Page 161 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

Whispers of pine trees may lure you on, but
don't let leisure turn into lethargy.
[signed] Chôkonsô (an alternative liter-
ary sobriquet of Jikuun) Tdren invites those
who aspire to retire by his clumsy verse. The
end of the second year ofChdroku (1458).
The five inscriptions, written at dif-
ferent times over the span of a quarter of a
century, function differently from those of
early fifteenth-century shosaizu (cats. 84,
85) where laudatory poems were written
during a gathering of many like-minded
poet-monks. The inscriptions on this work
form a collection of individual poems,
each a personal response to the scroll and
to the idea of the hermitic practice.
Tôren's poem seems to contain a measure
of irony about the futility of such retire-
ment. Such sentiment reflects a new atti-
tude of reservation toward the practice.
Occurring at the same time, in the mid-
fifteenth century, was the diminution of
patronage of the literary gatherings at Zen
temples, which had been championed by
such men as Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi
(1386-1428), and a corresponding increase
in the bureaucratic nature of the activities
of the temples.
Stylistically, the painting exhibits
some unusual features. The choppy brush-
strokes, each showing marked thinning 89
and thickening, suggest a stylistic model
different from that which is assumed to
have been behind earlier shigajiku exam-
ples. The model may have been a Chinese men, presumably a host and his guest, earthquake of 1923. The name Sekiyô, un-
painting or a Korean work done in the Li converse inside; one of them turns his usual for a painter, is not recorded in con-
Cheng (ciQ-QOyJ-Guo Xi (c. 1020-1090) tra- head to catch a view of the lake. A moun- temporary sources, but two other works
dition. The rocks in the foreground, the tain with spindly trees along its ridges rises with this seal are cited in the nineteenth-
pine trees, and the mountain above are beyond the hut. Behind the mountain's century reference Koga bikd, under the
rendered by contour lines that consist of a left shoulder stands a solitary distant peak. artist Soga Dasoku. Stylistically the Sekiyô
series of twisting brushstrokes that reveal A square relief seal that reads Sekiyd or paintings are comparable to the land-
the choppy, nervous movement of the Akabae (Red Fly), the seal of a painter of scapes on a set of eight large sliding door
hand. Along with monochromatic ink the Soga school, is stamped at the lower panels (fusuma) in the abbot's hdjd (living
washes, reddish browns and blue-greens left hand corner of the painting. quarters) of the Shinjuan, a subtemple of
have been extensively used, though much The painting shares expressive char- the Daitokuji monastery in Kyoto. Built in
of the original pigment has been lost. YS acteristics with the Daruma portrait by 1491 to commemorate a Zen monk of
Bokkei Saiyo (cat. 81), another Soga school Daitokuji, Ikkyü Sójun (1394-1481), the
87 Landscape painter. Dramatic contrasts of ink tones Shinjuan contains three sets of sliding
attributed to Soga Sójó (fl. after c. 1491) and the abstract rendering of the rock and door panels installed in three rooms repre-
hanging scroll; ink on paper tree forms distinguish this painting. The senting Birds and Flowers in a Landscape
00.2 X 29.5 (233/4 X 115/8) jagged rocks are made up of angular forms Setting, Landscapes of the Four Seasons,
rendered by the blunt tip of the brush. and Landscape, all traditionally attributed
Muromachi period, late i5th century The abstract shading and texturing of the to a certain Dasoku. The set Landscapes of
Fujii Akira Collection, Tokyo rocks, as well as the twisting and turning the Four Seasons is stylistically close to the
A large rock surmounted by three bamboo zigzag shapes of the branches and trunks Sekiyô paintings. The third set, Landscape,
trees tilts sharply to the right in the middle of the pine trees, are far removed from the has been reattributed to Soga Sôjô in re-
of the foreground at the water's edge. Be- restrained forms seen in the contempla- cent years. Scholars in Japan all agree on
tween it and a rocky precipice to the left tive landscape paintings from the first half the dates of the Shinjuan panels and ac-
topped with two low pine trees are a path, of the fifteenth century (cats. 84, 85, 86). tive years of Soga Sôjô. But uncertainty
a brushwood fence, and a gate with Two other ink landscapes carrying the continues about the identity of Dasoku,
thatched roof. Behind the foreground seal Sekiyd, now in the collection of the whether more than one painter bore this
rock, spits of land bordered by water Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern name, his/their dates, whether Soga Da-
plants extend into the lake, where an Art, depict autumn and winter landscapes. soku and Soga Sôjô were the same person,
empty boat is moored. Behind the boul- These originally belonged to a set of four the identity of the artist who used the seal
der, steps ascend the mountainside, where paintings on the theme of the Four Sea- Sekiyd, his dates, and whether he was the
a thatched hut on stilts is situated. Two sons, but the spring and summer land- same person as Soga Dasoku and/or Soga
scapes were destroyed in the Tokyo Sôjô. YS

148