Page 354 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

200 It is said that he captured monkeys manner cultivated by the scholar-
Mori Sosen (1747 -1821) so that he could paint them from life, gentleman of the period. It is classi-
Monkeys in a Persimmon Tree and indeed he has "captured" the fied as such primarily because of the
macaque's characteristic amber fur Chinese landscape setting of lofty
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk and the scarlet skin around the peaks, the overall subdued tonality,
127x54(50x2174)
Tôyama Memorial Museum, Saitama animal's callous buttock pads with and the diversity of expressive brush-
a degree of verisimilitude that is stroke types. Moreover, it is signed
201 almost disconcerting. "Sha Chóin," the artist name he used
in his literati mode.
Mori Sosen (1747 -1821) Sosen's paintings almost invariably
Monkeys by a Water/all focus on the familial nature of mon- In the spirit of the Chinese literati
key groups. In Monkeys in a Persimmon masters, Buson employed his own
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk Tree he depicts a mother macaque, impressive arsenal of brushstrokes to
127x54(50x2174) baby clinging to her breast, stretching describe varieties of foliage, to texture 353
Tôyama Memorial Museum, Saitama
upward for some bright ripe persim- land forms in dry markings, and to
mons, while the stately pater familias convey atmospheric effects of mist
• The native macaque has been a
sedately savors the fruits of her labors and light. We are presented here with
favored theme in Japanese art since below. In Monkeys by a Water/all, Sosen a vision of a landscape of sweeping
its appearance on tomb sculpture in presents two monkeys next to a water- grandeur, where space is commu-
the protohistoric period. In addition fall in the characteristic pose of nicated through a combination of
to being one of the twelve Chinese
grooming each other. The delicacy of diminishing scale, steadily receding
zodiacal animals, monkeys were the animals' fur, and the abbreviated diagonal shorelines, and swaths of
venerated as Shinto tutelary deities but naturalistic handling of the land- mist that obscure the silhouettes of
(see cat. 136) and as traditional pro-
— particularly the
tectors of horses. Wild monkey tribes scape elements of the rocks and trees distant peaks in ink washes. Only a
few figures appear in rustic hermi-
inky treatment
were distributed from Kyushu to and the green moss dots — point tages or elsewhere in the landscape.
northern Honshu.
to the artist's knowledge of Nagasaki- The image resonates with the literati
No Japanese artist, it would seem, was school painting. MT ideal of solitary retirement in a
as devoted to monkeys as was Mori breathtaking natural environment.
Sosen. Not only were they the most The colophon states that the artist
frequent single subject in his oeuvre, 202 created the work in his "Blue Cloud
Sosen went as far as to substitute Yosa Buson (1716-1783) Cavern" studio in 1763, during what
one of the characters in his name, the Landscape was a highly productive decade for
so meaning "ancestor," with another Dated 1764 him. MM
so, which means "monkey." He even, Pair of six-panel screens; ink and
it is said, claimed the monkey as his light color on silk
ancestor, which is surprising because 7
he was born in the year of the rabbit. Each 176.5 x 378 (6972 x 148 /s)
Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo
Sosen, who began his training under Important Cultural Property
a Kano-school master, turned to the
realistic manner of Maruyama Ôkyo, • Now considered one of Japan's
most likely in order to portray his greatest literati painters, Yosa Buson
simian subjects all the more vividly.
was better known and more highly
regarded in the Edo period as a poet.
He appears to have taught himself
painting, and he worked in a variety
of styles and formats available to the
mid-eighteenth-century artist. The
present pair of landscape screens is
in Buson's literati style, a self-con-
sciously free and highly calligraphic