Page 25 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings May 27, 2019 Hong Kong

particular value on Southern Song court painters Ma Yuan painter, calligrapher and seal carver Nagao Uzan (1864-1942);
(1160-1225) and Xia Gui (fl.1195-1224), and their Ming and Chinese epigraphy scholar resident in Japan Luo Zhenyu
dynasty stylistic inheritors in the Zhe school. (1866-1940). Naito Torajiro advocated an ideal that ‘East Asian
Artefacts should be preserved in East Asia’, inspiring many
During the Edo period (17th-19th century) the influx
major businessmen, politicians and scholars of the period to
of Chinese painting and calligraphy declined sharply, as
begin forming collections of Chinese paintings and calligraphy.
restrictions were placed on the movement of people in
Yamamoto Tejiro, who was launching his political career in
and out of Japan. However, in the early Edo period many
Tokyo at that time, was one such collector.
Chinese monks from the Obaku Zen sect resettled in Japan,
providing a continued point of contact with Chinese art
A title board for Yamamoto’s Chokaido collection, The Hall of
and culture.
Clear Thought, written by Weng Tonghe (1830-1904) hung in
the entrance hall of Yamamoto Teijiro’s residence, in Tokyo’s
Japan’s modern phase of collecting spanned the late Meiji,
Meguro district. The name for this collection came from the
Taisho, and early Showa periods (late 19th to early 20th
biography of Zong Bing (375-443), as recorded in the Song Shu
century). In China, this was a time of great upheaval. This
(the history of the Liu Song dynasty of the Southern Dynasties,
protracted period of turmoil led to widespread economic
instability, forcing Qing imperial family members, princely compiled in 492-493). In this text Zong Bing is quoted as
households, and former imperial officials to sell their stating: “Only by observing the way with clear thoughts can
collections. Many of these works found their way out of one roam while reclining at leisure”. This quote came from
China, and the majority of those pieces that left the country Zong’s writings on the theory and appreciation of landscape
were preserved in Japan. In this modern peak of collecting, painting. In Zong’s view, clarifying and cleansing one’s thoughts
collectors sought to fill the substantial gaps in Japan’s and emotions, free of all blemishes, allows one to roam among
historic holdings. They sought to provide the Japanese the mountains and streams of a painting. Zong saw this mental
people with an holistic appreciation of China’s extensive travel as equivalent to climbing these peaks in reality.
artistic accomplishments.

As the economic hub of the
Kansai region, Osaka became
the primary gateway for Chinese
painting and calligraphy entering
Japan in this period. Harada
Shozaemon (1855-1938), the
founder of the Hakubundo book
dealership, began a business
importing Chinese painting and
calligraphy to Japan with the
support of Inukai Tsuyoshi (1855-
1942). Harada’s business relied
on consultations and appraisals
provided by several significant
cultural figures: Kyoto Imperial
University Historian Naito Torajiro
(1866-1934); Japanese Sinologist,
Chokaido Archive
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