Page 58 - Sotheby's London Fine Japanese Art Nov. 2019

M A RU YAM A ŌK YO (1733–95)
BETWEEN TR A DITION AND INNOVATION

The emergence of modern painting in jects from the established tradition of from large, established temples in and
Japan that incorporated both empiri- Japanese painting and sketched from around Kyoto were also providing a
cal realism and artistic creativity began life but finished his works with slight new market for painters in search of
to flourish with the Kyoto-based art- visual adjustments to shape the artist’s unorthodox visuality. It was this social-
ist Maruyama Ōkyo. Like many of his creative vision. cultural context and the new influx of
contemporaries, such as Itō Jakuchū Ōkyo’s affinity for such advanced material from the Western world that
(1716–1800), Maruyama Ōkyo was cultural phenomena was nurtured dur- converged to facilitate Ōkyo’s success
trained in the rich tradition of the ing his mid-teens. Born to a family of as an artist.
Kano school. However, unlike in the farmers in present-day Kameoka in the This innovative approach to repre-
traditional approach of practicing and Kyoto prefecture in 1733, Ōkyo appren- sentation has remained the ideological
copying works of past masters using ticed at the prestigious toy merchant cornerstone for numerous Nihon-ga
funpon (copybooks), Ōkyo developed an Owari-ya Kanbei that sold and made painters in the Meiji period (1868–
unorthodox method of shashei [sketch- high-quality traditional gosho-ningyō 1912). Interestingly, the modernization
ing from life]. [palace dolls] and furnished them, of Japanese painting had in fact begun
Following the partial relaxation among others, to the women’s quar- prior to the influx of Western culture
of the ban of Western books, which ters of the Imperial Place. The store during the nineteenth century.
occurred under the eighth shōgun further exposed Ōkyo to lenses, mir-
Yoshimune (1684 –1751), a rapid stream rors and other rare, “exotic” items such 1. Sasaki Johei and Sasaki Masako, Maruyama Okyo kenkyu zurokuhen
(Study of Maruyama Okyo, illustration volume), (Tokyo, 1996), p. 504.
of Western scientific texts entered as megane-e images for a mechanized 2. See Oka Midori, Maruyama-Shijo: Poetic Symbolism in Naturalistic
Japan. Kyoto emerged as a vigorous hub device called nozoki karakuri or gorakuba- Painting, in The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-
Bender Collection in John T Carpenter, “The poetry of nature: Edo
for scientific knowledge within the intel- ko [zorascope, a type of stereopticon paintings from the Fishbein-Bender collection”, (New York, 2018),
p.145.
lectual and cultural community. Inspired fitted with a lens and mirror], which 3. Both Zograscope (perspective box) and camera obsecura were in-
by this forward-looking environment, exaggerates depth perception in archi- troduced to Japan in the 1640s but unlike camera obsecura zorascope
became a part of an every-day entertainment and was cherished as
Ōkyo began to sketch natural and tectural scenes. (see Fig. 1) During this nozoki-karakuri [perspective box] or goraku-bako [amusement box] on
the street from the 18 th and 19 th century in Japan. Further see: Itagaki
urban landscapes based on his direct time, he may have developed an interest Shunichi, Edo-ki shikaku bunka no sozo to rekishiteki tenkai: nozoki-
observations, thereby incorporating his in three-dimensional pictorial represen- megane to nozoki-karakuri, (Tokyo, 2012).
4. See Oka Midori, Maruyama-Shijo: Poetic Symbolism in Naturalistic
knowledge of anatomy and the calcula- tation through the visual properties of a Painting, in The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-
tion of perspective into these pictorial nozoki-karakuri [zograscope]. Bender Collection in John T Carpenter, “The poetry of nature: Edo paint-
ings from the Fishbein-Bender collection”, (New York, 2018), p.144.
landscapes. He developed a clean, fresh His employer at the store, Nakajima
new painting style called shashei-ga Kanbei recognized Ōkyo’s artistic talent
[sketching from life] that was later char- and sent him to study painting under
acterized as Maruyama-ha [Maruyama Ishida Yūtei (1721–1786), a member
school]. of the Tsruzawa branch of the Kano
Although Ōkyo believed that sketch- school. Furthermore, Ōkyo’s connection
ing from life was a necessity, his finished with Owari-ya also provided him with
paintings were never solely the product access to a wide network of cultural
of shasei [sketching from life] apriori. patronage. Following his apprenticeship,
For example, despite the vivid visual Ōkyo was employed by the Buddhist
effect of Ōkyo’s tiger paintings, the art- abbess Renchiin of the Hokyoji temple
ist had never actually seen a living tiger, (also known as the Dodo Gosho) and
as the animal had yet to be imported to then by the Imperial prince-abbot Yūjō
Japan. As the art historian Oka Midori (1723-73) of the Enman’in temple, which
states “Ōkyo instead combined meticulous allowed the artist to gain entry into
sketches of tiger pelts with careful studies of a select group of painters and crafts-
the movements and postures of cats.” The men that received patronage of the
artist was known to have kept small ani- Imperial family. The Mitsui family was Fig. 1 Suzuki Harunobu (1725–1770)
mals in his atelier so that he could draw Ōkyo’s most powerful financial source of Nozoki-karakuri [A Teenage Boy and Girl with a Viewer
them, and used a telescope to observe patronage. The rise of wealthy patrons for an Optique], ca. 1788
the motion of animals. Ōkyo took sub- from the thriving merchant class and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1946
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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