Page 302 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799)
Mount Fuji and Cranes
Hanging scroll; light color on silk
3
3
157x70.5 (61 Ax27 A)
Private Collection, Okayama
• It is difficult to understand how a
painter of Nagasawa Rosetsu's eccen-
tricity could have survived in the
studio of the sober Maruyama Ôkyo
(cat. 190), but Rosetsu thrived. He 301
mastered Ôkyo's realistic manner, but
placed it in the service of the surreal,
as evidenced in this unique vision of
Japan's most famous mountain.
Rosetsu's command of his naturalistic
techniques is evident in the strongly
plastic modeling of the mountain
(especially its summit), and particu-
larly in the masterly blurring of wet
ink to suggest swift-moving storm
clouds. Yet the oddly oversized cranes,
flying in platoon formation, and the
perverse elongation of Fuji's contours
counter the realism achieved by the
brushwork and render the image
somewhat unnerving. The combina-
tion of the mountain with cranes and
rising sun invests the image with
overtones of the legendary Chinese
Isles of the Immortals, Penglai
(Japanese: Horai).Thus the painting
would have been considered an aus-
picious image, appropriate for the
New Year or other special occasions.

Rosetsu's charmed and highly suc-
cessful career was brought to a sud-
den end with his death at age forty-
five. It has been suggested that he
was poisoned. Something of the eerie
quality of his biography is lodged in
this picture. MT

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