reddish color. After tan-e, there developed what is called urushi-e, a style in which part of a picture is painted with black lacquer or black ink mixed with glue and the rest colored with warm hues, so as to make a harmonious contrast with the black.