Page 323 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

rocks around which the water eddies into the
calm foreground stream. There is no middle
ground, but a moderate to faint wash suggests
mountains dotted with vegetation in the far
distance. To delineate the figure Josetsu used
sharp, angular, crackling brush strokes, clearly
influenced by the art of the Chinese master
Liang Kai (act. early 12th c.), whose works were
already to be found in the shogunal collection
begun by Yoshimitsu (r. 1368-1394). The asym-
metric "one-corner" composition recalls the late
Southern Song landscapes of Ma Yuan (act.
before H9O-C. 1230) and Xia Gui (c. n8o-c.
1220), also represented among the shogun's
holdings. The bamboo quite resembles Ma
Yuan's painting of bamboo, notably in two sea-
sonal landscapes, Spring and Summer, respec-
tively in the Cleveland Museum of Art and the
Yamato Bunkakan, Nara.
Shusu's first poem is preceded by his preface:
"... the Taisoko [shogun] had the monk Josetsu
paint this theme in the new style [ital. added]
on the small single-leaf screen which stands
beside him and has asked various monks to add
some spontaneous comments.... "
The key phrase "the new style" has been fig. 5. Xia Gui (c. n8o-c. 1220). Clear and Distant Views of Streams and Hills. Chinese. Handscroll;
variously interpreted: most specifically by ink on silk. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Matsushita as "the Liang Kai manner"; by Fon-
tein and Hickman as "a landscape setting [incor-
porated] into a zenkiga [painting of Zen
activities]"; more obviously, and for once more Josetsu of Shokoku-ji, who enjoyed shogunal personification of what earlier scholars
plausibly, as the monochrome ink style freshly patronage, dominated Japanese painting. described as "Ashikaga Idealism," is a creative
known to the Japanese from China and Korea. Although his following has been called an synthesis of Southern Song (1127-1279) land-
Almost certainly Josetsu knew Liang Kai's two "academy," it was far less formally organized, scape style and a North Chinese continuation of
paintings in Yoshimitsu's Kitayama collection but the prestige of the temple and of the shogun earlier landscape style transmitted through an
representing Chan monks attaining Enlighten- assured the dominance of the Shokoku-ji lineage active school of ink monochrome artists in
ment, one chopping bamboo, the other tearing in the fifteenth century over the more tradi- Korea.
up a holy text (sutra). But he also knew other tional professionals following the artist-monk Shubun visited Korea in 1423-1424 as a
works in that collection and many more Mincho (1352-1431) of the older temple member of a diplomatic mission whose roster
imported from China and Korea and available at Tofuku-ji. These latter masters worked in both included merchants and Zen monks. A Korean
temples and sub-imperial collections. the figural iconic modes inherited from the painter named Yi Sumun (J: Ri Shubun, act. in
Travel and commerce between these two Chinese professional religious painters of Japan after 1424) arrived in Japan at the same
mainland countries and the island empire had Ningbo in Zhejiang Province and in the "new time, perhaps sailing with Shubun on his
increased steadily after a hiatus from the tenth manner," including some ink monochrome return. His work in the pair of landscape
to the twelfth century and by 1400 had reached landscapes. screens in the Cleveland Museum of Art (cat.
a critical level for the transmission of Zen Tensho Shubun (act. first half of 15 th cen- 267) reveals elements of the Korean adaptation
Buddhism, the importation of works of art tury) succeeded Josetsu as painter to the of Chinese styles. The rather bare, dry land-
(especially painting and ceramics), and the shogun. He was also the business manager of scape grounds are characteristic of works
travel of Japanese monk-artists. Yoshimitsu in Shokoku-ji, and is recorded to have done paint- painted in North China under the Jin dynasty
particular had expanded contacts with the ings on sliding screens (fusuma-e) and to have (1115-1234), as is the nervous, searching, "pic-
Chinese Ming court; as for Korea, the coopera- collaborated in the making of some religious torial" brushwork used to represent foliage and
tion of the new Choson (Yi) dynasty (1392- sculptures. No landscape — or, indeed, painting shrubbery. The reaching, preternaturally
1910) with the Japanese So clan, lords of Tsu- of any kind —is firmly assigned to Shubun by extended trees and the use of plateaus or "plat-
shima, in suppressing the activities of pirates either signature or unassailable seal; but some forms" to suggest recession from fore- to
(wako) and fostering legitimate trade had two to six scrolls and screens are considered middle ground are common devices of the Ma-
greatly increased monastic travel in both direc- likely to be his. One of the two most likely is Xia school of Southern Song China. The nerv-
tions as well as the exchange of religious texts Suishoku Ranko (Color of Stream and Hue of ous "sketching" brushwork was particularly
and appurtenances, thereby also increasing Mountain), painted circa 1445 by the evidence used by the Koreans in landscapes of the early
artistic interaction. of an inscription —one of three written by other Choson dynasty, from the fourteenth well into
At the beginning of the fifteenth century monks on the scroll. This beautiful image, the the sixteenth century, and this is the brush-

322 CIRCA 1492