著者

綿田 稔

出版者

国立文化財機構東京文化財研究所

雑誌

美術研究 (ISSN:00219088)

巻号頁・発行日

no.407, pp.34-50,PL1-2, 2012-09

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4. Interactions with Hishida Shunsô As indicated in the earlier section of this study, published in Bijutsu Kenkyû 404, Akimoto Shatei, a brewer in Nagareyama, Chiba prefecture, was a patron of Hishida Shunsô during the artist's later years. Shunsô's major works, Fallen Leaves (1909, Eisei-Bunko Museum) and Black Cat (1910, Eisei-Bunko Museum) were both in Shatei's personal collection. Toya Banzan, a pupil of Terasaki Kôgyô and secretary of the Bijutsu Kenseikai group supported by Shatei, is thought to have been the person who introduced Shatei to Shunsô. Banzan's memoirs state that he took Shatei to Izura in the spring of 1908 and there introduced him to Shunsô and Yokoyama Taikan. Letters handed down to Shatei's descendants confirm that Shatei visited Izura during that period. However, it was also around that time that Shunsô was suffering from eye disease and was forced to temporarily stop painting. According to Banzan's memoirs, Shatei had visited Shunsô intending to commission a painting, but when he learned that Shunsô was ill he instead arranged to pay for his living expenses for a year. Shunsô's Landscape in Autumn (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art), formerly in Shatei's collection, is probably a painting that Shunsô created for Shatei around the autumn of 1908, once his eyes had healed. The following autumn of 1909, Shunsô entered his work Fallen Leaves in the 3rd Bunten Exhibition (Art Exhibition of the Ministry of Education) after which it entered Shatei's collection. According to Banzan's memoirs of Banzan and the collector Hosokawa Moritatsu, it seems that Shatei had already made up his mind to acquire the painting by the time of the invitation-only, first viewing day of the exhibition. Shunsô's Landscape of the Four Seasons (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), painted around the same time, also found its way into Shatei's collection. The painting's exhibition history cannot be confirmed and there is still some need for investigation regarding the production period of this handscroll, but if the Landscape of the Four Seasons, which was of a large scale suited to exhibition entry, was created solely for Shatei's personal enjoyment, then it would speak of the strong and deep connection between Shunsô and Shatei. Black Cat, which was Shunsô's last entry in a Bunten exhibition, was also a work that Shatei had decided to acquire even prior to its exhibition. The interactions between Shunsô and Shatei were not simply a case of paintings being produced and procured. Around the autumn of 1910, when Shatei acquired Black Cat, Shunsô created a painting primer for Shatei's daughter Matsuko. Shunsô expressed his understanding of painting methods in a letter he wrote to Shatei about Matsuko's study from the primer. That letter simply spells out a list of guiding principles for her study of brush stroke methods and painting study, and even though it is intended for a beginning student, the letter does provide a rare expression of beginning painting study methods espoused by Shunsô, who did not himself take any pupils throughout his lifetime. However, it was around this time that Shunsô fell ill again, and died the following year, on September 16, 1911. Talk of a Shunsô memorial exhibition arose immediately after his death, and Shatei's name was linked to those of Okakura Tenshin, Yokoyama Taikan and others as one of the originators of the idea. Shatei provided financial support for the exhibition when it was held in the following spring of 1912. Shunsô's ashes were divided between his hometown of Iida and Tokyo, and it was Shatei who paid for Shunsô's gravestone in Tokyo.