著者

塩谷 純

雑誌

美術研究 = The bijutsu kenkiu : the journal of art studies

巻号頁・発行日

no.399, pp.37-45, 2010-01-07

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This article is part II of the “Study of Kawabata Gyokusho” (part I) published in The Bijutsu Kenkyû no. 392. This section presents the third chapter of the paper, considering the Gyokuşhô's study of Chinese painting up until the Meiji 20s. In the critical 1911 biography of Kawabata Gyokushô, published in Gyokusho's late years, Gyokushô commented on the necessity for Chinese painting study. From the Meiji period onwards, the arts of Japan deepened their connections with the west, while its previously deep connections with China weakened. Thus our fascination today with Gyokushô's seemingly old-fashioned pronouncement. A look at Gyokusho's work reveals that his teacher was the Shijô school painter Nakajima Raishố, and he also attended lectures by the literati painter Oda Kaisen on Chinese painting theory, particularly Zhang Geng's Guozhao Huanzhenglu and Shen Zongqian's Jiezhou Xuehua Bian. In terms of his works, iconography in the Melon and Squirrel (1882) published in the Gyokushô Gafu (published 1912), clearly reveals that it was copied from the Shen Nanpin work Birds, Flowers and Animals, in the collection of the Mitsui family, his patrons. The detailed handling in two bird and flower paintings, namely Rooster and Cherry Blossoms (pl. VII) and Grapes and Squirrels (pl. VIII), both in the Tokyo University of the Arts collection, was obviously indebted to Nanpin styles, given that Shen Nanpin was greatly admired during the Meiji 20s when these works were created. Further, Gyokushô was exposed to various works that conveyed the painting style of Chinese Academic painters. An article in the academic journal Kokka introduced works by the Southern Song dynasty painter Li Di and the Ming dynasty painter Tang Yin that were in Gyokushô's collection. The pair of six panel screens, Taoliyuan and Duleyuan, exhibited by Gyokushô in the 4th Domestic Industrial Exposition held in Meiji 28 (1895), were clearly based on Taoliyuan and Jinguyuan works by Qui Ying in the Chion in collection. The Toy Vendor entered by Gyokushô in the Chicago Columbian Exposition in Meiji 26 (1893), was clearly a Japanese genre painting interpretation of the Knickknack Peddlers by Lu Wenyin, then in the collection of the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkô, where Gyokushô himself was working. Thus, to summarize the contact between Gyokushô up to the Meiji 20s and Chinese painting by Shen Nanpin and academic lineage painters, mention must be made of the importance of Chinese painting study for Maruyama Okyo the founder of the Maruyama school in which Gyokushô worked. Gyokushô followed in Okyo's footsteps in his study of Chinese painting, and he also gave some new character to Maruyama school painting that had the tendency to easily lapse into light, vulgarly everyday modes. Further, by the Meiji 20s, the plagiarism seen in the Taoliyuan and Jingiyuan works was seen as nothing more than iconographic borrowing. However, from the Meiji 30s onwards, Gyokushô began to paint large numbers of literati style landscapes. His change and the deepening of his study of such works will be discussed further in chapter 5 of this work.

著者

塩谷 純

雑誌

美術研究 = The bijutsu kenkiu : the journal of art studies

巻号頁・発行日

no.404, pp.37-52, 2011-08-30