Page 387 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

with additional outlines or strengthening touches. screens with prunus in 1438, and assisting (?)
Shugetsu recognized that such additions in fact with sculptures for Shokoku-ji and Ungo-ji in
vitiated rather than enhanced the strength of this Kyoto and for Daruma-dera in Nara Prefecture, as
form. The results indicate that there may well be well as a statue of Prince Shotoku for Shitenno-ji
more to Shugetsu than is currently accepted. in Osaka, to replace one destroyed by fire in 1443.
S.E.L. Most significant for his artistic career is his par-
ticipation in a diplomatic and trade embassy to
Korea in 1423-1424 —the embassy that on its
return to Japan almost certainly brought the
Korean painter Yi Sumun (J: Ri Shubun). No
228 extant paintings can be surely documented as
the work of Tensho Shubun.
Shubun school This visit to Korea, which must have been cru-
active second quarter of 15th century cial in Shubun's artistic development, most likely
took place well before he reached the age of thirty.
PlNE-LlSTENING COTTAGE As a mere youth (in terms of East Asian artistic
(CHOSHOKEN) seniority) he was exposed to the Korean ink
painting of that time (cat. 264). Its heritage was
Japanese mixed: Korea shared a common boundary with
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper north China but also enjoyed sea connections
100 x 31.7 (j9 /8 x -L2/2)
l
3
5 inscriptions dated between 1433 and c. 1458 with south China, especially the port of Ningbo.
references: Yashiro 1960, 360; Tanaka 1972, 67-94; Close to Ningbo was Hangzhou, the seat of
Matsushita 1974, 61, 64-69; Princeton 1976, 25-30, Southern Song painting style and its continuation
118-120 in the Yuan and early Ming dynasties. Korean ink
painters used both the northern and southern
Seikado Foundation, Tokyo
Important Cultural Property modes. Thus the famous An Kyon handscroll of
1447 and the paintings of his school (cat.
264) reflect the complex and monumental art of
Of the five poetic inscriptions on the theme north China during the Tartar Jin dynasty (1115-
of the title, the earliest was written by the Zen 1234) an d tne Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279-1368).
scholar-monk Isho Tokugan (1365-1437), and is On the other hand, an album leaf by Kang Hui-an
dated to 1433: (cat. 265) shows clearly the Southern Song pen-
A priest reads in the night by candlelight in his chant for asymmetry and abbreviation.
study sheltered by the green umbrella of pine In the artistic environment of his native land,
trees. The wind blowing through the pine Shubun could make use of both modes. Japanese
branches is an accompaniment to his voice all ink painting of the Muromachi period was in
through the night. large part a creation of Zen monk-painters, who
adopted the subjects developed by Chinese Chan
The brushwork of the foliage on both pine and monk-painters and their literati colleagues of the
small bushes owes much to the productive studio Hangzhou region: first, imaginary portraits of the
of Mincho (1352-1431), artist-monk of Tofuku-ji, Chan patriarchs and other figures central to Zen
but the rocks and distant mountains are con- teaching, and second, the landscape of China.
structed of vertical and horizontal strokes, very Since many Japanese painters never visited China,
much in the loose Korean brush manner origi- their landscapes were aesthetic meditations on
nated among northern Chinese painters of the Chinese scenery —particularly hermitages in
Tartar Jin dynasty (1115-1234). This Korean mountain fastnesses — as mediated through
manner can also be seen in an anonymous land- Chinese poetry and paintings. The primary ele-
scape in the Jisho-in of Shokoku-ji, also with an ment in this pictorial environment was the manip-
inscription by Tokugan, as well as in the famous ulation of ink by brush. What Shubun, his even
Suishoku Ranko, probably painted about 1445 more famous pupil Sesshu, and their epigones
by Shubun or a very close follower. achieved was no mean feat — the creation of poetic
Tensho (or Ekkei) Shubun is a key but shadowy pictures expressing both nostalgia and retreat,
figure of the first half of the fifteenth century, valued qualities in the extreme social and political
the crucial period in which Japanese ink painting unrest of Japan during the second half of the
reached maturity and turned to landscape for its fifteenth century.
primary subject. His birth and death dates are Choshoken is a hanging scroll (kakemono),
unknown. Documentary sources are few and not tall in proportion to its width to a degree unusual
wholly germane to his career as a painter. A Zen in China and Korea but common in Muromachi
monk as well as an artist, he was the general Japan. Monks' quarters for private gatherings —
administrator of the great Zen temple Shokoku-ji, proto-Tea Ceremony rooms or huts —did not
one of the Gozan (Five Mountains, i.e., five chief afford large spaces for paintings; furthermore
Zen temples) in Kyoto. He was both painter and the paintings themselves had to leave room for
sculptor, and is recorded as painting sliding inscriptions, which were as important as the

386 CIRCA 1492