BackNo.38
FEBRUARY, 1935
Ashikaga-Yoshimitsu and his Collection of Chinese Paintings By Sokuro Wakimoto.
The Portrait of Princess Maeda-Kiku-hime in the Saikyoji Temple By Seizo Irita.
On the Scroll-Painting of Obusuma-Saburo By Jiro Umezu.
Explanation of the Plates.
Ashikaga=Yoshimitsu and his Collecction of Chinese Paintings.
By SOKURO WAKIMOTO.
1.
There are a number of exquisite Chinese pictures of the Sung and Yuan periods, on each of which a square seal consisting of two Chinese characters Ten-Zan is stamped. It is now regarded as certain that this seal was impressed upon the pictures by Ashikaga-Yoshimitsu, the 3rd. Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate, in order to indicate that they were his property. There is in existence another group of old Chinese masters-pieces, each of which bears a square seal with the two chatacters Do-yu. Since Ashikaga-Yoshimitsu used, though only for a short time, the name Do-yu as his buddhist name, we may safely assume that it was he who stamped this seal on certain pictures of his collection.
As to the former seal, it had long been considered to have been used by Ashikaga-Yoshimasa, the 8th. Shogun. The Fuso-Meigaden ascribed it for the first time to Yoshimitsu and stated that the seal was stamped by him on pictures painted by himiself. It was due to Katano-Seison in the years of Meiji that this theory of the Fuso-Meigaden was rectified in that both seals Tenzan and Doyu, were stamped by Yoshimitsu on pictures belonged to him.
2.
Ashikaga-Yoshimitsu was an aesthete and lived an extravagant, epicurean life. A memory of his artistic extravagancy survives in the famous Kinkaku, the golden pavilion in Kyoto, which was filled with valuble art treasures. It was he who sent an official envoy for the first time to the newly established Ming dynasty in 1397. From this year the relation between China and Japan became again intimate, both countries sending envoys. From the Ming government he received many tributes, among which were many Chinese pictures of the Sung and the Yuan periods. Unfortunately we cannot trace what pictures he obtained from China. But so far is known, he did not simply take what the Chinese government offered. It seems that, he expressed to the Chinese government his desire for particular kinds of pictures. The contributor assumes this on the strength of the following passage in the diary of Kisen-Seido, one of Yoahimitsu's friends in the tea ceremony (Onryoken-Nichiroku, March 8, the 2nd. year of Chokyu): We consulted about orders to China; it was decided to ask for the following articles: Brocades decorated in five coloures ornamented with paulownia and lion designs; four pictures suitable for hanging with the Avalokitesvara painted in ink by Mu-ch'i in the middle ; a picture that can be hung between two pictures representing court-ladies by Yueh-Ch'i; a picture for hanging between two pictures representing fowls by Mu-ch'i."
At this time the art of Mu-ch'i was not highly appreciated in China, being criticized as slovenly and lacking in classical beauty. The appreciation of his art in Japan took place quite independently and was not in the least influenced by his bad reputation in China. Mu-ch'i was not the only case. Appreciation of the Sung and Yuan pictures seems to have grown up in Japan quite independently on chinese views. One of the most important pieces of evidence we have is the many master-pieces of Chinese painting stamped either with the Tenzan seal or with the Doyu seal.
3.
As far as can be traced, there were three kinds of Tenzan seals and two kinds of Doyu seals. Of these two especially large ones, one Tenzan and one Doyu, seem to have been stamped only on pictures painted by Yoshimtsu himself. The other tree seals were used for indicating possession. One of them is about 2.4 cm. square and has the two chatacters traversely. It is stamped, for instance, on a picture representing Avalokitesvara by Mu-ch'i in the Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto. (See the three photographs on the right on p.47).
The second one is a square seal measuring 2.7 by 2.6 cm. on which the two characters are chiselled side by side. We find this seal stamped, for instance, on a picture of monkeys by Mu-ch'i in the Daitokuji Temple. Three examples are reproduced in the middle of p.48. The third seal is oblong and carries also the two chatacters. This is stamped only on the famous picture representing a dove on a branch of a peach-tree by Emperor Hui-tsung in the collection of Marquis Inouye (reproduced on Pl. VI.)
Besides these five, there is another square seal which reads Kitayamabumpo-no-in and which also seems to have been used by Yoshimitsu as a sign of possession. This is stamped on a picture called "Autumn moon light at Tung-t'ing" attributed to Yu-chien, which was actually in the collection of the Ashikaga family from the time of Yoshimitsu.
The contributor gives below a list of the pictures which bear one of Yoshimitsu's above mentioned three seals used as an indication of possession. The list shows what kind of Chinese pictures was especially appreciated at that time and how Japanese taste differed from contemporary Chinese taste. It is also interesting in that it recalls Yoshimitsu's aesthetic life.
PAINTER THEME MATERIAL DOYU-SEAL TENZAN-SEAL OBLONG TENZAN-SEAL COLL.
Mu-ch'i Monkeys Ink on silk left,below left,below Daitokuji
Mu-ch'i Avalokitesvara Ink on silk Temple, Kyoto
Mu-ch'i cranes Ink on silk right, below
Mu-ch'i Arhan Ink on silk left, below Baron Iwasaki
Mu-ch'i Lao-tse Ink on silk left, below Mr. Suenobe
Mu-ch'i (at tributed to) Home ward Ink on paper left, below Count Matsudaira
Mu-ch'i (at tributed to) Fisher village Ink on paper left, below Mr. K. Nezu
Mu-ch'i (at tributed to) Evening landscape witha temple Ink on paper left, below Marquis Maeda
Mu-ch'i (at tributed to) Landscape with a group of geese flying Ink on paper left, below Viscount Matsudaira
Mu-ch'i (at tributed to) Snow landscape Ink on paper left, below Mr. S. Suenobu
Mu-ch'i Dragon Ink on silk right, below Viscount Akimoto
Liang-kai Hui-neng tearing a sutra scroll Ink on paper right, below Count Matsudaira
Liang-kai Hui-neng cutting a bamboo Ink on paper left, below Count Sakai
Hui-tsung A dove on a branch of a peach-tree Colour on silk left, below Marquis Inoue
Wu-chun Lie-sa-ho riding on horse-back Ink on paper right, below Marquis Tokugawa
Wu-chun Daruma Ink on paper right, below
Wu-chun A Priest riding on a cow Ink on paper left, below
Chen-Jung Dragon Ink on paper right, above Count Sakai
Chen-Jung Dragon Ink on paper left, above
Hui-tsung, attributed to. Autumnal Landscape Slight colour on silk right, below Konchiin Temple
Hui-tsung, attributed to. Winter Landscape Slight colour on silk left, below
Min-wu-kuan, attributed to. Daruma Ink on paper right, a ittle higher than middle, Mr. R. Isono
Unknown Snow Landscape Slight colour on paper left, below Viscount Gojima
4.
The list is imcomlete and there may be extant other pictures bearing one of the three seals. Moreover, there must have been in his collection many master-pieces which are now lost. We find many Chinese pictures mentioned in old documents as belonging to the Ashikaga family from the time of Yoshimitsu, which no longer exist.
Most of the pictures named in the above list are traceable in the Kisen-Seido's Onryoken Nichiroku and in the inventory of the Shogunate family written by Noami entitled Gyobutsu-Gyoga-Mokuroku in the Imperial Household Museum, Tokyo. The contributor examines these documents on pp. 50-53 of the Japanese text of this article.
The three pictures in the collection of Marquis Tokugawa mentioned in the above list have long been attributed to Wu-chun. It is, however, impossible even to guess why they were ascribed to him, for, as far as is known, there is no Chinese document that reports that he could paint.
The reason for the attribution of the two landscapes in the Konchiin Temple to the Emperor Hui-tsung is also intelligible. It may be pointed out here that both pictures must have been parts of series of four landscapes representing the four seasons, a third part of which seems to exist in the form of a summer landscape in the Kuonji Temple, Yamanashi-ken.
The snow landscape in the Collection of Count Gojima entered at the end of the list, is ordinarily attributed to Yoshimitsu himself. But the contributor takes it to be a Korean picture after having made a critical of its style.
Portrait of Princess Maeda=Kiku=hime.
By SEIZO IRITA.
In Pl.I and X is reproduced the portrait of Princess Kiku-hime, one of the daughters of Maeda-Toshiie, the mighty feudal lord of the province of Kaga in the 16th. century. The princess died at the age of seven in the year of 1584 A.D.. The present pictuer, which belongs to the Saikyoji Temple, Shigaken, seems to have been painted shortly after her death as a memorial and presented to the temple, where she was buried.
The robes in which she is represented are kind which the children of the nobility used to wear daily and which commoners' children wore on special ceremonial occasions in the period in question.
The picture is interesting not only because it is painted in a masterly fashion but also because it helps us to understand the life of children of noble families in those days.
We know of scarecely any old Japanese picture portraying a child. The present picthre is, as far as is known, the oldest example of a Japanese portrait of a child.
On the Scroll=Painting of Obusuma=Saburo.
By JIRO UMEZU.
1.
The contributor once published a study on the scroll-painting Shinmeisho-e Utaawase and fixed its date as being about 1295 A.D.. He now undertakes the study of the scroll-painting of Obusuma-Saburo which has many points in common with the Shinmeisho scroll.
2.
The story told in the text of the scroll is as follows:
Once upon a time two brothers, Yoshimi-Jiro and Obusuma-Saburo, lived in the province of Musashi. Jiro was married a beautiful court-lady and spent a cultivated and luxurious life, while Saburo was married to an ugly woman and devoted his time to making himself skilful in fencing and archery.
One day in autumn Jiro was killed by robbers on his way to Kyoto, leaving his only daughter, a beautiful girl called Jihi helplessly alone. Now the wife of Saburo wanted to have her daughter, who was ugly like her mother, married to Namba-Taro, who had been engaged to Jihi. Therefore she lied to Taro, saying that Jihi had died from the shock of her father's death. Hearing this, Taro was greatly grieved and became a priest. The governor of the province then fell in love with Jihi. Saburo's wife wanted to make to the governor marry her daughter. She recommended her to him. Having seen the ugly girl, the governor came home distressed and out of his longing for Jihi made a poem on her beauty.
The above is all the story contained in the text of the present scroll. But it seems impossible that the story should end in this way. It is therefore very likely that the present scroll is imcomplete and that originally there was a further part, though at present no scroll that might be regarded as such is known. On the other hand, the scroll may never have been finished.
3.
The scroll is 126 cm. long and 29.2 cm. high. It is divided into six sectiones, in each of which the text is first and is then follwed by the illustration.
The first section depicts the luxurious life led in Taro's mansion. The second section shows the house of Obusuma-Saburo, where fencing and archery are being practised. The third illustrates Jiro and his men fighting the robbers. In the fourth section we see Ietsuna, one of Jiro's vassals after the fighting resting by the sea-shore on his way back to his dead master's house. Avalokitesvata appears on the sea casting a flood of light upon Jiro's head, which Ietsuna is holding in his hands. The scene of th fifth section is again Jiro's mansion. Ietsuna hands the head to Jiro's wife. The sixth section represents Saburo's mansion where the governor of the province meets Saburo's ugly daughter for the first time.
This picture of the sixth section seems originally to have belonged to a seventn section, the text of whici has been incorporated in that of the sixth. The sixth section must have been illustrated by another picture now lost.
4.
The scroll is executed in two different styles, the tsukurie or coloured style and the linear style, as in the case of the Shinmeisho scroll, the choisce of style being determined by its suitability for the subject. For instance, the outside of Yoshimi's mansion in the first half of the first section is depicted in the linear style, while in the second half of the same section the luxurious inside of the mansion, with its many beautifully dressed women, is represented in the tsukurie style.
At the beginning of this first section the wall of the estate is seem from the right below to left above, in contradistinction from other scrolls, in which the wall runs from right above to lefr below. Just outside of the gate a man is shown looking inside. This man stimulates our interest and we wish we could know what he looks.
Another remarkable feature of the composition is the way in which in the fourth section the fighting is developed in the ups and downs of the mountain. The complication of the curved lines representing these ups and downs is very effective in emphasizing the confusion of the fighting.
5.
The combination of both the linear and tsukurie styles is one of the characteristics of the scroll-painting of the end of the Kamakura period and the Namboku-cho period. From the vigorousness of execution of this scroll we may assume that it dates from not later than the end of the Kamakura period. But, on the other hand, the calligraphy of the text shows certain characteristics of the Namboku-cho period, and the story itself is of the nature of the so-called Otogi-Zoshi, a style of story which flourished in the Ashikaga period. It is the therefore impossible, merely from a critical study of the style, to arrive at a precise determination of the date of the present scroll If, however, it was really painted by the same painter as the Shinmeisho scroll as many people hold, then an approximate date of the scroll can be givn, as it is certain that the latter was executed about 1925 A.D.
The contributor is of the opinion that the differences existing between the two scroll-paintings are due to the difference in the themes and that the pictures of both scrolls have essentially the same characteristics, so that we might well ascribe both scrolls to the same painter, whose name, however, it has not yet been possible to ascertain.
The most strking difference between the two scrolls in the depiction of the figures. In the Obusuma scroll the faces are executed with very considerable care and attention to detail, while the figures in the other scroll are painted small and simlified. This difference is to be explained as being due to the fact that the former represents a story while the theme of the latter is landscape.
The two scroll resemble each other in many respects. The whole aspect of buildings, as well as the geometrical, red and green decoration of a handrail, which is found in both scrolls, are almost similar. The same birds and the same plants are painted in the same decorative manner in both scrolls.
In regard to the style of drawing, both works show the same characteristics except that in the Obusuma scroll the lines are a little sharper and more elaborate than in the other. This fact seems to indicate that this scroll was painted later after the painter's technique had become more skilled.
As this Shinmeisho scroll dates from about 1295 A.D., 1) the present scroll must have been painted at a later date. But in view of the similarity in composition between the landscape at Uchikoshi-no-hama 1) in the Shinmeisho scroll and the sea-side scene of our scroll, as well as the resemblances between the building of the two scrolls, the contributor assumes that the present scroll must have been painted not many years after 1295, because the painter would presumably not have been loyal to the same composition and the same motive for more than say some ten years.
1) Jiro Umezu, On the scroll-painting Shinmeisho-e Utaawase. The Bijutsu Kenkyu No. 29.
1) Bijutsu Kenkyu, No. 29, Pl. XIII. Reproduced from a later copy.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Pl VI. A Dove on a Branch of a Peach-tree. By the Emperor Hui-tsung (1082-1135 A.D.).
In the collection of Count Saburo Inouye, Tokyo.
Painted in colours on silk.
Size: H. 28.8 cm., W. 26 cm.
This picture, though small in size, is an ideal example of the academic flower-and-bird painting of the Sung dynasty. A single branch of a peach-tree by itself suffices to indicate the sunny golden air of a palace garden in spring. Emperor Hui-tsung was still young when he painted this jewel of Sung painting, which is dated 1107 A.D..
This picture is stamped with a seal which reads Tensui, the penname of the Emperor. THe picture bears another seal Tenzan impressed by Ashikaga-Yoshimitsu as an indication of his possession.
Pl. VII. An Arhan and a Serpent. By Mu-ch'i.
In the collection of Baron Koyata Iwazaki, Tokyo.
Painted in ink on silk.
Size: H. 1064 cm., W. 52.1 cm.
It may safely be assumed that the present picture derives itself from the master-hand of Mu-ch'i, a Chinese genius of the 2nd half of the 13th century, not only because it bears his seal but also because a critical study of its style leads us to attribute it to him.
Though this picture is not traceable in any contemporary record it probably belonged to the collection of Ashikaga-Yoshimitsu, the 3rd Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate, whose seal Tenzan is stamped at the lower, left corner of this picture.
Pls. IV & V. The Four Seasons. Painted by Kaisen (1785-1862 A.D.), Chikudo (1776-1853), Shunkin (1779-1846), and Baiitsu respectively.
Formerly belonged to Marquis Masauji Hachisuka. Tokyo.
Painted in ink with slight colour on silk.
Size of each picture: H. 23.5 cm., W. 31,8 cm.
Of this series the one painted by Shunkin is dated 1835 AD. The other three also may have been executed in the same year. It was in this year that died Tanomura-Chikuden, an eminent artist of the socalled Bunjingwa school (school of literary men's painting), three other prominent painters of the same school Sanyo, Mokubei, and Nantei having passed away between 1832 and 1834 A.D.. The four authors of the present series were left as the representatives of the Bunjingwa school in Kwansai, one of the two art centers of Japan. The oldest was Chikudo who was 60 years old in 1835, while Kaisen, the youngest was 51.
Kaisen painted the spring river-side scene, Chikudo the summer landscape. The autumn evening was depicted by Shunkin, the wintry lnadscape by Baiitsu.
The likeness in composition of the last three shows that their art was already developing those fixed mannerisms which later, after their death, brought the development of Bunjingwa painting to a standstill in Kwansai.
The responsible Digestor: Chisaburoh Yamada, Ph D..