Page 157 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

powerful military ruler of the Provinces of a horizontal handscroll and only later cut ten used as retirement quarters for the
Tajima (now northern Hyógo Prefecture), up and mounted above the painting to aged Zen monks.
Bingo (eastern Hiroshima Prefecture) and make it into a shigajiku. YS The inscribers of this painting were a
Inaba (eastern Tottori Prefecture), and di- tightly knit group of like-minded souls who
rector of the office of military affairs (sam- 84 Plum Blossom Study shared cultural values and spiritual aspira-
urai dokoro) of the Muromachi govern- hanging scroll; ink and color on paper tions with the person for whom the paint-
ment. Tokihiro, like Ouchi Morimi (cat. 85) 119.8 x 35.4 (47 Vs x 137/8) ing was made. They are closely related to
of Suó Province, was closely associated Muromachi period, no later than 1419 each other on more than one level:
with the literary monks of Kyoto who through their clerical ranks and careers
formed a close-knit literary salon under Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo within the Kyoto metropolitan monas-
Yoshimochi's patronage. Two of the in- teries, the shared benefits under the pa-
scriptions were written in the year corres- A stream flows in front of a scholar's study tronage of the shogun Ashikaga
whose doors stand open.
Boxes that may
ponding to 1410, thus dating the painting contain paintings or calligraphy are Yoshimochi (1386-1428), and the fellowship
to no later than that year. formed through their literary activities.
The summer banana tree in the win- stacked in one corner of the room. Two Daishü Shücho's poem reads:
ter snow—first versified by the poet Wang pine trees soar high on the slope in the left
opposite side is a
foreground, and on the
Wei (Chinese, 699-759) is a frequent para- boulder surmounted by a pair of gnarled The green grass growing atop the tiny peak,
is just around the corner.
spring
doxical motif in Chinese poetry. Here it
becomes a melancholy symbol of tran- plum trees. A boy sweeps the ground with Trees, still devoid of leaves, stand amidst the
lingering snow.
sience and an embodiment of ephemeral a long broom in front of the building, and
door
behind it a white wall with an open
phenomena and volatility. This corres- encloses a garden. In the distance a range To wait for plum blossoms is akin to
awaiting elegant guests.
ponds to the way it often is described in
early Buddhist texts. Translations of the of rocky mountains emerges out of the I swept the ground, lit the incense; now I
mist. In the upper section of the painting
should turn to my books.
poetic inscriptions follow. are Chinese poems inscribed by nine
Poem by Yamana Tokihiro (top row, ex- Another poem, the second from the
treme left): prominent Zen scholar monks of Kyoto, right of the second row, is by monk
all contemporaries. Of these Daishü
[The night rain] jolts awake the guest from Shüchó, who brushed his poem on the up- Kengan Genchü (d. 1421), whose inscribed
also appears in cat. 85:
poem
his sleep; restless: he will be up the rest of per left, was the first to die, making 1419,
the night. Though I know well the sounds the year of his death, the latest possible The chilling gale of spring's first day against
of rain, rain hitting banana leaves makes date of the painting. the February sky;
special sounds indeed. A spurious square relief seal stamped Being at the Plum Blossom Study is what I
at the lower right hand corner claims the enjoy most.
Poem, dated to the eighth month of the painting is by Tenshó Shübun (fl. 1420- Getting on in years, I heed little the news of
year corresponding to 1410, by Yang Su c. 1461), the great ink painter of the first coming spring;
(bottom row, second from right): half of the fifteenth century, but it is more Gladly I pass it on to others, letting the
[Title] On visiting monks' quarters at likely by an unknown painter. So famous young take pleasure in it.
[Auspicious] Dragon Mountain was Shúbun that many anonymous works
Finally, monk Gyokuen Bonpó (fl.
[Nanzenji] I add a poem to the painting from the fifteenth century later came to 1420), the painter of orchids, wrote his
Banana tree. be attributed to him. Stylistically, the
painting is reminiscent of Chinese paint- poem at the lower left:
Rain drops on the banana leaves, an ings in the academic tradition known in Ja- The spring wind I waited for came and
autumn eve has deepened. pan during the Muromachi period. The
I maintain decorum, sit properly and listen stately, deliberate forms of the pine trees, went, taking with it the white of my
beard;
to the lofty poems [of my esteemed the rocks delineated by contour lines and Where should I seek pleasure away from this
colleagues.] texture dabs, and the mountains executed world? I must visit the abode of the
Where has the venerable Huiyuan [Chinese in both line and ink washes are some of immortals.
monk-recluse at Mount Lu, 334-416 A.D.] the stylistic features of the Chinese aca- Near the grove of trees crimson blossoms
gone? demic tradition. The architecture of the dapple the branches,
No one mentions him in his poem. study, the landscape imagery, and the tra- Bursting forth all at once, it seems, for me.
Scholar from a foreign country, I cast my ditional uniting of poetry and painting are YS
thoughts [on Huiyuan] far into the all Chinese-inspired.
distance of myriad miles. A scroll such as this, which combines 85 Mountain villa
Poem by monk Seiin Shunjô (second a picture and contemporary inscriptions hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
poem from left of the bottom row): written by its earliest viewers, is called a 8l.8 X 32.0 (32^4 X 125/8)
shigajiku, or "poetry-painting scroll." Muromachi period, no later than 1415
Awakened from a dream I hear many When the subject is a scholar's study, real
sounds of rain against banana leaves; or imagined, as in numerous instances Masaki Art Museum, Osaka
A hall in the autumn night lit by the faint from the early fifteenth century, it is called
light of a solitary lantern—the scene of a shosaizu, or a painting celebrating a A small lakeside pavilion on stilts is par-
purity. study (cats. 86, 91, 85). In this example, the tially obscured by a cluster of rocks, a pair
Oblivious to all, the rain keeps falling on poems not only express the feelings of the of tall pine trees, and some bushes at the
banana leaves' green, unmindful of my viewers toward the study, but also name it lower left. Behind the pavilion a stream
melancholy thought and of the beard that Taikaken (Awaiting Blossom Study; that is, flows into a lake. The rocky mountains in
is white as the frost. the central distance are flanked by pale sil-
Plum Blossom Study). The suffix ken usu-
It is most likely that the painting was ally means an apartment or annex of a resi- houettes of still more distant mountains.
conceived as an independent hanging dential building of a subtemple within a Touches of light blue on the peaks, the wa-
scroll and the inscriptions were written on monastery. These apartments, which were ter, the tiles of the pavilion, the bamboo
provided with shosai, or studies, were of- leaves, and pine needles, as well as the

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