BackNo.92
AUGUST 1939
STUDY ON PORTRAITS OF HIDEYOSHI TOYOTOMI
BY SHIN-ICHI TANI
Generally speaking, portrait-painting in Japan flourished most in the Muromachi period. This does not mean, however, that the portraits produced at that time were high in artistic quality but that their number was great. Many portraits were painted not only of distinguished persons but also a large number were done of common people of virious classes of society. According to this author's study, a certain priest of Zen sect was portrayed more than seventy times and the portraits of a Muromachi Shogun reached several scores during twenty years after his death. Generally portraits of such prominent people are produced in larger number after their death.
In the case of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, however, the number of his portraits is not so great as compared to those of distinguished people of the Muromichi period. That is because portrait-painting had already passed its zenith by his time and also that Iyeyasu Tokugawa, great rival of Hideyoshi, gained the sovereignty soon after Hideyoshi's death and put to an end the popular veneratioh of Hideyoshi. However, the few portraits of him produced during this limited period are artistically excellent and interesting for study.
The number of his portraits which the writer of this article knows to exist is eighteen and through records a few more are known to have existed. But he imagines that there are still more unknown works besides these. Among these works ten pieces are artistically valuable and most of them were painted by order of Daimyo to commemorate their lord Hideyoshi after his death. Most of them have inscriptions written by notable Zen-priests of the time.
From the pictorial composition, these portraits can be divided into several groups, but the commonest form is that of a person, wearing the starched robe and a kind of Chinese ceremonial cap, sittinhg on an elevated straw-mat. As background for the figure screens are usually placed. In front of the person can be seen a part of the open corridor and low railing. And above the figure hang half-drawn curtains or half-folded bambooblinds. Such a setting gives an austere atmosphere and we feel as if we are received in audience by Generalissimo Hideyoshi who sits majestically behind the curtains. To give dignity to the portraits various kinds of background were devised by painters, especially in the portraits of the Emperors, but such a complicated and effective one as this we have never seen in other works. On this point the portraits of Hideyoshi are noticeable. Regarding costume such a stiff, ceremonial robe is traditional in portraits of lords, but in Hideyoshi's portraits what strikes us as remarkable is the unusual smallness of the head, hands, and feet as compared to the body. This may also be connsidered an artistic device to give dignity and austerity to the portrait. The most typical work of the kind is the one in the collection of Kodaiji Temple. As a work closely similar to it the writer here represents on Pl. IV the portrait of Count Date's collection. Most of the other Hideyoshi portraits were painted after the Kodaiji portrait. (PortraIt of Hideyoshi in the collection lot Saikyoji Temple, contained in the Bijutsu Kenkyu No. LX, is one of these examples).
The writer introduces here two more portraits of Hideyoshi which are worthy of notice. One is the portrait in the collection of Hokoku Shrine in Osaka and the other is the one owned by Mr. Ichizo Kobayashi. In the first portrait the costume is the same as that of Kodaiji's but the person sits, in this case, on a chair with a long vermilion sword placed beside it. Such composition is rarely found in the portraits of lords, though there are many examples in those of Zen-priests. This portrait must have been painted on some special occasion. Hideyori, Hideyoshi's little son, wrote the signature on the upper space, and beside it is stuck a draft of a short poem written by Hideyoshi himself.
The second is interesting as the painter's sketch of the person. It is not drawn on one piece of paper but on two pasted together: part of the bust is redrawn on another piece of paper, which is fixed to the main part of the body of the original sheet. This technique called Kamigata by Japanese artists has often been used in portrait-painting. (The illustration on page.7 is a detail of Kobayashi,s portrait and the illustrations on page 9 and 11 are other examples of so-called Kamigata.) Interresting to say, a short remark about the features of the subject of the portrait explaining how this sketch resembles the person is written on the lower part of the portrait. (See the illustration on page 8.) It is still a question whether this Kamigata was sketched during the person's lifetime or not. The costume in this one is different from that of Kodaiji's.
Further the writer makes detailed comparisons among these works and discusses the question of how the hero really looked. He also mentions the attributes of these portraits but he does not discuss them in this article.
EDOARDO CHIOSSONE AND HIS WORKS IN JAPAN (PART II)
BY KENJIRO KUMAMOTO
After his retirement from the Printing House in July of the twenty-fourth year of Meiji'(1891 A.D.) Edoardo Chiossone began to collect masterpieces of Japanese art. Meanwhile he finished in 1893 the portrait in steel-plate of the Emperor Meiji in military uniform and many other portraits of the members of the Imperial family and of great personages of the time. On the eleventh of April in 1898 he breathed his last in, Tokyo at the age of sixty-six. On the fourteenth of April he was buried in Aoyama Cemetery, Tokyo. (The illustration ,No. 2 on page 15 shows his tombstone.)
By his will a part of his property was contributed to Kojimachi Ward where his residence in Tokyo was and his collections of Japanese art were all bequeathed to his Alma Mater, Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti.
The writer of this article gives considerable informationl concerning his works produced in Japan and reproduces some of them in the plates.
The first group of his work is portraits painted with crayon. Portraits of Toshimichi Okubo (No. 2 on Pl. VI in the Bijutsu Kenkyu No. XCI) and of Tsugumichi Saigo (No. 1 on Pl. VII in the B.K. No. XCI) are the earliest works produced in 1876. The former is considered to be his best work. The latter differs from other portraits in its background representing the gun and the sea which were painted in this portrait to commemorate Saigo's naval expedition to Formosa. The portrait No. 1 on Pl. VII in the B.K No. XCI is of the famous hero Takamori Saigo, produced in 1883 after his death. There being left no photograph of the person, the artist made great effort to catch the likeness. In sketching the features of the person he consulted the remaining relatives of Takamori. All later portraits of this national hero were modelled on this unique work. The portrait No. 2 on Pl. VII in the B.K. No. XCI is of Ryosuke Tokuno who was the principal of the Printing House and was the constant friend-patron of Chiossone while he was in Japan. This drawing was made in 1883 just two months before the death of the person. The portrait of Prince Sanetomi Sanjo (No. 1 on Pl. IV) was a work made in 1889 when Sanjo was at the height of his political power. The portraits on Pl. X are of General Oyama add of his wife Lady Oyama: the former was painted commemorating his triumphal return from the Japan China War, and the latter was produced at about the same time. As a work of the same time we have the portrait of Lieutenant-general Soroku Kawakami (No. 2 on Pl. nX). The complicated expression of the person is well caught in the drawing. In all these works of the first group we are impressed by the masterful but very careful use of crayon.
The second group is of portraits in copper-plate. No. 1 on Pl. VIII in the B.K No. XCI is the same portrait of Toshimichi Okubo in mezzotint. With it he introduced this technique for the first time to Japan. Portraits of prince Sanetomi Sanjo (No. 2, Pl. VIII in the B. K. No. XCI), of Koin Kido (No. 4, Pl. VIII in the B. K. No. XCI), and of Tomomi Iwakura (No. 3, Pl. VIII in the B. K. No. XCI) are all in Steel-plate produced during the years 1880-1889. Portraits of Pls. F. von Siebold (the illustration No. 4 on page 19) and that of Wm. C. Ralston (the illustration No. 3 on page 18) are specimens of his lithograph. They were produced in 1875, the year in which he came to Japan, and the following year.
The third group is prints of bank notes etc. issued by the Printing House. Explanations of them have already been given in the summary of the Journal No. XCL.
In addition "Madonna Consolatrix Afflictorum" and "Panne e Lacrime" are illustrated on page 21. They are masterpieses of Chiossone in his younger days when he was in Italy.
In Chiossone's collection of Japanese art which was bequeathed to Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti are represented Japanese paintings of various schools as well as Japanese and Chinese sculptures and other works of applied arts. Many Japanese works now scattered among museums in Europe are said to have come from his collection.
Thus Chiossone's contributions to the development of Japanese art after the country was opened to Western civilization are really wide and great. Indeed, he may be called the "father of the art of printing in western style in Japan," developing many notable printers who later became famous in various departments of prinnting both Governmental and private.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES
Pls. I (Colour), II & III "Flowers," by Yun Nan-t'ien.
Colour on paper. Album.
Height: (each) 27.6 cm.; width: 43.0 cm.
Collection of Mr. Kojiro Abe, Hyogo.
Yun Nan-t'ien is a famous painter of late Ming and early Gh'ing Dynasties. Stimulated by the masterful landscape of Wang Shih-ku, his great contemporary, he devoted himself to the painting of flowers and birds, following the style of Hsu Ch'ung-ssu of the North-Sung Dynasty, and at last mastered the technique called "Mokkotsu," which is to paint things without first drawing their contours in outlines. His fame reached even Japan and many painters of the Bunjinga school followed his style in flower-and-bird paintings. Among them Chinzan is very famous.
This album of Yun Nan-t'ien's works was owned by the famous Chinese collector, Lien Nan-hu till some years ago. At the end of the album we find an interesting inscription by Kao Feng-han, a prominent painter of Ch'ing Dynasty, who expresses his great admiration for the collection. The album consists of twelve paintings in which the flowers of the four seasons ate painted. "Peony" (Pl. II) on the first leaf, "Damson-plum" (Pl. I) on the third leaf, and "Magnolia and Heath-Rose" (Pl. III) on the fourth leaf are contained in this number.
Pl. IV "Portrait of Hideyoshi Toyotomi."
Colour on silk. Kakemono.
Height: 131.9 cm.; width: 103.6 cm.
Collection of Marquis Muneaki Date, Tokyo.
(See the article by S. Tani.)
Pls. V & XI "Hermit Looking up at the Moon."
Slight colour on silk Kakemdno.
Height: 57.4 cm.; width: 26.7 cm.
Collection of Marquis Chosei Kuroda, Tokyo.
Lofty cliff, huge rocks, and burly roots of a pine-tree all painted in one corner leave a vast space in the picture. At the bottom of this wide space a hermit is sitting and looking up at the moon through the spreading branches of the pine-tree above him. Everything is put in one corner in order to show the greatest possible expanse of the sky. Indeed, such a composition could only be produced by a great painter such as Ma Yuan of South-Sung school. Though his signature is not on the picture nor is there any record to prove it to be his work, yet we recognize this landscape as one of his masterpieces. The brushwork perfectly reveals his genius. It is noticeable that the present piece, describing the serenity of the night, is drawn with brushes softer than those used for his usual style of work.
Pls. VI & XII "Amitabha."
Wooden statue.
Height: 140 cm.
Collection of Nenbutsuji Temple, Mie.
According to the legend that Sakya-muni was sixteen shaku tall, many Buddha statues are produced either sixteen shaku high as he was or eight shaku which is one half of his height. The present Amitabha statue is carved in a sitting pesition so that his height measures eight shaku when standing.
In spite of its very common type of position, still we are impressed by the splendid proportions, the smoothly flowing garments, and the merciful features of the face. The downcast double eyelids and the drooping mouth give something lonely to the expression, which hightens the compassionate feeling. The statue must have been produced by some unknown follower of Jocho who flourished during the Fujiwara period. The shallow-carved garments and large curls of the hair, however, indicate that the date of its production does not go so far back. We find a similar technique in the Amitabha statue of Butsudoji Temple near this Nenbutsuji, on which there is clearly written the date, the second year of Shoan (1172 A.D.). Therefore we may conclude that the present work belongs to the period between the end of the Fujiwara and the beginning of the Kamakura era.
Pl. VII "Portrait of Hideyoshi Toyotomi."
Colour on paper. Kakemono.
Height: 92.5 cm.; width: 44.5 cm.
Collection of Hokoku Shrine, Osaka.
(See the article by S. Tani.)
Pl. VIII "Portrait of Hideyoshi Toyotomi."
Colour on paper. Kakemono.
Height: 53.9 cm.; width: 60.0 cm.
Collection of Mr. Ichizo Kobayashi, Tokyo.
(See the article by S. Tani.)
Pl. IX (1) "Portrait of Prince Sanetomi Sanjo," by Chiossone (Italian 1832-1898).
Crayon on paper.
Height: 60 cm.; width: 49 cm.
Collection of Prince Kinteru Sanjo, Tokyo.
(2) "Portrait of Lieutenant-General Soroku Kawakami," by the same artist.
Crayon on paper.
Height: 51.4 cm.; width: 39.5 cm.
Collection of Mr. Shin-ichiro Nishimura, Tokyo.
Pl. X (1) "Portrait of General lwao Oyama," by the same artist.
Crayon on paper.
Height: 54.5 cm.; width: 425 cm.
Collection of Prince Kashiwa Oyama, Tokyo.
(2) "Portrait of Princess Oyama," by the same artist.
Crayon on paper.
Height: 54.0 cm.; width: 425 cm.
Collection of Prince Kashiwa Oyama, Tokyo.
(Pl. IX-X)--See the article by K. Kumamoto.