Page 170 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

hawk is rendered in reserve, by saturating Hawks were favored by warrior-class Painting) as a painter who emulated the
the background of the paper with gray ink. painters for their fierceness and fearless- brush method of Shübun and who showed
Except for the wing and the tail sections, ness. A hawk overtaking its prey was an consummate skill in painting hawks. The
the bird's plumage is described in a pale apt symbol for the martially trained mem- hawk was a popular subject among the
tone of ink, with careful attention given to bers of a warrior family. This painting, Toki painters ever since the family's fifth-
the feather patterns. At the right, on the however, is unique, as it combines the im- generation head, Yoritada (d. 1397) first
white part of the branch, is the signature age of the heroic white hawk and the painted one. The Toki family was particu-
Mino no kami, Tomikage hitsu (Brushed by white plum blossoms. The plum blossoms, larly well known for its family tradition of
Tomikage, Constable of Mino Province), particularly those rendered in mono- falconry. The prominent Zen monk of
followed by the square relief seal Toraz- chrome ink, were, in the Confucian tradi- Shókokuji, Keijo Shürin (1444-1518), who
kage. tions in China and Japan, symbols of the inscribed a long eulogy for the commemo-
Hawk images and scenes of falconry high-minded purity and integrity of the rative painting of a tethered horse (see
were painted in Japan as early as the four- ideal scholar; they represented the spirit of cat. 82), composed a eulogy for a now-lost
teenth century. During the Muromachi cultivated men. Thus this painting unifies hawk painting in which he specifically
period, Chinese paintings of hawks were the traditions of bun (cultivation of arts) praises the Toki family's pursuit of the art
avidly collected by the Japanese; for exam- and bu (martial prowess). of falconry:
ple, contemporary documents record a no- Tomikage, or Fukei, was a member of
table group in the Ashikaga shogunal the recalcitrant Toki family of warriors, Constable Lord Toki loved hawks all
collection in Kyoto. Although the Chinese who vied with the central power of the his life. His family preserved a [special]
paintings probably were made by Ming dy- Ashikaga government through their pre- method of hawk-keeping which always
nasty painters, in Japan they were associ- eminent control over Mino Province (to- worked. [According to it] falconers of Japan
ated with earlier Chinese painters day's Gifu Prefecture in central Japan). should put a hawk in a cage only after it is
renowned for their hawk paintings, such Various members of the Toki family held fed a female pheasant captured in its east-
as the artistic Emperor Hui Zong (1082- the position of constable (shugo) from the ward flight on the eighth day of the fourth
1135) of the Northern Song dynasty, whose middle of the fourteenth century through month. Earlier, Lord [Toki] acquired a fabu-
paintings of birds were noted for their de- the middle of the sixteenth century, when lous hawk which he loved very much. One
day
he was about to go hunting with the
tailed realism. In Japan, hawks were the eleventh-generation head, Yoriyoshi
painted on large screens and sliding door (or Raigei; d. 1583), was driven out of the bird perched on his arm when a female
panels as well as on smaller hanging territory by one of his vassals, terminating pheasant was seen over the garden. It flew
scrolls. Each format required a different the family hegemony over the territory. in circles and descended to the ground. Lord
[Toki] ordered
Ta-
the
a certain Sadayasu of
type of depiction, and each was executed The Toki family members were astute war-
a dog and go after
to fetch
the
in a variety of mediums—ink, color, or ink riors as well as cultivated advocates of po- jimi family Sadayasu caught it with no less
pheasant.
and color together: a hawk in the wilder- etry and arts. Tobun (active 15205), Yoritaka
ness going after a pheasant; a hawk teth- (dates unknown), and Yoriyoshi are some bravery than that of [the hero] Zz Lu [of
antiquity]. Then the pheasant was
China's
ered to a perch (a vestige of falconry of the other known artistic personalities of
practiced among the warriors); or a hawk the Toki clan. The Toki family genealogy, fed to the hawk. Sure enough, that was the
perched freely on a tree branch. Tomi- however, does not record Tomikage, eighth day of the fourth month. So pleased
kage's hawk belongs to this third type. though he is cited in the seventeenth- was Lord [Toki] that he asked a painter to
century Honchdgashi (History of Japanese
157