Treasures of Asia: Japanese Painting

by Akiyama Terukazu

Chapter 10: Trends of Modern Painting (17th to 19th Century)

In the previous chapters we have studied two developments­the Sotatsu--Korin schooI and the ukiyo--e or popular school­which ranked low in the official hierarchy of art forms but which were actually of the highest interest and importance. This chapter will be devoted to the other trends of Japanese painting in this late phase, particularly in the flourishing period of the eighteenth century.

The official academy of the Shogunate and the feudal nobility was still constituted by the Kano school. Four dynasties of painters (known as Kajibashi, Kobikicho, Nakabashi and Hamacho, from the different quarters of Edo in which they lived), the direct successors of Tannyu and his brothers, had controlled the leading studios (oku--eshi ) sponsored by the shogunal family. Other Kano families, descendants or disciples of these dynasties, furnished painters to the official academy (omote--eshi ) from generation to generation. Still others worked for the military classes. And it was to the Kanos again, from father to son, that local rulers looked to take charge of their own academies.

What had been established was nothing less than a monopoly. Artists under this system were virtually regimented: they could neither change their style nor seek to improve their technique, but went on for three centuries tirelessly imitating the models established by their ancestors (by Tannyu above all) for the interior decoration of palaces and the conventional pictures required for official use; they were also called upon to appraise ancient works. Their only merit lay in faithfully transmitting the traditional technique of painting to the masters of the late nineteenth century who, on the basis thus provided, were able to renew Japanese art. Moreover, several literati painters of this school (for example Kano Eino, Sanraku's grandson, the Japanese Vasari) have left us not only valuable historical and biographical works, but also many copies of ancient works now lost.

From the artistic point of view, only a few "rebels" among this host of academics are of interest to us today. One of Tannyu's best pupils, Kusumi Morikage, carried his master's researches even further and, enlarging on the sharp and rigid linework of Sesshu, developed a linear freedom of design characteristic of his style. In addition to landscapes of Chinese inspiration, he painted a great many scenes of peasant life with a homely accent of intimacy. Tradition has it that Tannyu dismissed Morikage from his studio.

Later another pupil of the Kano school, Hanabusa Itcho (I652--I724)­his real name was Taga Shinko, and his first pseudonym Choko­painted scenes of daily life in a vein of expression peculiarly his own. Born at Osaka, he moved with his father to Edo and while still a boy entered the studio of Kano Yasunobu, younger brother of Tannyu. But his independence in artistic matters made him anathema to the academic school. He steadily pursued his career on lines of his own and his art reflects the intellectual freedom and cultural refinement of the middle--class society of the Genroku era (I688--I704), from which Korin and Moronobu had also drawn their strength.

A friend of Basho, who revived the haikai, and of other poets of his school, like Kikaku, Itcho gave his scenes a refined, often satirical tone. But his independence of mind got him into trouble with the authorities and he was exiled in I698 to the small island of Miyake-shima, where he spent twelve years. After his return to Edo his art grew increasingly subtle and several collectors began patronizing him. It was now that he assumed the pseudonym Itcho and founded a school of his own, called the Hanabusa school. The small picture reproduced here bears the signature of his early period. (illustration page 183) A young peasant is seen leading his horse across a river in the morning mist. The movements of boy and animal are vividly recorded in deft and telling strokes, while a few lightly shaded touches of ink suffice to evoke the bridge, a willow tree on the bank, and faint gleams on the water as the sun rises over the mist. His vision of daily life is conveyed in a somewhat sophisticated style, more refined than that of the early ukiyo--e painters.

In the course of the eighteenth century, an age in Japan of economic prosperity and cultured humanism, some new trends of painting emerged, notably the realist movement of the Maruyama--Shijo school and the idealism of the literati painters (bunjin--ga ). One would expect two such trends to stand opposed to each other, but this was not the case; both were affected by foreign influences and had many points of contact.

The first exponent of "realism" was Maruyama Okyo (I733--I795). He seems to have been a native of a village in the province of Tanba. At the age of seventeen he entered the studio of Ishida Yutei (I72I--I786), a painter of the Kano school of Kyoto, where he acquired great proficiency in the handling of the brush. By a mere chance his eyes were opened to a new esthetic, or better, a new "way of seeing"­that of Western art. Something has already been said of the increasing interest felt in everything Western during the first half of the eighteenth century. A peep show, imported by a curio dealer of Kyoto, caught the fancy of the public, who were surprised and intrigued by unfamiliar landscapes painted in perspective and chiaroscuro, and optically magnified to the point of seeming real. The young Okyo must have taken a keen interest in this device, for the dealer commissioned him to enlarge the repertory of these imported pictures by making copies, in accordance with the same principles, of the European landscapes and adding landscape views of Japan. These "peep--show pictures" (megane--e ), painted by Okyo about I760, were a great success and a considerable number of them are still extant. Resolutely departing from the conventional designs of the Kano school, Okyo profited by the experience thus gained and went on to apply the principle of perspective, and to embody other realistic elements, in a scroll painted in I765, consisting of a series of landscapes along the banks of the river Yodo between Kyoto and Osaka. He made a point of basing his style on the direct study of nature. However, this concern for realism, or better, for naturalism, was carried only to a certain point and no further. The real forms of objects were carefully conveyed by means of subtle drawing and nuances of ink and colors, which produced a striking effect of chiaroscuro. But to render space tangibly and convincingly in terms of depth and volume following the rules of Western art­this was a conception utterly foreign to the Japanese painters of the eighteenth century and they maintained the tradition of open, unlimited space peculiar to the art of the Far East.

Another factor played its part in shaping the "realistic" style of Okyo. This was the renewed influence of Chinese painting penetrating into Japan by way of Nagasaki. Located in the extreme southwest of the Japanese archipelago, this seaport was the country's sole point of contact with the outside world. Through Nagasaki, from the seventeenth century on, works of both Chinese and Western painting filtered into Japan. A new Zen sect called Obaku (Huang-po) had been introduced by the Chinese colony of Nagasaki and propagated as far as Kyoto by the Chinese monk Itsunen (I--jan) who came to Japan in I644. Portraits of the patriarchs of the Obaku sect were painted in a curious style remarkable for the thoroughgoing realism of facial features. Local Japanese painters like Kita Genki followed these models, adding to them, it would seem, reminiscences of Western works brought to Japan by the Christian missionaries. The influence of Itsunen, himself an amateur painter, was brought to bear on the official painters known as the Nagasaki school, whose works are characterized by a realistic, minutely detailed representation of objects. The arrival of Chinese artists in Nagasaki further speeded up the diffusion of Ming and Ch'ing painting. Along with the idealistic style (noticeable chiefly in the landscapes of the literati painters, to be dealt with presently), the realism of the bird and flower painters of the Ming period, both academics and independents, was introduced in a style already somewhat eclectic by Shen Nan--p'in (or Shen Ch'uan), who worked in Nagasaki from I73I to I733. The Japanese liked his detailed compositions with their meticulous brushwork and showy colors, and he soon had a number of imitators, for example Kumashiro Shukko, known as Yuhi (I7I2--I772). This style, moreover, spread to the Kyoto--Osaka region thanks to the painter--monk Kakutei, and even to Edo itself with the school of So Shiseki (I7I2--I786). The realistic or naturalistic tradition of Chinese painting obviously counted for something in the formation of Okyo's style, even if we accept a later testimony, according to which he severely criticized one of Shen Nan-p'in's compositions for its inaccurate proportions.

Thanks to the generous patronage of the Prince--Abbot Yujo, superior of the great Emman--in monastery, and to his own unremitting efforts, Okyo achieved a fully developed style of his own based on the objective study of forms. Several notebooks and sketch scrolls dating from I770 to I776 (preserved in the National Museum, Tokyo, and in the Nishimura Collection) reveal the thoroughness and almost scientific precision with which he scrutinized plants and animals. There also exist some figure studies in which Okyo began by drawing nude bodies which he then proceeded to "clothe" in different colors. The charm of his open--space pictures, composed of realistic elements, lies in their harmonious tones and the graded refinements of their ink brushwork. Easy to understand, involving neither metaphysical abstractions nor bold stylizations, they answered perfectly to the moderate, unpretentious tastes of the Kyoto and Osaka public; they dominated the painting of that region throughout the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

Okyo practised all forms of painting: landscapes, flower pieces, animal pictures and figure paintings, from small and dainty pictures to large--scale compositions. In addition to the works of his maturity preserved in the Emman--in (scroll of Fortunes and Misfortunes, the Peacock, etc.), he left a great many screen paintings intended for temples or well--to--do middle--class homes (for example, the Dragons in the Kanchi--in temple, the Pine Trees in Snow in the Mitsui Collection, and the Hotsu River in the Nishimura Collection, which was one of his last works). He also decorated the interior of many temples, like the Kongo--ji at Tanba, the Daijo--ji at Hyogo, and the Kotohira--gu at Sanuki. The sheer abundance of his output and the technical mastery that remained unimpaired until his death, are undoubtedly the marks of a great talent. Nevertheless, during the thirty years of his career, his untiring quest of the essentials of objects as reflected in their outward features gradually lost its intensity and by slow degrees he reverted to a decorative and lyrical key, to technical refinements of color and design. Is this, after all, the inescapable destiny of a Japanese artist? Is there a limit beyond which the techniques and esthetic based on a foreign tradition cannot go when enlisted in the service of a thoroughly realistic representation of the world? In any case Okyo's later works, especially his large compositions, are often so clear in design, so unsubstantial in content, as to seem trite and uninspired. The saving, life--giving feature of his masterpieces is certainly not the painstaking accuracy of their realism, but the skill and variety of the brushwork, ranging from delicately flickering touches to broad, sweeping strokes. The artist often makes use of background shadings to suggest forms.

Together with an evident technical mastery, the Pine Tree in Snow (I765), in the National Museum, Tokyo, has all the spontaneity of a youthful work. (illustration page 186) By a simple effect of ink brushstrokes on a background faintly heightened with gold, the white of the silk serves to represent snow on the tree and on the ground and conveys its full tactile quality, its lightness, softness and freshness. The pine needles are drawn with swift strokes of the brush, while shaded dabs of ink indicate the volume of branches and trunk. It may well be questioned whether the term "realism" is applicable to such a work, whose beauty lies above all in its lyrical and symbolic effect.

Okyo also excelled in flower and animal painting, and the wooden doors of the so--called Okyo Pavilion offer a good example of these charming works. In I784 he decorated the inner partitions of this building, an annex of the Meigen--in temple at Aichi (it has now been moved to the park of the National Museum, Tokyo). On one of them figure two dogs, one white, the other brown, playing with blue morning glories. This work, exemplifying his powers of observation and his flawless draftsmanship, reveals the secret of this artist who, while catering for a wide public, maintained a high level of achievement.

The lyricism that lent its elusive charm to Okyo's best works softened the impact of reality and grew still more marked in the art of Goshun (I752--I8II), founder of the Shijo school. Under his first name of Matsumura Gekkei, he also wrote poetry and, having studied the technique of the haikai under Yosa Buson (I7I6--I783), the master of literati painting, it was naturally in the style of Buson that he began to paint. A meeting with Okyo in I788 acquainted him with the realistic representation of nature, which he subsequently worked out in accordance with his own temperament. His landscape style, fully mastered by about I800, reflects a sensitive artist's response to the gentle, intimately poetic beauty of the countryside around Kyoto and Osaka.
The landscape depicted on a pair of screen paintings in the National Museum, Tokyo, is typical of Goshun. (illustration page 187) All the picture elements, hills, stream, rocks, trees and thatched roofs, drawn in the naturalistic manner of Okyo, fade into the distance in a rainy atmosphere which effectively creates depth. Thanks also to the refined, delicately brushed works of his brother Matsumura Keibun, the school of Goshun met with a favorable reception in western Japan and supplanted the school of Maruyama Okyo after the latter's death. This skillful technique and poetic sense of intimacy have remained the distinctive feature of the style of Kyoto painters until recent years.

Okyo and the painters of his school were not the only exponents of realism. Several other independent artists created a style reflecting in varying degrees the positive outlook of the period, among them the animal painters Mori Sosen (I749--I82I), known even outside Japan for his pictures of monkeys, and Ganku (Kishi Ku, I756--I838), noted for his vigorous style. In all these men we find doctrines of the Kano school combined with the lessons of Okyo and the influence of Shen Nan-p'in.

The art of Ito Jakuchu (I7I6--I800), who preceded Okyo as a realistic painter, calls for special mention. Born in Kyoto of a well--to--do family of grocers, he was able to devote himself exclusively to painting, being quite free of both economic and artistic trammels. At the Sokoku--ji monastery, where he was a welcome visitor, he had the opportunity of studying a number of bird and flower compositions of the Sung and even the Ming period, and their realism must have impressed an artist like him, dissatisfied as he was with the conventional style of the Kano school. Jakuchu is known to have lived in a large house in Nishiki Street, the market district of Kyoto, and this picturesque part of the city no doubt stimulated and developed his taste for real, pa]pable objects, as did the animal and birds he raised in his park­among them a peacock and a parrot, then very rare in Japan, and various kinds of cocks. So he had before his eyes a pageant of nature sufficiently rich for him to dispense with anecdotes and poetic themes. "Many are the painters who paint," he said, "but rare are those who represent living beings." Here was a bolder assertion than those made by Okyo. From I758 to I770 he executed thirty large pictures of flowers, birds and fish, a pictorial essay in natural history, which he presented to the Sokoku--ji (the complete set is now in the Imperial Collections). The great fire that ravaged Kyoto in I788 cost him his house and his fortune; he thereupon retired to a monastery where he pursued his career in peaceful seclusion, aloof from the professional painters. The Cocks and Cactus on the sliding doors of the Saifuku--ji, north of Osaka, is the fruit of his long researches. An acute observer, he succeeded, by means of an exaggerated stylization, in giving these animals an expression of intense vigor and even majesty. (illustration page 189) The contrast of vivid colors is emphasized by a huge cactus, a token of his curiosity about exotic plants. The realism of Jakuchu thus resulted in expressionism, and this trend of his art­very unusual in Japan­accounts for the renewed interest now being taken in this artist, who cuts an isolated figure in the history of Japanese painting

The movement of bunjin--ga (literati painting, called in Chinese wen--jen--hua ), which has been mentioned in passing, also contributed to the enrichment of Japanese painting in the eighteenth century. Originally the term wen--jen--hua did not designate a specific style. In China the work of the professional and academic painters was often overshadowed by that of non--professional painters, of scholars and literary men in particular, owing, to their creative power and freedom of expression, and this in spite of a great diversity of trends, for this art was essentially individualistic. By the end of the Yuan period, however, the literati painters, especially the "Four Great Masters" (Huang Kung--wang, Ni Tsan, Wu Chen and Wang Meng), had evolved a new style of landscape painting, fairly close to that of the early Sung period. Taking their stand on their own experience of nature, these painters broke away from the rigid design and overemphatic expression which characterized the works of the academic painters of the Che school. Mountains are modeled with fine, supple lines instead of rigid brushstrokes and washes of ink or color and the landscapes embrace a broader, more panoramic vision than the "one corner' compositions adopted by Ma Yuan's successors. Theorists called this new style the "Southern School" (Nan--ga in Japanese, Nan-hua in Chinese), in contradistinction to the "Northern School," which designated the traditional academic style of landscape of the Sung and Yuan periods (the latter style was better known in Japan, where it was introduced during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries). Scholars like Shen Chou became famous for their handling of this new technique, which finally came to dominate the painting of the late Ming period (seventeenth century). The theorist Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (I555--I636) and other writers on painting defended and vindicated "literati painting" (wen-jen-hua), which they referred to as the "Southern School" (Nan-hua ). so that these two terms have remained closely linked and are employed in Japan almost interchangeably.

It was not until the early eighteenth century that literati painting (bunjin--ga or Nan--ga ) was introduced into Japan, at a time when Japanese intellectuals were taking an eager interest in the outside world and studying the arts and sciences of China in a less conventional spirit than hitherto. An influx of technical and esthetic works opened their eyes to Chinese culture. After the Eight Albums of Painting (Hasshu Gafu, written in China about I620, published in Japan in I67I), the famous encyclopedia of Nan-ga, entitled Kaishi--en Gaden (Mustard Seed Garden, published in China in I679) became a precious work of reference and a Japanese edition was issued in I748. Meanwhile the arrival of Chinese painters in Nagasaki, of I Fu--chiu in particular (who came several times after I720), contributed to the diffusion of this technique, which was adopted chiefly by amateur literati painters. The first adepts were Gion Nankai (I676--I75I), Saka] Hyakusen (I697--I752) and Yanagisawa Kien (known as Ryu Rikyo, I704--I758), but their works are still close imitations of Chinese models, and it was not until the second half of the century that these were fully assimilated and a new vision of landscape emerged in the work of two artists: Ike--no--Taiga (I723--I776) and Yosa Buson (I7I6--I783).

Taiga, who learned to paint in the Tosa style (and while still a boy allegedly earned a livelihood by painting fans), discovered the literati style of landscape painting in a Chinese album. He learned the technique of this art from Yanagisawa Kien and in I750 paid a visit to Gion Nankai, at Wakayama, who shared the fruit of his experience with him and presented him with an album illustrated by the Chinese master Hsiao Ch'ih--mu. The young artist traveled throughout Japan, studying nature and climbing several mountains, notably Mount Fuji. Other techniques appealed to him, that of the Sotatsu--Korin school and even that of Western painting. By about I760 he was in full possession of his style, drawing the contours of mountains and trees with a free and supple linework all his own. Besides his landscapes in the Chinese manner, he painted a great many views (shinkei ) of actual places in Japan, a practice that saved him from too close an imitation of continental pictures; and even when he represents Chinese figures, he has a highly original way of handling them. The pair of screen paintings on a gold ground in the National Museum, Tokyo, reveal the vigorous art of his maturity (c. I760--I770). On one side, an elegant gathering of hermits around a pavilion; on the other, a vast river landscape stretching away at the foot of a mountain, with a boatful of scholars on their way to the meeting. (illustration page 191) The river bank, the distant mountain and the boats are drawn with the utmost simplicity in jet--black ink, while waves consist of clusters of more flexible lines heightened with touches of blue. Vivid colors, scattered here and there, stand out again. the gold ground and reinforce the composition. Taiga's love of fancy and free invention is seen at its best in this imaginary landscape of Chinese inspiration.

The same constructive power reappears in a great many screens and sliding doors, in which the painter, disregarding the conventional rules of Nan--ga, resorts to a variety of techniques; to broad touches of light--tinted ink he adds tachiste effects by the juxtaposition of dots of color. His works are often accompanied by an arrestingly expressive calligraphy. The untrammeled freedom of his style and his independent way of life made Taiga the central figure of a whole group of artists and amateurs who were alienated by the strictly professional attitude of Okyo and his school.

It was also by means of the Nan--ga technique that Taiga's friend Yosa Buson succeeded in working out a style of his own. A gifted writer of haikai, he retrieved the Basho school from the mannerism into which it had lapsed, and the picturesque and intimate images of his poems reflect the temperament and outlook of a painter. The two albums of Juben Jugi (Ten Advantages and Ten Pleasures of Country Life) in the Kawabata Collection, jointly illustrated by Taiga and Buson, permit a most interesting comparison between the two masters. Buson's interpretation of the poems of the Chinese poet Li Yu, which supply the subject matter of these paintings, is highly ingenious; his brushwork is delicate and his vision clear and lyrical. To our thinking, however, he fails to achieve the creative energy that vitalizes the visual world of Taiga.

Buson also illustrated haikai poems and poetical accounts of travels with drawings remarkable for their freedom of expression, in which the poetic theme is enlivened with spirited and even humorous figures. These haiga (paintings illustrating haikai ) were highly appreciated and imitated by his successors both in poetry and painting.

The Nan--ga movement soon spread throughout Japan. Among Taiga's disciples should be mentioned Noro Kaiseki (I747--I828) at Wakayama, Kuwayama Gyokushu (I746--I799), one of the best theorists of the school, and Satake Hohei (I750--I807) of Shinano province. From the eighteenth century on, each region gave birth to notable artists, among them Kushiro Unsen (I759--I8II), Todoki Baigai (I749--I804), Hirose Taizan (I75I--I8I3), Okada Beisanjin (I744--I820) and his son Hanko (I782--I846 Tanomura Chikuden (I777--I835), Nakabayashi Chikudo (I776--I853) and Yamamoto Baiitsu (I783--I856). The artistic contacts made in the course of their travels through Japan enabled each of these artists to work out a personal style answering to his own temperament. But mannerism was the great pitfall of the Nan--ga technique, which was always apt to become a too exclusively subjective vehicle of expression, lacking form and solid construction. The consciousness of their intellectual superiority and the pride they took in their Chinese culture often had the effect of making the literati painters excessively sophisticated. It should be noted, moreover, that those who practised the Nan -ga style in Japan were not always the scholarly men of leisure that the Chinese literati painters were; the latter belonged to the upper class, they were retired officials or members of powerful families who had withdrawn from public life for political reasons. Neither Taiga nor Buson had a personal fortune or even a small private income; both earned their living by painting, thanks to the patronage of rich merchants.

Among the Japanese literati painters, two other artists are outstanding for their originality and spirit of independence. The first is Uragami Gyokudo (I745--I820) samurai in the service of the lord of Ikeda, in the province of Bizen. A fine musician (he played the koto, the Japanese harp), as well as a painter and calligrapher, he resigned his commission as an officer in I794 to live and meditate on life after his own fancy. He spent the rest of his days as a philosophic wanderer, accompanied by his two sons and with no other baggage but his harp and his paint brushes. When inspiration was upon him, he drank sake, played the koto, and plied his brushes in the throes of artistic exaltation, committing to paper in nimble touches of ink and wash the landscapes glimpsed by the mind's eye. Despite their subjective character, his subtle observation of nature and sensitive response to it give his works a real and satisfying equilibrium; his landscapes are genuine states of mind. The second artist referred to above is Aoki Mokubei (I767--I833), a painter and potter, who produced simplified compositions of flowers and landscapes; his charm lies in his vivacity and the freshness of his colors.

The trend toward mannerism that threatened the Nan--ga style grew increasingly marked among the artists of Edo, whose painting was of a composite character. Tani Buncho (I763--I840), the favorite painter of the military men of the Shogunate, concentrated in Nan--ga the techniques of the Kano, the Tosa, Nan--p'in and even Western painting. He painted an interesting series of realistic landscapes, drawn in perspective with scientific accuracy, which were ordered by a minister for the coastal defense of Tokyo Bay. Watanabe Kazan (I793--I84I) executed not only conventional compositions, but also highly realistic portraits of his friends wholly in accordance with Western ideals. In our opinion, however, the fame he has enjoyed is largely due to his tragic life, which symbolized the misfortunes of this transitional period in Japanese history.

Japan was officially opened to the outside worId in 1858; the restoration of the imperial power took place ten years later, and the reorganization of the country as a modern nation began. The events of the new Meiji era (I868--I9I2) changed the face of Japan at an almost bewildering rhythm during the second half of the nineteenth century. The impact of Western techniques and traditions, so very different from those of Japan, enriched and rejuvenated all forms of Japanese art which, many times in the past, had assimilated foreign influences to the benefit of its own modes of expression. The study of this new phase, however, in which traditional painting evolved toward the forms of contemporary art, lies outside the scope of this book.

In conclusion, it may be of interest to point out an essential element of present--day Japanese art. Since the late nineteenth century a great many painters have introduced and assimilated various aspects of modern Western art, and have done so with a rapidity and an eagerness equal to those of their ancestors. Another school has endeavored to modernize painting by following the traditional methods of the Japanese technique and esthetic. The existence of these two trends might have been expected to split contemporary painting in Japan into two opposite camps. Actually, however, the artists of thc so-called "Western" school, even though they express themselves in the most advanced international style, are steeped in the long art traditions of their country (this is even true of the younger generation of abstract painters), while the artists of the "Japanese" school, which has successfully enriched the native sources of expression, at the same time continually renews itself through contact with the Western esthetic. So in spite of the conventional names of the two schools, the only essential difference between them is one of technique, or rather of the materials employed. Today, in the West, painters are seeking to break free of certain technical and esthetic limitations (those notably of the traditional media, like oil painting) and are looking to the art of the Far East. Differences tend to be effaced by this double rapprochement. Thus, after two thousand years of evolution, Japanese painting stands on the threshold of a new age of artistic creation, with two traditions only waiting to be united. It promises to become a vivid reflection of our century, of an age when East and West together are bringing forth a new art out of the fullness of their respective traditions.

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Bibliography