Page 392 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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Sesshu Toyo
1420-1506
AMA NO HASHIDATE
Although Sesshu maintained two more or less brush strokes defining the hills and mountains.
c. 1503 permanent studios after his return from China, Nothing in ink painting could be further from the
Japanese he was, like many Chinese and Japanese scholars, nostalgically imagined Chinese scenery of most
hanging scroll; ink and notes of color on paper painters, and monks, an inveterate traveler. Since Muromachi painted landscapes. Even Sesshu may
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89.5 x 169.5 (35 /4 x 66 /4) travel was almost unimaginably slow and arduous have been surprised by what he had created.
references: Tanaka 1972,108, 109, 128; Tanaka and by present-day standards, these trips took a very Nor does Ama no Hashidate reveal much in
Nakamura 1973, 7: pis. 20, 54; Matsushita 1974, 82
long time, and were lengthened even further by common with the strong verticality and the
Kyoto National Museum the painting demonstrations which it was custom- angular and energetic thrusts of Sesshu's earlier,
National Treasure ary for a famous artist to give, at least at the more purportedly Chinese, landscapes (cf. cat. 230).
important of the temples and domain castles that Although some may attribute the gentler, more
The lack of signature and seal does not diminish offered him extended hospitality en route. horizontal expanse of this landscape to a resur-
the firmness of the attribution; it furthermore Ama no Hashidate is the result of one of these gence of the native style of painting found in the
attests the character of this work as a large sketch trips. The legendary sand spit, covered with pines narrative handscrolls and the landscape mandalas
based on smaller on-the-spot sketches. As a direct and surrounded by marvelous views, is still one of of the earlier Fujiwara (897-1185) and Kamakura
rendering of a Japanese scene, the famous "Bridge the top tourist attractions in Japan. In the painting (1185-1333) periods, the differences in Ama no
of Heaven" near Miyazu on the Japan Sea side of we view it from a hill looking northwest across Hashidate would seem to be mainly attributable
northern Kyoto Prefecture, this vigorous work is part of Miyazu Bay. Mount Nariai is on the right, to the artist's individuality and strength as well as
unique in early Japanese ink painting. It belies with the temple complex of Nariai-ji, including a to nature herself—this is the way the scenery of
Sesshu's self-deprecating references to his misty Shinto shrine, below it. At the lower left, opposite the Bridge of Heaven looks. The presence of eight
eyes and exhausted spirit in the inscription on the the end of the Bridge of Heaven, we can see place and temple names in the distinctive calligra-
Hatsuboku Landscape for Sden of 1495. For Ama Chion-ji with its red Image Hall and just beyond phy of the artist attests his keen interest in the
no Hashidate was painted about 1503, when the on the left the one-storied pagoda. The numerous local topography.
artist was at least eighty-two. The small one-story houses of the five small villages on the far side of As many as twenty-eight sheets of paper were
pagoda (tahoto) of Chion-ji in the temple depicted the bay are boldly indicated in an abbreviated, joined to create the painting surface for Ama no
at the lower left was not completed until 1501, so staccato shorthand. These quasi-geometric forms Hashidate', since old fold marks look like joins, the
the painting must have been made thereafter. contrast with the rolling washes and running exact number is not determinable. S.E.L.

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