Page 312 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Ike Taiga (1723-1776) Yosa Buson (1716-1783)
True View of Kojima Bay Portrait o/Basho

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk Third quarter of eighteenth century
99.7x37.6(3974x143/4) Hanging scroll; ink and light color
The Hosomi Art Foundation, Osaka on silk
5
98.2 x 32 (38 /sx 12 Vs)
• Like Wondrous Scenery o/Mutsu Itsuo Art Museum, Osaka
(cat. 164), True View of Kojima Bay sub-
jectively commemorates a scene from Illustrated page 274
the artist's travels: a hilly prospect • Yosa Buson painted several por-
over an inlet in Okayama Prefecture
looking across the Inland Sea to the traits of the great haikai master, 3 1 1
Matsuo Bashó (1644-1694). In this
island of Shikoku, visible in the dis- scroll Buson depicts Bashô as an
tance. The two travelers on the path,
one clad in a pink Chinese robe and elderly man, even though the poet fifty.
relatively early age of
died at the
the other in a blue one, have been The master is shown wearing his
fancifully identified as Taiga and his
characteristic travel hat, a monk's
friend Kan Tenju (d. 1795), with whom
robe, and — a witty touch — a belt
he made the trip. Lending credence bearing tiny banana leaves, for
to the assertion is the fact that the Bashó's name means "banana plant."
scroll remained in the possession of
Tenju's family after his death. It is To impart an air of dignity to the
accompanied by a document from great poet, Buson depicted him in the
Tenju's cousin and an authentication manner that he used for Chinese
by Taiga's fifth-generation successor, worthies, a style derived from acade-
Taigadó Teiryó (1839-1910). mic painting of the Ming dynasty.
The subject is painted so close to the
True View of Kojima Bay, painted dur- surface that the left side of his body
ing Taiga's maturity, shows the artist appears to be stepping out of the
in full command of his technique. The picture. With its simple, strong out-
nonabsorbent silk traps layer upon lines, the portrait is simultaneously
layer of ink on its surface, the strokes dignified and dynamic and would
sometimes running together in a blur, have been appropriate for memorial
sometimes standing out as series of services or ceremonies honoring
staccato oval dots, sometimes parting Bashó. At upper left Buson inscribed
to reveal the bare ground of the sup- a seventeen-syllable poem and pre-
port. These dots, recalling the man- face written by Bashó the year before
ner of the eleventh-century Chinese he died. The poem reads:
scholar-painter Mi Fu, invest the
painting with the flavor of the antique, Neither speak ill of others,
as does the composition of distant nor well of yourself.
hills seen over nearer ones. At the The moment you open
same time, the painting would have Your mouth to speak
seemed wholly "modern" to eigh- The autumn wind stirs
teenth-century eyes: the touches of And chills your lips.
ocher suggesting sunlight and the (Yuasa 1979, 49)
choppy waves implying wind give Buson took the name Yahantei in
True View of Kojima Bay the immediacy 1770, so the signature Yahantei Buson
of a plein-air scene. MT
indicates that this picture dates
from after that time. MT

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