Page 163 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

88 Sugawara Michizane in his deified the robe from the Chinese master. To tained their own diplomatic relations with
form as Tenjin crossing to Song China prove it Tenjin, holding a plum branch, China and Korea. The economically and
Sesshü Tóyó (1420-1506) showed Enni a Zen pilgrim's satchel, say- culturally affluent city of Yamaguchi came
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk ing it contained the robe. The Tenjin im- to be called "Little Kyoto." In 1467 Sesshü
112.3 X 56.5 (441/4 X 22^4) age based on this story is known as Toíó [or traveled to Ming China_with a trade mis-
Muromachi period, 1501 Toso] Tenjin (Tenjin crossing to Tang [or sion dispatched by the Ouchi family. The
Song] China. The association of Tenjin trip, which lasted until 1469, took Sesshü
Okayama Prefectural Art Museum
with China probably owes much to the from the port city of Ningbo to Beijing, af-
A lightly bearded man clad in a Chinese Zen monks' penchant for Chinese poetry, fording numerous opportunities to see not
scholar's robe is seated on the trunk of a especially their familiarity with Su only China's scenic spots, but also many
gnarled pine tree. The tree rises diagonally Dongpo's (1036-1101) poem 'The flight of paintings, some of which he copied. Ses-
from a flat, uncluttered terrain. Pine and the plum blossoms." Many portraits of shü's direct knowledge of the paintings of
plum branches echo the contours of the Tenjin as a scholar, dressed in Chinese contemporary Ming artists unknown in Ja-
man's upper body. He faces toward blos- robes and wearing a cap, carrying a monk's pan set him apart from other Japanese art-
soming plum branches, which twist and satchel and holding a plum branch, were ists of the Muromachi period.
turn and seem about to embrace him. The painted and inscribed by poet monks of After returning to Japan in 1469,
figure looms large against the bare back- the early Muromachi period. Most of the Sesshü led a peripatetic existence, moving
ground. At the lower right is an inscrip- extant Tenjin portraits show a figure between Suó, Bungo (today's Oita Prefec-
tion, Gyônen hachijùni sai Sesshü hitsu standing upright against a neutral back- ture), and Kyoto, as well as traveling to
[Brushed by Sesshü, current age eighty- ground, like a religious icon. In Sesshü's central and northern Japan. In 1486, he
two], followed by the artist's square relief painting, the informally posed Tenjin has was back in Suó where he executed the
seal, Tóyó. The painting was executed in the satchel at waist level (mostly concealed Landscape of the Four Seasons, a master-
1501 by the foremost ink painter of the sec- by his sleeves) on a shoulder strap, but piece in a style that translates the Chinese
ond half of the fifteenth century, Sesshü does not hold the plum branch. Instead he academic style of Xia Gui in a dynamic
Tóyó. looks at the plum tree, which, along with and expressive manner. In 1495 Sesshu
The figure in the painting is Tenjin the pine tree, is a part of a credible natural made a painting in the "broken ink" or ha-
(Heavenly God), the Japanese courtier and space. boku style of the Chinese painter Yujian of
scholar Sugawara Michizane (845-903) The style of the painting is remark- the Southern Song Dynasty, which he
who was deified soon after his tragic death ably close to that of Sesshü's famous pair gave to his pupil Josui Sóen (dates un-
in exile at Dazaifu in northern Kyushu. A of screens of birds and flowers (cat. 96). known) as certification of his having mas-
victim of trumped-up political charges, The crisp, dynamic lines that define tered the style. In or shortly after 1501 he
Michizane was stripped of his high gov- forms, the twisting and turning of the painted a view of Amanohashidate, an im-
ernment rank and deprived of the civilized branches, and the convincing spatial portant scenic spot on the Japan Sea coast,
life he enjoyed as a talented poet in the depth find readily recognizable counter- in a naturalistic style different from his
capital. Before his departure from Kyoto, parts in the monumental screens. previous works. Sesshü died either at Ma-
Michizane composed a poem to a plum The painter Sesshü Tóyó was born in suda in Iwami Province (part of present-
tree in his garden, reminding it not to for- Bitchü Province (part of today's Okayama day Shimane Prefecture) in 1502 or at
get the arrival of spring after he was gone; Prefecture). Very little is known about Ses- Unkokuan in Yamaguchi in 1506, the latter
the plum tree followed Michizane, flying shü's early years. He was a student monk possibility being more widely accepted.
all the way to Dazaifu. The plum blossom at Hófukuji in Bitchü and went to the This Tenjin painting of 1501 is one of Ses-
motif became associated with Michizane, Shókokuji monastery in Kyoto while he shü's late works, painted at age eighty-two.
who came to be revered as the god of was still young. Around 1451, at age thirty- Sesshü left many disciples. His style
plum blossoms. He also was worshipped as two, Sesshü formally became a disciple of spread widely in Japan to Kamakura in the
the god of scholarship, calligraphy, and po- the monk Shunrin Shütó (d. 1463) and east and Satsuma (the western part of to-
etry, especially of renga (linked verse). By eventually became the shika (monk who day's Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu) to
the thirteenth century, Tenjin joined the screens guests seeking interviews with the the south. Among the later followers who
ranks of the Buddhist pantheon; he was abbot) of the monastery. It is assumed that closely emulated Sesshü's art was Unkoku
believed to be a reincarnation of Bodhi- at Shókokuji he studied under the painter Tógan (1547-1618), a warrior's son in the
sattva Kannon (C: Guanyin). Tenshó Shübun (fl. c. i42o-c. 1461), who service of the Mori, the militant daimyo
Although the Tenjin cult essentially was the Controller of the monastery, and family of Aki Province (part of today's
was a tradition rooted in Japan's courtly whom Sesshü later acknowledged as his Hiroshima Prefecture) who overthrew
culture, in time it was absorbed by the mentor. the Ouchi and took control of the Suó
sinophile culture of the Zen monastic es- By the midióos, Sesshü left for territory. YS
tablishment. By the end of the fourteenth Yamaguchi in Suó Province (part of
century a fantastic story circulated among present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture), and 89 "Huang Zhuping" after Liang Kai
the Zen monks in Japan about Tenjin, in established his studio. Sesshü's move to Sesshü Tóyó (1420-1506)
which he appeared in a dream of the Suó is indicative of the tendency of artists hanging scroll; ink on paper
monk Enni Ben'en (Shóichi Kokushi, "Na- and poets in the late fifteenth century, a 30.2 X 30.6 (ll7/8 X 12 /6)
1
tional Master Shóichi," 1202-1280), found- time of civil disturbance, to move away Muromachi period, late i5th century
ing abbot of the Tófukuji monastery who from metropolitan centers such as Kyoto
had just returned from China. Tenjin to the provinces in search of reliable Kyoto National Museum
asked the monk to suggest a teacher from sources of patronage. The Suó region was Important Cultural Property
whom he could receive instruction in Zen then under the control of the powerful Sesshü Tóyó, an important artistic person-
and be given a robe as certification. Enni Ouchi daimyo family, whose control ex- ality of the Muromachi period, made
told Tenjin that he should go to his own tended as far west as northern Kyushu and copies of Chinese paintings from the Song
teacher, the Chinese Zen master Wuzhun occasionally east to central Japan. More and Yuan periods after he returned from a
Shifan at Jingshan. Subsequently, Tenjin important, the Ouchi, exceeding the journey to China between 1467 and 1469.
again appeared in Enni's dream and said power of the Ashikaga bakufu, controlled The intent was to supplement his recent
he had indeed received instruction and the lucrative China trade and even main-

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