Page 397 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

sojourns in Kyoto (the second being in 1493), it 1530), is traditionally credited with founding the hills and trees, with relatively near motifs of
certainly was remarkably consistent through the Kano school, which endured for some four hun- ducks and swallows. In the third panel the artist
time of his last dated painting, the Shoshusai dred years, it was certainly Motonobu who estab- begins to build a wealth of foreground detail —
Study of 1506 (Ueno collection, Hyogo Pref.). lished this most famous of all Japanese schools rocks, peonies, pheasants, bamboo, and overhead a
Efforts to define a "late" style influenced by the (or traditions) of painting. Motonobu was only sparse pine branch. This latter, we finally see,
Shubun school (cat. 228) have not been convinc- about thirty-three when he was commissioned, comes from the large pine in the fourth panel, a
ing, and the date of the Hakutsuru album is con- along with his much younger brother Yukinobu, heavily corrugated trunk running in a twisting
sequently not clear. It may well have been painted to paint sliding screens (fusuma) for the abbot's reverse curve from lower right to upper left. On
at the end of his first stay in Kyoto (1478-1480), apartment at the Daisen-in. This established this major and dominant motif, strongly played
but the independence of style clearly emerging in Motonobu's preeminence and his firm connection against the vertical geometry of a decorative
these eight leaves seems to point to a somewhat with the sources of patronage: the Imperial waterfall close behind the trunk, a noisy but
later date, perhaps closer to 1493, when he had Household, the shogunal government (bakufu) minor note of three magpies and a single wood-
returned to Kyoto better able to assimilate Xia and samurai aristocracy (daimyo) f and the abbots pecker closes the summer's carnival of birds. The
Gui's Eight Views without falling into mere of the major Zen temples. His marriage to a individual elements may recall almost contempo-
emulation. S.E.L. daughter of the painter Tosa Mitsunobu (cat. 212, rary Chinese decorative specialists such as Yin
216) ensured his access both to the traditional Hong (cat. 292), but the heavy asymmetry and
Japanese yamato-e style and to the supporters of sharp, dark, and domineering brushwork are far
236 $*• that style, the Imperial court. He was also a born more extreme than anything the Chinese would

Kano Motonobu executive, and the painting workshop that he have permitted themselves.
Unquestionably these panels show the direct
organized provided a model for ambitious and
1476-1559 busy artists of the future. influence of kacho folding screens (bydbu) by
FLOWERS AND BIRDS OF THE Motonobu's two sets of decorations for the Sesshu (such as cat. 233). A close relationship
FOUR SEASONS (SHIKI KACHO Zu) Daisen-in comprise both the decorative kacho between Sesshu and Motonobu's father, Masa-
(flower-and-bird) genre and Zen figure-in-land- nobu, is strongly supported by the persistent tra-
c. 1510 scape subjects. The former were suitable for strik- dition that Sesshu was instrumental in having
Japanese ing effects; the latter drew shrewdly on Chinese Masanobu substitute for himself in the decoration
originally four (of a total composition of eight) academic and court painting of Southern Song of Shogun Yoshimasa's Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-
sliding screens, now mounted as hanging scrolls; and Ming (cat. 291) along with the "New Style" ji). The knowing and exaggerated manipulation of
ink and color on paper of monochrome ink painting as practiced by a decorative style on large-scale panels was to be
178 x 142 (yoVs x 56)
references: Covell and Yamada 1974, 135-136; Japanese predecessors of Motonobu. the foundation of Japanese painting design in the
Matsushita 1974, 123-125; Princeton 1976, 212-217 The four panels shown here represent spring following Momoyama period. Motonobu's use
and summer. Originally on four sliding screens, of color is also daring and decorative, relying on
Daisen-in, Daitoku-ji, Kyoto now mounted as hanging scrolls, they are early rather solid flat areas of relatively pure azurite,
statements of a compositional schema that became malachite, and cinnabar. This he had almost cer-
If Soami appeared as a low-key stylist and a standard for Motonobu's Kano successors. Reading tainly appropriated from the native yamato-e
knowledgeable connoisseur of Chinese painting, from right to left, we find a near and understated tradition of the Tosa school; the mixture of Tosa
Kano Motonobu burst on the Kyoto artistic scene theme of rock, flowering tree, bamboo, and birds, and Kano style is clearly seen in his narrative
as a bold decorator with a dazzling brush tech- touching the top, right, and bottom frames. Then handscroll Legends of the founding of Seiryo-ji
nique. Though his father, Kano Masanobu (1434- open space and the faint beginnings of distant (Seiryo-ji Engi). S.E.L.

396 CIRCA 1492