Page 339 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

I9i Hôitsu was known for his paintings thing to do with his creative methods.
Sakai hoitsu (1761_1828) of flowering plants, and he used pig- Contemporaries report that he rose
Kosode with blossoming plum tree ments to depict the plum tree's blos- early, drank a few cups of sake, then
soms and the dandelions and violets napped at noon. Never "finished" or
Early nineteenth century
portrayed at the hem of the kosode.
Hand-painted ink and pigment A hand-painted artist's seal on the "unfinished," his paintings oscillate
between pure gesture and pure form.
on silk satin
right overlap gusset completes this
7
157.8 x 116.4 (62 Ys x 45 /s) beautiful work of art. SST Although quintessential literati ink
plays, Gyokudó's works rarely appear
National Museum of Japanese History, playful; most display an uncanny
Chiba, Nomura Collection
brooding energy somehow indicative
192 of his alienation from his society.
• Sakai Hóitsu, the second son of the
daimyo of Himeji-han, was born in Uragami Gyokudô (1745 -1820) Gyokudo was a devoted sinophile,
338 Reading the "Book of Changes"
Edo and studied in Kyoto with Kano, in the Cloudy Mountains and his work reveals a familiarity
Maruyama, and literati painters. with techniques of Chinese painting
He spent the last two decades of his Hanging scroll; ink on paper learned from originals. The title of
3
life in seclusion, painting and studying 168.1 x 92.4 (66 Ysx 36 /s) this painting, written in his distinc-
the life and works of Ogata Kórin Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art tive archaic Chinese clerical script,
(1658-1716). also shows his fascination with
• Gyokudó's landscapes use a narrow ancient Chinese culture. He mentions
Hôitsu's revival of Kórin's decorative repertoire of forms, some conven- reading the Book of Changes (Yi Jing),
style can be seen in this beautifully
Chinese
from
the pre-Confucian
painted kosode, probably inspired by tional and others unique to the artist. body of learning known as the "Four
The steeply humped mountains are
Kórin's (see cat. 29). By dripping ink common in Chinese painting, but the Books and Five Classics," while
onto a still-wet painted surface,
Hôitsu gave a three-dimensional effect thrusting, phallus-shaped plateaus enjoying the majesty of nature in
another painting title as well. Perhaps
and curious circular areas of un-
to the trunk and branches of the plum touched white paper are Gyokudó's this was one of the artist's own
tree. Although the subject matter and
own. The range of his brushstrokes favorite activities. MT
techniques of this kosode are consis- includes horizontal oval or elongated
tent with Rinpa paintings, it appears vertical marks for the trees, scribbly
that Hôitsu was very conscious of parallel lines for the outline and tex-
how this composition would look
draped on a human body. When the ture of the mountains, and a scratchy,
searching kind of stroke for various
robe was worn, the trunk of the tree forms. The originality of his work lies
would rise up the body of the wearer
and branch out along the arms. By in his novel combinations of these
as well as in the
elements
explosive
placing the plum tree on the left side energy of his application of ink—
and having it curve to the right, the from the bristly, dry, thin strokes that
artist departed from most late seven-
teenth- and early eighteenth-century define the skeleton of the landscape
to the lush, black, velvety blobs that
kosode designs, including those with
dyed and embroidered standing flesh it out.
tree motifs. Such designs are usually This elaborate landscape, filling
concentrated on the right half of the the space with aggressive forms that
garment. erupt upward, reveals the artist's
episodic working process of super-
imposing layer upon layer of increas-
ingly dense ink, chosen in some
places seemingly by whim or instinct.
Gyokudó's way of life may have some-