Page 362 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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206 • Ganku's origins are obscure — Although we know relatively little
Tanaka Mori... according to some accounts, he about the sitter and virtually nothing
[signature indecipherable] was the son of either a kimono maker about the sculptor, by good fortune
Seated Portrait of Ganku or a retainer of a daimyo in the Hoku- a painted self-portrait of Ganku also
riku region — yet his career attests survives. In it he wears court robes
1839 and hat, as here, but the painted
Wood to an upward mobility clearly at odds
Height 98 (38s/s) with the Tokugawa conception of the image presents a very different phys-
his forehead
iognomy and expression:
Shinjó'in, Kyoto fixed nature of society. This memorial
statue, executed in 1839, the year is lower, his cheekbones protruding,
after Ganku died, attests to his final his mouth petulant, and his intense
identity as a member of the imperial expression betraying a strong person-
court. He wears the formal hat and ality. This funerary sculpture, how-
robes that mark that class. At the ever, represents the idealized realism
same time, we know that he was, and mildness of expression appropri-
in effect, a thoroughly professional ate to an image used in memorial
painter. rituals for an important person. MT