Page 202 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

are spread imperiously apart and he is hill topped by sparse trees. In the fifth AD on the tiled walls of a tomb interior. In
shielded by a red umbrella. The burgeon- panel of the right-hand screen the moon Japan the story apparently was known by
ing merchant class, though not completely (or sun?) rises in a darkened sky. In the the eighth century, since it is referred to in
ignored, is of relatively minor importance foreground of the second panel of two a poem in the Man'ydshu anthology. The
in this painting. men under gnarled pine trees discuss a subject was familiar to erudite courtiers of
Almost five thousand figures appear handscroll held by the man on the right. the Heian period, and became a theme for
in this set of screens and, not surprisingly, In the sixth panel, another man with a painters during the Muromachi period. An
the artist has employed a formulaic ap- cane followed by two young attendants early example of a painting of the Seven
proach in drawing their individual fea- walks past a bamboo grove. Sages is the now-lost hanging scroll by Ga-
tures. Nonetheless, their movements are In the left screen two men converse kuó Zókyü (fl. c. 1482-1515). During the
skillfully rendered. Meandering, stylized in front of a stone bridge over a mountain second half of the sixteenth century, art-
gold clouds form a low relief frame around brook. On the other side a twisting tree ex- ists such as Kaihó Yüshó (1533-1615) and
the individual scenes, helping to define tends like a canopy from a huge precipice. Hasegawa Tóhaku (1539-1610) in Kyoto,
each one while simultaneously unifying Beneath the cliff is a rustic retreat with a Keison (dates unknown) in Kamakura, and
them and linking them to Edo Castle, the thatched roof, its finial visible through a Sesson Shúkei (c. 1504-^ 1589) in north-
center from which they radiate. Embed- large, pitted hole in the rock. Inside the eastern Japan began to paint monumental
ded within the gold clouds are roundels hut, two men sitting at a Chinese chess ta- sliding door panels and screens with this
filled with butterflies in low relief, in pairs ble are distracted by a waterfall in the subject.
and singly. As this was a crest used by background. An attendant sits outside the Unkoku Tôgan (cat. 108) painted the
many daimyo during this period, it may hut, his back turned toward the two Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove on slid-
have been an indication of the status of scholars. The artist's square intaglio seal, ing door panels at the Obaiin subtemple of
the patron of these screens. Tdgan, is stamped on the upper outer edge Daitokuji monastery. The dates of these
The date of the screens probably is no of each screen. panels are now thought to be c. 1595-1596.
earlier than 1641, when the Shiba Toshógü The screens represent the Seven At Obaiin the figures are considerably
(the red-roofed building in the upper-right Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a semilegend- more monumental and the landscape set-
corner of the Zôjôji temple complex) was ary group of Chinese scholars (Shan Tao, }i ting eliminated. On the reverse of the
built. The precise dating is still a matter of (or Xi) Kang, Yuan Ji, Wang Kong, Liu Obaiin panels, however, Togan painted a
debate. AMW Ling, Yuan Xian, and Xiang Xiu) who peri- panoramic landscape that is stylistically
odically retreated from the mundane more developed than the landscape in the
world to the seclusion of a bamboo grove Eisei Bunko screens. Here the figures are
119 Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove during the political and military tumult of situated in a carefully depicted landscape
Unkoku Togan (1547-1618) the mid-third century. There the sages setting, and the rocks and tree forms are
pair of six-fold screens; ink and slight freely pursued a life of réclusion, drinking crisply contoured and given texture dabs
color on paper wine, listening to qin (Chinese zither), and in an orderly manner. The artist is self-
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each 156.3 x 359.6 (oí /* x iqi /*) holding qing tan ("pure talk," that is, philo- consciously formulizing the brushwork
Momoyama period, late i6th century sophical discussions). They also danced, modes that originated in the works of Ses-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo sang, and disported themelves as the spirit shü Tóyó (1420-1506). It may be assumed
moved them. The idea of the gentleman- that Tôgan executed these screens earlier
A mountain landscape setting links this scholar retreating to the wild to enjoy a than the Obaiin sliding door panels. YS
pair of screens of seven Chinese scholars respite from Confucian decorum and the
engaged in a variety of activities. In the constraints of duty, and then returning to
right screen an empty valley separates the duty, refreshed in spirit, formed an almost
foreground terrain from a distant rocky archetypal theme in Chinese art. It had
appeared as early as the mid-fifth century

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