Page 306 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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screens), executed in expensive empiricism of his day. All of these
matte-green mineral pigments (gunjó modes may be seen operating harmo-
and byokuroku), stand for the myriad niously in this work: the ink brush-
mountains of this sacred place, while strokes texturizing the trunks of the
torn bits of reflective gold foil and trees betray Shikó's Kano training;
finely ground particles of gold "sand" the puddled ink technique on the
suggest its luminous spring mists. hills reveals the influence of Kórin;
and the naturalistic treatment of the
Watanabe Shikó, a well-connected blossoms may derive from his interest
member of Kyoto's courtier and in contemporary studies of natural
Confucian circles, experimented with history. These screens are thought
several styles of painting. It is said to date from the period of Shikó's
that he received his initial training in transition from Kano to Rinpa paint-
the academic Kano school, which ing around the beginning of the
advocated the use of Chinese-style
brushwork; he was then attracted to eighteenth century. MT
the classical revival mode of Ogata
Kôrin (1658-1716). In addition,
he reflects the expanding spirit of