Page 10 - Bonhams Royal Collection Fine Japanese Art London Nov. 2019

Zeshin Redux

A story from the Noh theatre, painstakingly executed masterpieces by this genius who melds time-honored
in bold emulation of Western history painting, using the facets of traditional culture with the experimentalist spirit
sap of the lacquer tree; a dramatically composed Shōki of late-nineteenth-century Japanese globalism. For senior
the Demon-queller in pursuit of his quarry; Shōki again, collector fans of Zeshin, his charms speak for themselves
this time in miniature on the cover of a medicine case; and warrant no further explanation, but newcomers may
a delicate album of eleven tiny seasonal subjects; want to know a little more about his upbringing and the
a full-size pair of painted six-panel screens depicting history of his times. He was born in 1807 in Edo (present-
Jō and Uba—Japan’s exemplars of marital fidelity and day Tokyo), the shogun’s headquarters and one of the
harmony; a genre scene realised in the novel technique world’s most thriving population centres, with more than
of lacquer sap applied to paper with brush; a shrivelled a million inhabitants. He was brought up at the heart of
chilli pepper wrapped around the edge of a sword-fitting; the city’s hand-manufacturing sector, which serviced the
a full moon spread across the side and lid of a food needs of the samurai elite and an increasingly affluent
container; a couple of gingko nuts and leaves at the end merchant class. When Zeshin reached the age of 11 his
of a tea-brown scabbard . . . father, a maker of tobacco-pouches, sent him to train
with a famous lacquerer, in whose workshop he toiled for
Bonhams is privileged indeed to have been given this five years to master the vast range of techniques—from
opportunity to showcase once again the protean genius preparation of the wood core through the application of
of Shibata Zeshin through a group of richly contrasted metal foils, flakes, and powders to the final meticulous
works—some offered before in these Rooms, others on polishing—that were required to make the best-quality
view here for the very first time—that cover the full gamut boxes, trays, cups, and medicine cases executed in
of his subversive artistic vision and unrivalled technical maki-e (‘sprinkled painting’). For many lacquerers of the
skills, in both lacquer and ink. Zeshin has captivated time this workshop education would have been enough
Europeans and Americans ever since he first—according but Zeshin, on his own initiative, spent a further nine
to the diary of his son Shinsai—met the British designer years studying painting in Edo and then, at the age of
Christopher Dresser in Tokyo in January 1877; later, 24, travelled to Kyoto, the old imperial capital, where
Dresser made Zeshin a gift of oil paints and brushes. he immersed himself not just in brushwork but also in
Appreciation has come slower in Japan, but Zeshin’s classical poetry, the tea ceremony, and other arts. This
stock rose during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s largely broad and thorough grounding in traditional culture,
thanks to a series of publications by the tireless scholar backed up by further trips later in his career, accounts not
and curator Gōke Tadaomi: Zeshin finally achieved much just for the vast range of pictorial references in Zeshin’s
wider recognition in 2012 thanks to a major exhibition of work but also for some naturalistic aspects of his style,
work—drawn from Japanese collections and featuring absorbed from painters of the Maruyama-Shijō school,
many long-hidden gems—that was held at the renovated whose founders had sought to marry Japanese brush
Nezu Museum, one of Tokyo’s most prestigious public techniques with Western techniques of representation.
art spaces.
Zeshin’s dual backgrounds—as both lacquerer and
16 works illustrated on the following pages were included painter, as both Edo townsman and devotee of the
in the Nezu exhibition and Bonhams is delighted to classical, courtly culture of Kyoto—account for some of
have been given this opportunity to offer them at his ambiguous charm, but other aspects of his artistic
auction in London, inspiring a new generation to enjoy personality deserve special mention. Clients with an

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