Life Tips & Miscellaneous Travel and History Zen and Life Tips arts and sports read classics Navigation of this blog
Tawaraya Sotatsu
As mentioned in the article “On the Road to Kyoto: Strolling through Kyoto’s Famous Temples and Daitokuji – Dada, Zen, and Ikkyu” the tea ceremony is not simply about drinking tea, but also about designing and promoting all aspects of the tea drinking situation (the shoin-style tea room, paintings and flowers displayed in the tea room, ceramics used for tea, and so on). Hon’ami Koetsu was the original producer of such art.
Hon’ami Koetsu was also famous in the world of calligraphy, and is known as one of the “Three Brushes of the Kan’ei Era.” The “Lotus Underpainting Waka Scroll” was created by Koetsu, who wrote scattered waka poems from the “Hyakunin Isshu,” and the artist who created the bold lotus underpainting using gold and silver mud as the base is Sotatsu Tawaraya.
Tawaraya Sotatsu, an artist of the early Edo period who was a contemporary of Hon’ami Koetsu, revived techniques that had been discontinued since the 12th century in order to create gorgeous decorations on paper used for calligraphy (ryogami), which was popular in that period. Koetsu’s expectations.
In response to Koetsu, Sotatsu established an unprecedented style of calligraphy, using traditional Japanese calligraphy as a starting point, but boldly using boldly different styles of thick and thin, large and small, and dark and light shading, The paintings gradually moved away from the traditional paper decorations that were subordinate to calligraphy, and became a world of paintings that performed together with calligraphy, as seen in the “Tsurushitaiga: 36 Poems of the Poets.
Later, Sotatsu was selected to create sliding door paintings and cedar door paintings for temples, and became the patron of a wealthy merchant in Sakai and a wealthy man in Kyoto, as described in “Kaido yuku Sakai/Kishu Kaido” and painted the famous “Matsutori Byobu” and “Fujin Raijin Byobu”.
Since the establishment of the “one-byobu” (two screens in a pair) format in the Muromachi period, the predominant type of folding screen was the six-paneled folding screen (six panels connected together) often seen in the works of Hasegawa Tohaku and Kano Eitoku, who succeeded Sesshu and were members of the Hasegawa Tohaku and Kano Schools. In contrast, Sotatsu’s unique compositional ability was demonstrated in his Nikkyu Issou, which consists of two nearly square folding screens. In contrast to the six-kyokyobyobu, which favored a horizontal composition, the nikkyokyobyobu required a compact and centripetal composition, and Sotatsu created a tense composition by contrasting the left and right sides of the screens while keeping the outer frame of the screens in mind.
Sotatsu was also influenced by the calligraphy he created with Hon’ami Koetsu, and established a Japanese-inspired style of ink painting. Suiboku-ga is an art form that expresses space, objects, and light in a completely different way than color painting, and it is not merely a matter of using ink as a material. Sotatsu, in this context, transformed suiboku-ga, which had been developed in China, into a Japaneseized version that suited his own sensibilities.
Lotus Pond with Water Fowl” and “Cattle” are representative works of Sotatsu.
W021S000G001
In “Lotus Pond with Birds and Water Fowl,” the shading of the ink depicts the shape of the lotus, the space surrounding the flower, the surface of the water, the light coming in, and the moist atmosphere. The unique “tarashikomi” technique, which utilizes ink oozing to create shadows and a three-dimensional effect, can also be seen throughout the painting.
The “Gyuzu” is inspired by the Ten Oxen, which is said to depict the steps of Zen enlightenment, as described in “Artificial Anencephalon Speaks of Zen and Buddabuddha“. Here, too, Sotatsu’s original techniques such as “tarashikomi,” “carving (leaving a certain portion of the ink in a stripe pattern for three-dimensional expressions such as muscular ridges),” and “subotsukotsu (drawing the shape of an object only on the ink surface, without outlines)” are used, creating a sense of dynamism and presence in the subject by painting only the cow without the background.
Furthermore, a new style of gold and silver painting was developed by applying the techniques and motifs of ink and wash painting. The characteristic of Sotatsu’s gold and silver mud paintings is that they do not use outlines but rather capture the subject as an expanse of “surface,” and although the motif is represented as a silhouette, it never falls into a flat plane. The motifs are represented as silhouettes, but they never fall into a flat plane. This is a seemingly effortless drawing style that does not seem to show any technique, but upon closer inspection, the shapes are accurately captured, and the artist has created a balanced and graceful form without being overly concerned with detailing.
Representative examples are the aforementioned “Tsuru Shitae Waka-kan” and “Shikihana Shitae Waka-kan.
Korin Ogata
The Ogata family, the birthplace of Korin Ogata, was one of the leading kimono merchants in Kyoto under the name of Gankin-ya. Orders for kimono from Tofukumonin, daughter of Hidetada Tokugawa, who became a courtesan of Gozuio-in (Princess Gozuio), led to the prosperity of the Gankin-ya during the reign of Munego Ogata, Korin’s father. However, the privileged business associated with a specific clientele would later trigger the downfall of Gankin-ya.
Korin’s father, who was descended from Hon’ami Koetsu, was a man of many tastes and spent a wealthy childhood with access to a variety of cultures. Later, Korin gradually became economically impoverished, and he was forced to seek a way to support himself and became a painter. He was in his late thirties (1690s: early Edo period).
In his younger days, Korin sometimes painted in the style of the Kano school, but he was more interested in the work of Tawaraya Sotatsu, a predecessor of Korin who was also from Kyoto. Compared to the painting on the right, which is close to the original, the painting on the left has been modified in the Korin style.
The idea of having Hotei play kemari is the highlight of the “Kemari Hotei” (a game of kickball), which is full of the social atmosphere of Kyoto’s upper class society.
One of Korin’s most famous works is “Tsubamezabana (Swallowtail Flowers)” at the Nezu Museum, Tokyo.
This work was produced in Korin’s mid-40s, and although the number of colors is limited, the blue and green swallowtail flowers on the gold background are painted by all the artists. In the ninth section of “Ise Monogatari”, Narihira of Arisela and his companions traveled to the east and stopped at Yatsuhashi in Mikawa Province, and when they saw the swallowtail flowers in full bloom, they composed a poem of longing and wept in memory of the people of the capital. The poem was composed at that time.
Karakoromo kitsutsu kizukare ni shite, i.e., If there is a thing, I will come far away, I have done it many times, and I will think of it.
is a reading of the five characters of kakitsubata at the beginning of the syllabary 57577, and the swallowtail flower is not only a flower and grass, but also a motif that conveys the deep feelings of a noble prince of the dynasty, and this sense of elegance is an important theme of the poem.
The folding screens decorating the room are covered with swallow-tail blossoms and bridges, which give the viewers the feeling of having entered the space of “The Tale of Ise”.
Oten-no-Mon” is a manga that depicts the customs and manners of the Heian period, featuring the character of Uriwara no Gyohei and Sugawara no Michizane, who is enshrined at the Tenmangu shrines throughout Japan, as described in “Kaido yuku Hongo kaiwai” and “Kaido yuku Kanda kaiwai” (Street Guide to the Hongo Area).
The Nezu Museum in Aoyama, Tokyo, where the “Swallowtail and Flower Screens” were placed, is an oasis in the city with a serene atmosphere.
The “plum blossoms” and “waves” that Korin Ogata painted with a strong sense of design are called “Korin plum blossoms” and “Korin waves,” and are used as patterns and crests on crafts and other items, and are said to be the originators of today’s craft designs.
コメント