Critical Perspectives On Classicism in Japanese Painting, 1600-1700

Critical
Perspectives
on Classicism
in Japanese
P a i n t i n g,
16001700
Tawaraya Statsu, detached segment of the Illustrated Handscroll of The New Collection
of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry, MOA Museum, Shizuoka
Critical
Perspectives
on Classicism
in Japanese
Painting,
16001700
Edited by Elizabeth Lillehoj
University of Hawaii Press Honolulu

2004 University of Hawaii Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
09 08 07 06 05 04 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Critical perspectives on classicism in Japanese
painting, 16001700 / edited by Elizabeth Lillehoj.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-8248-2699-x (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Painting, JapaneseEdo period, 16001868.
2. Classicism in artJapan. I. Lillehoj, Elizabeth.
nd1053.5 .c75 2004
759.952'09'032dc21
2003009998
University of Hawaii Press books are printed on acid-

free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by April Leidig-Higgins

Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Publication of this book has received generous support

from The Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese
Art at the Clark Center.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Foreword | Samuel C. Morse xi
Introduction | Elizabeth Lillehoj 1
Chapter One | Melanie Trede 21

Terminology and Ideology:
Coming to Terms with
Classicism in Japanese
Art-Historical Writing
Chapter Two | Satoko Tamamushi 53

Tawaraya Statsu and the
Yamato-e Revival
Chapter Three | Keiko Nakamachi 79

The Patrons of Tawaraya Statsu
and Ogata Krin
Chapter Four | Laura W. Allen 99

Japanese Exemplars for a New Age:
Genji Paintings from the
Seventeenth-Century
Tosa School
Chapter Five | Joshua S. Mostow 133

A New Classical Theme:
The One Hundred Poets
from Elite to Popular Art
in the Early Edo Period
169 Chapter Six | Karen M. Gerhart
Classical Imagery and Tokugawa Patronage:
A Redenition in the Seventeenth Century
187 Chapter Seven | Elizabeth Lillehoj

Uses of the Past: Gion Float Paintings as
Instruments of Classicism
207 Afterword | Quitman Eugene Phillips
213 Appendix: Artists and Schools
217 Glossary
225 Kanji List
237 Selected Bibliography
261 Contributors
263 Index
Color plates follow page 132
vi Contents
Illustrations
figure 2.1. Frontispiece of the Ganmon scroll from the Heike nky 55
figure 2.2. Frontispiece of the Kejyubon scroll from the Heike nky 56
figure 2.3. Frontispiece of the Shokuruibon scroll from the Heike nky 57
figure 2.4. Ganmon scroll in the Illustrated Guide to the Treasures of 58

Itsukushima
figure 2.5. Kejyubon scroll in the Illustrated Guide to the Treasures of 59

Itsukushima
figure 2.6. Shokuruibon scroll in the Illustrated Guide to the Treasures 60

of Itsukushima
figure 2.7. Tawaraya Statsu, detached segment of Illustrated Handscroll 63

of The New Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry
figure 2.8. Tawaraya Statsu, detail of Illustrated Handscroll of The 64

Collection of Japanese Poetry for One Thousand Years
figure 2.9. Tawaraya Statsu, Matsushima Screens 65
figure 2.10. Cover of Jukibon chapter from the Heike nky 66
figure 2.11. Ogata Krin, Matsushima Screen 67
figure 2.12. Ogata Krin, Suminoe Writing Box 68
figure 2.13. Label on packing bag for the Sekiya and Miotsukushi Screens 70
figure 2.14. Thunder god in Pleasures of the Shij Riverside Screens (detail) 74
figure 4.1. Four Pairs of Shells, from a shell game 104
figure 4.2. Illustration from the Admonitions for Women 107
figure 4.3. First illustration from Selected Lessons for Women 108
109 figure 4.4. Second illustration from Selected Lessons for Women
110 figure 4.5. Illustration from Mirror of Japanese Women
111 figure 4.6. Tosa Mitsuoki, Murasaki Shikibu Viewing the Moon at
Ishiyamadera
112 figure 4.7. Kami Nagashige, Dowry Set with Designs from First Warbler
115 figure 4.8. Tosa Mitsunori, illustration for Channel Buoys
118 figure 4.9. Illustration from Mirror of Japans Virtuous Women, vol. 1
120 figure 4.10. Illustration from Mirror of Japans Virtuous Women, vol. 8
123 figure 4.11. Tosa Mitsuoki, First Warbler (left screen)
125 figure 4.12. Tosa Mitsuoki, New Herbs I (right screen)
127 figure 4.13. Illustration from Selected Lessons for Women
134 figure 5.1. Kano Tany, Date Family One Hundred Poets Picture Album:
Teika
135 figure 5.2. Kano Tany (attrib.), Portraits of the One Hundred Poets: Teika
136 figure 5.3. Kano Tany (attrib.), Portraits of the One Hundred Poets: The
Handmaid Su and Retired Emperor Sanj
137 figure 5.4. Kano Tany (attrib.), Portraits of the One Hundred Poets:
Sagami and Gyson
139 figure 5.5. Suminokura Soan (attrib.), One Hundred Poets: Teika
139 figure 5.6. Suminokura Soan (attrib.), One Hundred Poets: Sagami
140 figure 5.7. Anonymous, Ten Thousand Treasures Annotated One Hundred
Poets, One Poem Each Compilation
143 figure 5.8. Kano Tany, Pictures of Thirty-Six Immortal Poets
153 figure 5.9. Tosa Mitsuoki, The Style of Deep Feeling (detail)
155 figure 5.10. Kano school, The Handmaid KoShikibu
156 figure 5.11. Kano Masunobu, Album of New Thirty-Six Immortal Poets:
Yoshitsune
viii Illustrations
figure 5.12. Kano Masunobu, Album of New Thirty-Six Immortal Poets: 157
Yoshitsune (poem)
figure 5.13. Hishikawa Moronobu, Images of Elegant Figures of One 158

Hundred Poets: Gyson
figure 5.14. Keisai Eisen, Twelve Views of Beautiful Women of Today: The 159
Untamable and Benten Shrine
figure 5.15. Anonymous Kano school artist, Portrait of Shogun Tokugawa 160
Yoshimune
figure 6.1. Instructions Regarding the Paintings of the Emperors Visitation 173
Palace of Nij Castle
figure 6.2. Diagram of Ninomaru Palace and the Visitation Palace 174
figure 6.3. Scene from woodblock print of Mirror for Instructing the 179
Emperor
figure 7.1. Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Chrysanthemum Dew Float, from the 192
Gion Festival Floats
figure 7.2. Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Prince Shtoku Float, from the Gion 192
Festival Floats
figure 7.3. Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Decorated Parasol Float, from the Gion 192
Festival Floats
figure 7.4. Shugakuin Reception Hall 193
figure 7.5. Floor plan, Shugakuin Reception Hall 194
figure 7.6. Anonymous, Scenes In and Around Kyoto Screens (detail) 196
plate 1. Tawaraya Statsu, Sekiya and Miotsukushi Chapters from The Tale
of Genji Screens
plate 2. Tawaraya Statsu, Wind and Thunder Gods Screens
plate 3. Episode from the Sacred Tree chapter of The Tale of Genji
plate 4. Tosa Mitsuoki, illustration for An Autumn Excursion, Tale of

Genji Album
Illustrations ix
plate 5. Tosa Mitsuoki, illustration for A Rack of Cloud, Tale of Genji
Album
plate 6. Tosa Mitsuoki, illustration for New Herbs I, Tale of Genji Album
plate 7. Tosa Mitsuoki, illustration for Heartvine, Tale of Genji Album
plate 8. Tosa Mitsuoki, Lavender, right screen of The Tale of Genji Screens
plate 9. Tosa Mitsuoki, One Hundred Poets Calligraphy Model Book: The
Handmaid Suo and Gyson
plate 10. Anonymous, Screens of Immortal Poets Painting
plate 11. Kano Tsunenobu, The Style of Mystery and Depth
plate 12. Kano Motonobu (attrib.), Mongols Playing Polo (detail)
plate 13. Upper Chamber, Grand Audience Hall, Ninomaru Palace
plate 14. Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Ship Float, from the Gion Festival Floats
plate 15. Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Showering Down Float and Mountain
Grotto Float, from the Gion Festival Floats
plate 16. Anonymous, Gion Festival Screens (detail)
x Illustrations
Foreword
This book is based on a symposium, Classicism in Japanese Art of the Early

Edo Period, which was sponsored by the Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for
Japanese Art at the Clark Center in Hanford, California, in June 1999. Many
of the institutes goals are similar to those of other museums both large and
smallin particular, collecting, exhibiting, and preserving works of art and in-
troducing the culture of Japan to the general public. But equally integral to its
missionas envisioned by its founder, Willard G. Clarkis the creation of
opportunities for scholars to study works of art, to share ideas, and to make the
results of their explorations known. Thus the idea of holding a series of focused
symposia on important topics in the history of Japanese art at the Clark Center
was proposed soon after the organization opened its doors in May 1995. The
symposium on classicism in early Edo art was the rst in what is planned to be
a series of conferences that bring together scholars and students from Europe,
Japan, and the United States for three days of presentations, discussion, and
close examination of actual objects.
The topic for the symposium was selected from a number of ideas proposed
to the institute. We were particularly excited by the ways in which these essays
challenge established notions of art-historical discourse on the early Edo pe-
riod. Renaissance, revival, and classicism are all terms used to describe
the art of the seventeenth century, but often they are employed with little crit-
ical examination of whether the ideas they represent are in fact applicable
to Japanese art history. The proposal promised to rectify this problem, and in-
deed it was one of the most stimulating subjects of discussion throughout the
symposium.
The topic also seemed particularly appropriate for the Lee Institute because
the art of the early Edo period is one of the strengths of the institutes collec-
tion. Since he began collecting Japanese art seriously in the early 1980s,
Willard Clark has focused particular attention on works by Kano and Rimpa
artists. Issues raised by works in the collection struck us as being very similar
to the questions raised in this book.
The program for the symposium was organized by Elizabeth Lillehoj of De-
Paul University and Laura Allen, an independent scholar. The speakers in-
cluded Laura Allen, Karen Gerhart of the University of Pittsburgh, Joshua
Mostow of the University of British Columbia, Satoko Tamamushi of Musa-
shino University of Fine Arts, and Melanie Trede of the Institute of Fine Arts
at New York University. The late Kaori Chino of Gakushuin University, Quit-
man Eugene Phillips of the University of Wisconsin, and James Ulak of the
Freer and Sackler Galleries provided commentary.
In preparing the essays for publication, we decided to supplement the orig-
inal group with essays by Professor Lillehoj and Keiko Nakamachi of Jissen
Womens University, who was one of the invited participants at the event. In
this way we have tried to expand the scope of the book so it will be of value not
only to the specialist and in the classroom, but also to the larger community of
students of Japanese art. Professor Lillehoj generously agreed to edit the essays
for publication and to revise her opening remarks at the symposium as an
introduction.
Generous support for both the symposium and this book was provided by
Sanwa Bank California. The Blakemore Foundation committed funds that en-
abled ve senior graduate students to attend. At the Clark Center, assistance
was provided by Midori Oka, former curator; Tomoko Okamura, former cura-
torial intern; Barbara McCasland, assistant to the founder; and Ritsuko Miya-
zaki, systems analyst. Most of all thanks must be given to Elizabeth and Wil-
lard G. Clark for providing the vision and the collection of art that made this
project possible.
As Mary Elizabeth Berry observed at the end of the rst day of the sympo-
sium, the question that the art of the early seventeenth century invokes is not
why Heian, but why history. It is our hope that this book will provide some an-
swers to that question.
Samuel C. Morse
Department of Fine Arts, Amherst
Chair, Board of Directors,

The Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute
for Japanese Art at the Clark Center
xii Samuel C. Morse

Introduction
Elizabeth Lillehoj
In Japan, the seventeenth century was a time of remarkable artistic innovation

developing in the midst of ineluctable social change. A protracted phase of
civil strife had ended, and a triumphant military clan was inaugurating a new
regime of power. This clan, the Tokugawa, installed their administrationa
military government (bakufu) headed by a shogunat Edo, launching the
Edo period (16001868).1 Preoccupied with the challenge of establishing dom-
inance, the Tokugawa set to work at several tasks: consolidating their military
victories, solidifying political authority, encouraging commercial and agricul-
tural growth, and constructing a new social order. Virtually all forms of cul-
tural production were affected by the changing times, not least of which was
art. And in art, it was not just the new that interested people.
Perusing the cultural artifacts from early-seventeenth-century Japan, we be-
gin to sense that many artists and patrons longed for a restoration of stability
after years of uncertainty and privation. Some hoped to restore stability by cre-
ating continuity with the past; others attempted to fabricate a past that lifted
them above the troubles of the present. With these and a multitude of other mo-
tivations, artists and patrons turned time and again to traditional themes and
styles. And while the past they referred to was only quasi-historical, to their con-
temporaries they projected an identity of themselves by manipulating time-
honored images. Indeed, references to the past are so common in early-seven-
teenth-century art that many modern historians of Japanese artusing terms
that will be examined more closely in what followsdescribe this phase as a
classical revival (koten fukk), an era of classicism (kurashishizumu), or a renais-
sance (runesansu). The early years of the Edo period experienced great diver-
sity in visual culture, and classicismat least as the authors of this book dene
the termwas a leading concern in art, a concern that would foster surpris-
ingly varied outcomes later in the period. Thus while this book surveys only one
of the many movements in seventeenth-century Japanese art, it offers critical
perspectives on a number of signicant issues in the study of Edo art history.
Early Edo artists and patrons shaped a variety of images of bygone eras with-
out limiting themselves to a specic place or moment. In many cases it was
court culture of the Heian period (7941185); in other cases, warrior culture of
the Kamakura period (1185 1333); in others, yet another cultural phase. Al-
though art historians often imply that early Edo classicism is a well-dened,
self-evident concept, clearly it is not. Setting aside for the moment the histor-
ical and cultural specicity of the term classic, it must rst be emphasized
that people in the seventeenth century shared no unitary understanding of a
classical age for artists to resurrect. Nevertheless, the phrase classical revival
is still widely used to describe artistic developments in Edo Japan and, for that
matter, in other periodswhich is to say that artists and patrons in several phases
of Japanese history referred to the past thematically and stylistically to edify, to
glorify, and to sanctify.2 Their purpose might have been the edication of a
particular audience, the glorication of a ruler, or the sanctication of a place
or event.
But how did seventeenth-century artists and patrons imagine the past? Why
did they so often select styles and themes from the past, especially from Heian
court culture? Were references to the past something new, or were artists and
patrons in previous periods equally interested in manners that came to be seen
as classical? How did classical manners relate to other styles and themes found
in Edo art? And what consequences have arisen from the modern designation
of this development as a classical revival? In considering such questions, the
contributors to this book posit that classicism is an amorphous, changing con-
cept in Japan, just as in the West. Nettlesome in its ambiguity and its implica-
tions, it cannot be separated from the political and ideological interests of
those who have employed it over the years.
Central to our study is an understanding of classicism as an instrument em-
ployed consciously and consistently by various groups; that is to say, we look at
classical art as it was instrumentalized for use in larger social settings.3 Ranging
from faithful replicas of early models to works creatively inspired by traditional
imagery, classical art did not follow a xed style but employed a grammar or
vocabulary of visual forms. In looking anew at seventeenth-century classicism,
we aim to reconsider the narratives of production and reception of seventeenth-
century visual forms. By extension we also consider ways in which the act of
dening this art as classical in the early twentieth century served ideological
agendas specic to that moment. Classicismwhich now ranks as a dominant
paradigm in cultural studies of the West and the East alikewas an important
device in early Edo art, but it is also an important device in modern studies of
2 Elizabeth Lillehoj
early Edo art. Thus the essays presented here bridge many gaps between cen-
turies and between cultures to address a leading issue in cultural studies: classi-
cism and its problems. Rather than positing a consistent or comprehensive analy-
sis of seventeenth-century classicism, the authors of this book present varied
perspectives and contribute to an ongoing dialogue about a complex historical
and historiographic concept.
Dening Classicism
Most elds of Japanese cultural studies employ the concept of classicism, each
dening it in a slightly different way. Of these elds, it is perhaps literary stud-
ies that engage the concept most extensively. The term commonly used in
Japanese today to designate the classics, koten (C: gudian), was borrowed cen-
turies ago from Chinese textual sources, where it generally referred to works
that set a standard. The term kotenwritten with Chinese characters that
mean old textsimplies veneration for writings from early times, and the
centuries-old term koga (old paintings) reveals a comparable appreciation
for art from times past. Today Japanese literary historians do not follow a single
denition of classicism, but they tend to apply the term to poetry and prose of
the Heian and Kamakura periods.4 Along similar lines, modern Japanese art
historians employ the phrase kotenteki bijutsu (old textlike art) to mean clas-
sical art, often in reference to art of the Heian and Kamakura periods. Literary
texts played a central role in classically inspired visual arts of seventeenth-
century Japan, and, furthermore, the literary concept of koten was adopted by
modern scholars engaged in identifying a classical revival in Edo art.5 From
this it is perhaps natural to conclude that classicism in Japanese art, while
heavily dependent on literary associations, has an ontological status as a dis-
tinct category.
But is this necessarily so? Few concepts found in early Japanese writings on
art equate with the modern notion of classicism, so it is doubtful that classical
art was understood as a distinct category of art in the early Edo period. In the
seventeenth century, there was a concept of old texts and a concept of old
paintings, but not until the modern era was there a concept of old textlike
art. As Melanie Trede explains in Chapter 1, several late-Edo authors did bor-
row concepts related to classicism from Chinese aesthetic discourse; however,
it was scholars and enthusiasts of the Meiji period (1868 1912) who began to
formulate the modern notion of Japanese artistic classicism following Western
notions. According to the Western denition, classicism is synonymous with
Introduction 3
harmony, dignity, restraint, balance, simplicity, and objectivity; it also refers to
the cultures and aesthetic principles of ancient Greece and Rome. Johann J.
Winckelmann (17191768), the German scholar credited with founding mod-
ern art history and archaeology, spoke of ancient Greek art as the epitome of
artistic excellence: grand, noble, and ideal.6 Although he did not use the term
classicalin fact, the term was little used until the nineteenth centuryhis
assessments were in keeping with intellectual and artistic elites of his era who
aspired to embrace timeless truths and absolute values. Winckelmann estab-
lished Greek arts of antiquity as archetypal forms against which like forms can
be judged and as sources of inspiration for other artists.
For Winckelmanns successors engaged in the scholarly project of connois-
seurship, classicism came to play a central role in the evaluation of artistic qual-
ity and the establishment of a canon. By the time that Heinrich Wlfin (1864
1945) articulated a notion of the classic in High Renaissance art, the concept
of classicism in art-historical analysis was rmly set as if in stone.7 This is the
concept that Meiji writers integrated into Japanese art history. And while little
stylistic commonality unites the classical arts of Edo Japan and those of the Re-
naissance in the West, they are comparable in several conceptual respects: both
relate to a veneration of antiquity, both employ a risepeakdecline theory of
artistic development, both are canonical, and both set standards for future
generations.
In recent years, Japanese and Western scholars involved in a sweeping cul-
tural critique have scrutinized and deconstructed the worldview that gave birth
to classicism, and they implicate classicism in an ideologically loaded project
of canon formation.8 Whereas authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries tended to uphold the Western canon of classical art and literature as
an epic landscape of unchanging monuments, many historians today nd fault
with the vagaries and limitations of modern canon formation. In keeping with
that critique, the contributors to this book reject the traditional denition of
classicism as a core of transcendent and universal ideals given expression in ar-
chetypal objects because this notion obscures its role as a mechanism legit-
imizing dominant cultures. Specically, the contributors implicate classicism
in the Wests cultural colonization of Japan (or the self-imposed westerniza-
tion of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Japan) as well as in the na-
tionalism rampant in imperial Japan of that day.9
We can begin to understand how notions of old textlike art were formu-
lated in Japan by considering the Meiji-period writings of Okakura Kakuz
(1862 1913) and his mentor, Ernest Fenollosa (1853 1908).10 Okakura and
Fenollosa borrowed classicism, as well as other terms embedded in Western
cultural discourses, to shed a more positive light on Japanese traditions at a
time when precious works of Art and valuable paintings were prized no more
than rubbish [in Japan].11 Okakura and Fenollosa, whose narratives are gener-
ally considered foundational in modern Japanese art historiography, labored
valiantly to promote Japanese art. But in basing their analyses on Western ca-
nonical models, they introduced concepts foreign to Japanese art and harnessed
art to the nationalistic and imperialistic agenda of their own time.12
Japan, just emerging as a world power, was making its expansionist inten-
tions evident in the Sino-Japanese War (1894 1895), the Russo-Japanese War
(1904 1905), and the annexation of Korea (1910). Given the xenophobic na-
tionalism and imperial absolutism developing in Japan, it is perhaps paradox-
ical that Japanese commentators found inspiration in Western models. Granted,
their motivation was to present home audiences and the wider world with a
positive image of Japans exclusive cultural heritage. Yet theirs was not an un-
biased interpretation of the past. Meiji authors who heralded classicism in Jap-
anese art, like those who valorized a unique literary heritage, found their re-
marks tied to disturbing nationalistic and totalitarian tendencies.13
Recent scholarship has done much to remove the veils cloaking the ideolog-
ical function of modern discourses on a unique Japanese culture. Kuroda
Toshio, for example, a Japanese religious historian, has presented a systematic
critique of Japan as the land of the deities (shinkoku), debunking suprahistor-
ical concepts of Japan as a sacred territory and the emperor as a divine being.
These concepts fed into the exclusivist and supremacist tendencies of early-
twentieth-century Japanese cultural commentary.14 According to Kuroda, post-
Meiji interpretations of shinkoku were formulated along with the creation of
an imperial system (tennsei) and national Shinto (kokka shint)an amal-
gam that precipitated a contemptuous, violent stance toward the outside world.
Another case of scholarship demystifying modern Japanese cultural constructs
is the philological study conducted by Roy Andrew Miller, who counters the
view that the Japanese language is unique and untranslatable. This myth of
the Japanese language developed hand-in-hand with nationalism in early-
twentieth-century Japan.15
Art historians and connoisseurs are not immune to the modernist tendency
to isolate and aggrandize Japanese culture, but some have begun to work
against it. Sat Dshin, one of those seeking corrective measures in the writing
of art history, argues that the modernist understanding of art history in Japan
was built upon a Japanese imperial historical view. Sat notes that early-
Introduction 5
twentieth-century Japan saw itself as the leader of East Asia, [and accord-
ingly] East Asian art history was constructed as one element of Japans exul-
tation of its national prestige.16 Despite this growing recognition of problems
with exclusivist and nationalist discourses on Japanese culture, many Japanese
art historians preserve terms and concepts with troublesome connotations that
stem from these discourses. One such term is miyabi (courtliness), widely
dened in academic circles as an ancient word with meanings that are purely
aestheticin fact, a word closely associated with classicism in many cases. As
Joshua Mostow has noted, however, miyabi was only introduced into common
usage in the 1940s and is thoroughly implicated in the war-time cult of the
emperor.17 Thus Japanese art and cultural historians are beginning to reap-
praise aggrandizing concepts like classicism, a development that foregrounds
the present study. This historiographic project must begin with a question: how
did the concept of an early-Edo classical revival in art come to assume such an
accepted role in modern Japanese art history?
The Classical Revival

Writers in Japan began comparing early Edo art and classical Western art at
the beginning of the twentieth century. Following Okakura and Fenollosa, the
art historian Fukui Rikichir in 1915 drew analogies between art of the Mo-
moyama period (1573 1600 or 1615) and European art of the Renaissance, as-
signing to the Momoyama period many works considered in this volume as
early Edo paintings.18 But not until the mid-twentieth century did the cultural
historian Hayashiya Tatsusabur and members of his circle begin to speak of
a classical revival (koten fukk) in seventeenth-century culture.19 These schol-
ars paid particular attention to a Kanei cultural phase (Kanei bunka), which
they dened as extending one or two decades before and after the Kanei era
(1624 1644), roughly the rst half of the seventeenth century.20 According to
Hayashiya and his academic cohort, three elite social groups shaped Kanei
culture: ranking warriors, Kyoto aristocrats, and a select set of commoner towns-
people (machish)a cohesive group of wealthy, educated artisans and mer-
chants who afliated with aristocrats in cultural salons. Thus, in the estimation
of these historians, artistic activities allowed individuals of commoner back-
ground to transcend class barriers in the Kanei cultural phase.21
Hayashiyas interpretation of a Kanei cultural revival, while inuential, is
only one of a number of scholarly approaches to early Edo art. It did, however,
share with others an emphasis on a particular precedent for classicism: court
culture of the Heian period. In fact, members of Hayashiyas circle seem to
have initiated the use of a key phrase, rebirth of dynastic traditions (ch
dent no fukkatsu), to characterize the Kanei classical revival as a return to
Heian courtly traditions.22 But, we should ask, did seventeenth-century artists
and patrons actually embrace the Heian aristocratic epoch as a singular golden
age? This volume contends that they did not. We maintain that the concep-
tion of Heian classicism dominating current Japanese art history is a modern
myth. According to a standard reductive explanation, Heian arts reached a
peak with the owering of courtly culture in Kyoto during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. This aristocratic taste, inclined toward delicacy and aestheti-
cism and perceived as distinguishable from Chinese taste, was supposedly
eclipsed in the Kamakura period when warrior patrons came to favor Chinese
cultural forms.
Several underlying presumptions make this received interpretation of Heian
classicism problematic. One presumption is that Heian-period culture gave rise
to a discrete artistic sensibility; in actuality, a variety of artistic currents emerged
from Heian culture. Another presumption is that this singular Heian aesthetic
can be isolated from foreign precedents; in actuality, scholars have identied
Chinese models for many of the varied forms of Heian artistic production.23
There is still another presumption underlying the received notion of Heian
classicismnamely that a break occurred in late-twelfth-century patronage with
newly dominant Kamakura warriors favoring bold and realistic art over rened
and stylized Heian types. But as Miyajima Shinichi recently wrote: This com-
mon but simplistic construction [of a shift from courtly to warrior taste] mis-
construes both art and its social context. In fact, the imperial court and Kyoto
nobility continued to monopolize the cultural mainstream and to set the stan-
dards for high culture. 24
These assumptions about Heian artistic classicism inhere in one of the dis-
courses central termsyamato-e (literally pictures of Yamato)with Yamato,
the Nara region, being remembered as the ancient heartland of the Japanese
people.25 Although scholars posited a uniquely Japanese yamato-e, thus sup-
porting a nationalistic agenda, this tradition of illustration clearly owes much
to Chinese painting and literature. It is also reductive to maintain, as did writ-
ers of the mid-1900s, that yamato-e went into decline in the early fourteenth
century at the end of the Kamakura period; recent ndings indicate, to the
contrary, that post-Kamakura artists continued to innovate and to incorporate
new subjects, festivals and revelries, for example, into their yamato-e reper-
tory.26 The designation of early Edo paintings by Tawaraya Statsu (d. 1643?)
Introduction 7
the pioneer artist of Rimpa (see the appendix)as works of a yamato-e re-
vival (that is, a classical revival) is therefore arbitrary, based on the retrospec-
tive identication of ruptures and a concomitant denial of continuities. More
accurately, these paintings are a yamato-e continuation.27 The nineteenth-
century revival of yamato-e (fukko yamato-e) spearheaded by the painters Ta-
naka Totsugen (1760 1823) and Reizei Tamechika (1823 1864) should simi-
larly be called a further development in an evolution of Japanese-style painting.
While the classicizing elements of seventeenth-century art are not com-
pletely novelin fact, most make an appearance in fteenth- and sixteenth-
century artreferences to the past began to carry a new relevance and weight
in the early Edo period. In seeking a reason for this tendency, a central matter
to consider is the social setting in which classicizing currents developed. In the
period under discussion, Tokugawa military lords were putting to rest the ter-
ror and political convulsion of the previous century. But as Eiko Ikegami com-
ments: The Tokugawa pacication was, in many ways, a classic case of state
formation through monopolizing the use of violence.28 Although Tokugawa
leaders claimed that their dominance ensured peace and tranquility under
heaven (tenka taihei), opposition to Tokugawa rule, while decreasing over the
course of the century, indicates that their governance was not universally ap-
preciated. Many sectors of society had reason to resent the imposed order. And
although aggrieved parties probably felt reluctant to voice their protests di-
rectly, hints of their discontent are seen in art. Describing a Kyoto renaissance
of the 1580s to the 1630s, John Roseneld perceptively notes that it
seems to have been affected by a strong undercurrent of resistance to the To-

kugawa military government. The new regime, highly authoritarian and fear-
ful of rivals, sought to dominate the main political factions in the old capi-
tal: the imperial family, hereditary aristocrats, Buddhist clergy, and samurai
whose loyalty to the Tokugawa family was not absolute. Allied culturally to
the ancien rgime were members of the newly enriched bourgeoisie.29
Thus art that referred to a classical pastwhether an age of elegant aristocrats,

an age of thriving townspeople, or an age of valiant warriorscame to convey
diverse messages about imagined bygone eras, at times attracting those who
covertly resisted a repressive regime.
For courtiers who experienced ever greater erosion of their practical politi-
cal power, classical arts bolstered their pride in a vaunted cultural heritage.
Early Edo nobles could express a nostalgic desire to resurrect a golden age by
surrounding themselves with images of a glorious imperial past. Classicizing
arts also proved useful as status symbols for wealthy members of commoner
classes: the nonruling urban artisans and merchants who saw their options for
social mobility narrowing. Just as courtiers reminisced about a long-gone era of
imperial power, townspeople treasured an era of past prosperity and respect-
ability, which for them had occurred only a generation or two earlier. Yet ref-
erences to a classical past could at the same time bolster the new military
regimes claims to status and legitimacy. As sponsors and collectors of art, elite
members of warrior society were motivated by various impulsesdynastic,
economic, religious, personaland most signicant of the warrior patrons
were the Tokugawa lords themselves. With wealth and social connections, the
Tokugawa were able to commission and collect a range of classicizing art forms,
which they employed in a propaganda campaign as they struggled to establish
a legitimizing ideology.
Many other social factors contributed to the emphasis on the past in art.
Thanks to economic expansion resulting from agricultural development, as
well as growth in transportation and communication infrastructures, people
enjoyed new levels of wealth and stabilityand, consequently, many could set
aside time to become literate and pursue activities such as art, theater, and lit-
erature. Higher literacy rates depended on the birth of a publishing industry,
as well as the enhancement of lending libraries and book merchandising. With
new printing technologies, publishers could produce large numbers of books
and augment them with illustrations, allowing for a stream of popular printed
material including prose literature written in Japanese (kanazshi). From the
1630s, commercial printing ourished in Kyoto, which was later surpassed by
Osaka and then Edo as the foremost center of printing. Concurrently, growing
numbers of professional intellectuals and instructors emerged from various so-
cial strata, some accepting almost any student able to pay tuition. With greater
public access to instructional texts and trained teachers, cultural activities like
N chanting and poetry composition ourished, as did academic interests
such as Confucian readings and historical studies.
Spurred by such developments, a new sense of historicism emerged in
seventeenth-century Japanseen in the urge to document and collect old
works of art. In order to deal with a burgeoning antiquities market where for-
geries periodically made an appearance, Edo-period collectors turned to spe-
cialists purportedly able to authenticate items. A number of these specialists
were scholar-aristocrats; others were artists. Kano Tany (1602 1674), for ex-
ample, wrote certicates of authentication for paintings and recorded informa-
tion on artworks in his notebooks.30 Several other Kano artists contributed to
Introduction 9
early Edo connoisseurship through such texts as Biographies of Japanese Painters
(Tansei jakubokush), Private Guidelines for the Way of Painting (Gad y-
ketsu), and A History of Painting in This Realm (Honch gashi).31 Whether
composed to transmit information on technique and theory or to promote the
Kano school, the treatises testify to a new historical consciousness with art ob-
jects as a focus.
This cataloging impulse coincided with an upsurge in the popularity of col-
lecting various types of old paintings and antiquities, a trend quite evident by
the middle of the seventeenth century. Paintings from the Muromachi period
(1392 1573) attracted much attention, as did Chinese painting of the Song
dynasty (960 1279) and the Yuan dynasty (1279 1368). Just as Greek art was
appreciated as classical in Renaissance Italy, Chinese painting was embraced
as classical in Edo Japan. Among the leading art collectors in seventeenth-
century Japan were warrior leaders, priests from courtly temples (monzeki),
and wealthy townspeoplediverse individuals with diverse tastes and aims.
They collected lacquerware, tea ceremony utensils (chadgu), paraphernalia
for the incense game (kd), items for the scholars desk, books, calligraphy,
paintings, and more. As Kihara Toshie has observed, collectors recognized that
such possessions enhanced their social status and became property that could
be passed on to their heirs.32
Thus a new historicism developed in seventeenth-century Japan, and inter-
est in art of the past was one of its facets. It is unlikely, however, that this was
the sort of historicism we are familiar with today. As visual and textual sources
from seventeenth-century Japan demonstrate, many people knew something
of the past, whether of heroic personalities or intriguing events. Yet even indi-
viduals steeped in learning did not conceive of the past in terms of detailed,
linear chronologies or coherent periods as do modern academic historians.
Herbert Plutschow explains that the notion of time in premodern Japan de-
pended on periodicity, or a cyclical understanding, which
contrasts with our [modern, Western] linear concept of time according to

which all time past is time lost, never recovered other than perhaps in his-
toriography or the theatre. Cyclical time assumes that past time can be recu-
perated . . . [and] forces people to see their actions as repetitions and imita-
tions of the past.33
In a culture that views time as cyclical, the past is integral to the present in pre-
serving peoples sense of a common identity and social normalcy. In Edo Ja-
pan, artists and patrons shaped a generalized classical repertory and used its
forms and associations not only to comment on the past but also to situate
themselves advantageously in the changing social order of their day.
Artists from virtually every school and workshop selected subjects and styles
that drew upon tradition, some dedicating themselves exclusively to classical ap-
proaches and others sporadically selecting classical manners. Complemented
by contemporary styles and themes, classicism was without question a leading
movement in art of the seventeenth century. Indeed, artists produced classiciz-
ing art in a variety of mediums including painting, ceramics, lacquer, architec-
ture, and garden design. Although this book deals primarily with painting, a
comprehensive analysis of the early Edo classical revival would incorporate
works in so-called decorative mediums such as ceramic pieces by Nonomura
Ninsei (d. ca. 1694) and lacquer objects by Igarashi Dho (ca. 16431678). Nin-
sei, Dho, and other artists made use of tradition in their own ways, responding
to varied audiences with varied understandings of the past, and their output
launched a host of creative efforts in later centuries.
Tawaraya Statsu and Honami Ketsu (15581637) would later come to serve
as models for successive generations of painters today categorized as Rimpa
artists; the new synthetic manner of Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691) would be passed
down to a long line of followers in and out of the court atelier; and the inno-
vative approaches of Kano Tany spread among the bakufu painters and be-
yond to town painters (machi-eshi). In addition, Kano Sanraku (15591635) and
Kano Sansetsu (15891651) established a lineage that prevailed in Kyoto; Sumi-
yoshi Jokei (1599 1670) and Sumiyoshi Gukei (1631 1705) provided impetus
for scores of Sumiyoshi artists; Iwasa Matabei (1578 1650) trained a group of
pupils and played a role in launching the artistic movement of ukiyo-e (pic-
tures of the oating world). As Edo culture unfolded, the classicizing work of
many seventeenth-century artists became canonical in its own right, setting a
standard and providing a model for future generations.
With the dawn of the Edo period, therefore, a new historicism blossomed in
a country exhausted by war. Just as the Tokugawa leaders recognized the need
to quell military and political turbulence, they saw the value of shaping a new
social order and sponsoring traditional cultural forms that could express their
dominance. Other constituencies in Edo society also looked to time-honored
cultural forms to ensure their elite status on a shifting cultural terrain. Thus
warriors on the one hand and aristocrats and commoners on the other came to
appreciatefor different reasonsarts glorifying the past. The arts of old that
artists and patrons chose as models did not share a xed manner or a set the-
matic repertory, but they provided a grammar and a vocabulary that could be
Introduction 11
adopted wholly or selectively for a certain situation or a particular audience.
Various agents encouraged the development of historicizing art, although they
showed little commitment to historical accuracy as we might dene it today.
Seventeenth-century art came to be labeled classical only in the modern pe-
riod, and the contributors to this book reject the purported equivalence between
seventeenth-century references to the past and modern notions of an early-Edo
classical revival. Modern writers who rst identied Edo artistic classicism fol-
lowed Western notions of canonicity and cultural authoritycontributing to
the invention of a timeless, unchanging aesthetic category that had direct ties
to the emergence of a modern national identity. These modern constructions
of Japanese classicism occurred against the backdrop of a Western-led colonial
order in Asia and carried many problematic connotations. Yet despite its inter-
nal contradictions, its manifest anachronism, and its ideological assumptions,
classicism persists as a dominant paradigm in cultural studies of both the West
and the East. Using classicism as a point of departure, the essays in this book
therefore contribute to a signicant current debate around the globe.
All eight contributors to this volume question what is classical about early
Edo artistic production. Certain authors focus on the scholarly reception of
artworks venerated as classical, taking a historiographic approach to clarify when
terms and concepts related to classicism were introduced and uncovering hid-
den structures of the modern Japanese discourse on classicism. These chapters
add to recent critical investigations of ideological motives embedded within
cultural studies and shed a skeptical light on claims of neutrality made by mod-
ern scholars. Other authors inquire into the communities of artists and patrons
who participated in the classical revival, demonstrating the inadequacies of re-
ceived explanations for the functioning of Edo classicism. The nal two chap-
ters consider artworks not previously designated as classical but for which the
termbroadly understood to connote strategic reference to the pastis equally
valid. Despite a shared interest in reappraising classicism, however, the con-
tributors do not agree on the applicability of the term to seventeenth-century
Japanese art.
Some contributors think that classicism distorts our understanding of the
ways Japanese artists and audiences of the seventeenth century viewed art; oth-
ers nd the term useful in describing artistic developments and concerns of
the day. The latter writers could easily substitute the phrases uses of tradition
or the authority of various pasts, which are, in fact, common working deni-
tions of classicism. Contributors may differ in their attitudes about classicism,
but all agree that the modernist handling of classicism as an exclusively aes-
thetic, value-free indicator of taste presents us with difculties. We recognize
the relevance of recent scholarly currents such as postcolonial, postimperialist,
and feminist studies, which call into question totalizing or essentializing ap-
proaches that privilege dominant segments of Western culture. Therefore,
with a host of varied backgrounds and diverse outlooks, this volume presents a
range of approaches to the study of early Edo art and culture. In the end, how-
ever, we leave it to the reader to decide whether classicism is problematic to
seventeenth-century art.
The rst two chapters focus mainly on artists active in the early decades of
the seventeenth centurythe phase that modern scholars most commonly as-
sociate with a classical revival in Edo art. Chapters 3 through 7 carry the explo-
ration of classicism into later decades of the seventeenth century and open up
new avenues for investigating classical art in context. These chapters consider
both the faithful preservation of certain time-honored traditions and the re-
working of past models for specic audiences and clients. Several of the chap-
ters carry us into the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries when var-
ious novel currents were just beginning to make themselves knowntrends
such as the emergence of popular ukiyo-e prints and the inception of Chinese-
inspired Nanga (literati) painting. With these developments, elements derived
from classical art came to play a seminal role in creating waves of innovation
that would sweep through later Edo artsuch as, to name just one case, ukiyo-e
artists incorporation of classical references as witty parody or playful metaphor
(mitate).
In Chapter 1, Terminology and Ideology: Coming to Terms with Classi-
cism in Japanese Art-Historical Writing, Melanie Trede deconstructs artistic
classicism and canon formation. She begins by discussing the role of classicism
in Western culture, where it has long been associated with social and ideolog-
ical notions of cultural value. Next Trede explains ways in which late Edo au-
thors borrowed terms related to classicism from Chinese aesthetic discourses to
construct a protonationalist argument for the superiority of native styles of Jap-
anese art and how, in the process, they laid the foundation for modern Japanese
notions of canonicity. Finally, Trede exposes the twentieth-century discourse
on Japanese artistic classicismspecically, its use of Western terms such as
classical revival and renaissance to defend Japaneseness as a singularly im-
portant development in Edo art. Uncovering links with nationalism, she thus
places classicism under suspicion.
Introduction 13
In Chapter 2, Tawaraya Statsu and the Yamato-e Revival, Satoko Tama-
mushi focuses on four paradigmatic artworks considered central to modern
concepts of Edo classicism. She describes the convoluted process by which
early-twentieth-century researchers came to credit Statsu with restoring sec-
tions of the Heian-period Sutra Scrolls of the Taira Family (Heike nky)sug-
gesting Statsus direct contact with early yamato-e and supposedly proving
that the humble town painter was in a position to revive ancient elite traditions
in Japanese painting. Many scholars have claimed that the results of Statsus
contact with early yamato-e can be seen in his later large-scale compositions,
such as the three pairs of screens analyzed by Tamamushi. These screens
little known in the late Edo periodwere introduced to the public just as a
Statsu rage began to hit in the modern period. Imagining Statsu as a great
revivalist and catalyst, modern scholars identied the screens subjects as themes
resurrected from Heian courtly culture. But in Tamamushis estimation, the
screens are layered with meanings, some from popular culture of Statsus
own day.
In Chapter 3, The Patrons of Tawaraya Statsu and Ogata Krin, Keiko
Nakamachi reconstructs patronage networks established by two leading Rimpa
painters said to have contributed to early Edo classicism and examines the
function and status of their art. Statsus sponsors came from a variety of back-
grounds, but thematically and stylistically his painting was most closely asso-
ciated with the imperial court. Krin (1658 1716), born several decades after
Statsus presumed death, had fewer opportunities to receive commissions
from elites in Kyoto, driving him to seek an alternative clientele among promi-
nent warriors in Edo. Nakamachi makes a signicant point about the subjects
that Statsu and Krin chose to illustrate: according to a hierarchy of images
upheld by warrior lords, scenes with imported subjects of Chinese gures and
owers-and-birds held the foremost place whereas native Rimpa themes held
a low status. Nevertheless, as Nakamachi explains, the classical Rimpa reper-
tory was an effective platform on which Statsu and Krin could innovate.
In Chapter 4, Japanese Exemplars for a New Age: Genji Paintings from the
Seventeenth-Century Tosa School, Laura Allen explores the incorporation of
traditional artistic themes into early Edo discourses on moral conduct for
women. For centuries the education of women at court had centered on such
classics of Japanese literature as The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), and fa-
miliarity with such narratives was de rigueur for women from wealthy warrior
and merchant families as well. Allen informs us, however, that early Edo pro-
liferation of Genji illustrations owes a great deal to the formation of new para-
digms of moral and literary cultivation for women, along with the recent re-
lease in print of The Tale of Genji. From the mid-seventeenth century on, pub-
lishers increased production of didactic books for women with texts printed in
Japanese script, often accompanied by illustrations. Later in her chapter Allen
attends to Genji paintings by Tosa Mitsuoki, who honored stylistic orthodoxy
and selected female characters based on their decorous behavior, rened taste,
artistic accomplishment, and worthy progeny.
In Chapter 5, A New Classical Theme: The One Hundred Poets from Elite
to Popular Art in the Early Edo Period, Joshua Mostow considers album
paintings of the One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each (Hyakunin isshu), a col-
lection of verse compiled in the thirteenth century by Fujiwara no Teika. Al-
though this collection was prized as a literary classic within a century of its cre-
ation, it seems that visual artists adopted its subjects only in the seventeenth
century. Mostow focuses on three Hyakunin isshu albums produced in the
Kano and Tosa ateliers, one clearly dating to the Kanbun era (16611673) and
the other two probably dating either to the same era or shortly thereafter. As
Mostow reveals, Kano and Tosa yamato-e styles converged by midcentury in
the illustration of these albumsTany borrowing Tosa approaches and Mit-
suoki adopting Kano techniques. Kano school painters produced many such
albums for courtier-warrior weddings in the second half of the seventeenth
century, and Mostow suggests that these albums conveyed prayers for the peace
of the nation.
The nal two chapters address developments commonly omitted from the
canon of classical arts: a Tokugawa classicism formulated by Kano painters and
a populist classicism bolstering imperial prestige. In considering the classical
dimensions of these developments, the volume expands upon a little-studied
aspect of classicismnamely its operation as an expression of social and cul-
tural authority on the part of two elite groups, the ruling military regime and
the ancient imperial family. In Chapter 6, Classical Imagery and Tokugawa
Patronage: A Redenition in the Seventeenth Century, Karen Gerhart looks
into the decorative program for two compounds of Nij Castle in Kyoto: the
emperors Visitation Palacebuilt for retired emperor Gomizunoo (1596
1680; r. 1611 1629) and his wife for their ve-day visit to a residence of former
shogun Tokugawa Hidetada (15791632; r. 16051623)and the adjoining Ni-
nomaru Palace. Commissioned by the Tokugawa and executed under the di-
rection of Kano Tany in the mid-1620s, these paintings were weighted with
political messages and, as Gerhart reveals, were chosen because they could
convey and enforce Tokugawa hegemony. She proposes that the warrior class
Introduction 15
constructed its identity upon a gloried image of their martial heritage, which
differed from concepts of a golden age of Heian court culture. Intending to
give visual expression to warrior ideals in a new age, the Kano artists fashioned
a unique version of classicism: a Tokugawa classicism.
In the nal chapter, Uses of the Past: Gion Float Paintings as Instruments
of Classicism, I look at the conjunction of art and politics by examining a set
of paintings once displayed in the retirement palace of Tfukumonin, wife of
Emperor Gomizunoo and daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada. These paintings
depict the Gion Festival, a joyful celebration of the masses held each summer
in Kyoto. Although not a subject from age-old verse or narrative, these Gion
paintings are unmistakably classical in their reference to the social relations of
past eras. Initiated by a mid-ninth-century emperor, the festival later came to
express the vitality of commoner townspeople, a vitality that supposedly de-
pended on imperial sustenance. Thus as an image that pointed to traditional
notions of imperial responsibility for maintaining harmony in the land and en-
suring the well-being of the people, these Gion Float paintings served the goals
of the imperial family in terms of cultural clout if not legal or political power.
The book concludes with an afterword by Quitman Phillips, who reconsid-
ers the problematic designation of a classical revival in seventeenth-century
Japanese art. A glossary, an appendix listing artists and schools, and an extensive
bibliography offer further background on classicism in seventeenth-century
Japanese art.
Notes
I would like to thank Laura Allen, Karen Gerhart, Paul Jaskot, Joshua Mostow, Melanie
Trede, and Patricia Fister for valuable suggestions on revising this introduction, as well
as Britt Salvesen for editorial suggestions.
1. Although often referred to as the Edo period, based on the name of the capital city
of Edo (present-day Tokyo), this era is alternatively called the Tokugawa period. In ad-
dition, it is alternatively dated 16151868.
2. Modern art historians have applied the term classicism to several other types of
Japanese art, including Buddhist sculptures of the Hakuh (645 710) and the Tenpy
(710794) periods. For more on this question see Chapter 1 by Melanie Trede. Art his-
torians are not alone in drawing such analogies; political historian Kenneth Alan Gross-
berg, for one, posits that Japan experienced a political renaissance in the Muromachi
period (13921573) like that experienced by states in Renaissance Italy. See Grossberg,
Japans Renaissance: The Politics of the Muromachi Bakufu (Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1981), 13.
3. Similarly, in his groundbreaking study of classicism in Western architectural his-
tory, Richard Krautheimer explores Charlemagnes use of Roman architectural forms
to buttress his royal authoritythus considering classicism as an instrumentalized style
for building. See Krautheimer, The Classical Revival in Early Christian Architecture,
Art Bulletin 24 (1942):138.
4. For Robert Brower and Earl Miner, the classical period of Japanese poetry ex-
tended from 784 until 1350. See Brower and Miner, Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1961). Helen Craig McCullough dates the classical age of
Japanese literature from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries. See McCullough, ed.
and comp., Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1990), 1.
5. Two sources in English explore the literary basis of classical Japanese arts in depth:
John Roseneld et al., The Courtly Tradition in Japanese Art and Literature: Selections
from the Hofer and Hyde Collections (Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Art Museum, 1973), and
Carolyn Wheelwright, ed., Word in Flower: The Visualization of Classical Literature in
Seventeenth-Century Japan (New Haven: Yale University Gallery, 1989).
6. Johann J. Winckelmann, The History of Ancient Art, trans. G. Henry Lodge (Bos-
ton: J. R. Osgood, 1880).
7. Heinrich Wlfin, Principles of Art History, trans. M. D. Hottinger (New York:
Holt, 1932).
8. The controversy over canon formation is central to twentieth-century literary crit-
icism. For the foundational argument see Allan Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books
and Schools of Ages (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994), and E. D. Hirsch Jr., Cultural
Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (New York: Vintage Books, 1988). For
the antifoundational argument see John Guillory, Cultural Capital: The Problem of Lit-
erary Canon Formation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
9. For more on visual imagery and the cultural colonization of Japan by the West see
Gennifer Weisenfeld, ed., Positions 8(3) (Winter 2001).
10. Okakura and Ernest Fenollosa, a Harvard graduate who went to Japan in 1878,
fostered the study and preservation of ancient Japanese arts. Okakura posited that Asian
art history, like that of the West, has followed three developmental stages: the formal-
istic, the classic, and the romantic. For Okakura, arts of the classic age in Asia exhibit
an objective idealism and beauty is sought as the union of spirit and matter, compa-
rable to works sculpted by the ancient Greek masters. See Okakura Kakuzo, The Ideals
of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan (Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1971), 165.
11. kuma Shigenobu, Fifty Years of New Japan (London: Dutton, 1909), 342.
12. F. G. Notehelfer has observed that Okakura presented an artistic counterattack
against the West in his Ideals of the East. See Notehelfer, On Idealism and Realism
in the Thought of Okakura Tenshin, Journal of Japanese Studies 16(2) (1990):333.
13. For more on a Meiji literary canon and nationalism see Haruo Shirane, Issues in
Canon Formation, in Haruo Shirano and Tomi Suzuki, eds., Inventing the Classics:
Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 2001), 1112.
14. See Kuroda Toshio, Chsei ni okeru kenmitsu taisei no tenkai, in Kuroda Toshio
chosakush, vol. 2 (Kyoto: Hskan, 1994). In English see Kuroda, The Discourse on
the Land of the Kami (Shinkoku) in Medieval Japan: National Consciousness and In-
ternational Awareness, trans. Fabio Rambelli, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 23
(1996):353385; and Fabio Rambelli, Religion, Ideology of Domination, and Nation-
Introduction 17
alism: Kuroda Toshio on the Discourse of Shinkoku, Japanese Journal of Religious
Studies 23 (1996):387426.
15. Roy Andrew Miller, Japans Modern Myth: The Language and Beyond (New York:
Weatherhill, 1982).
16. Sat Dshin, Sekaikan no saihen to rekishikan no saihen, in Tky Kokuritsu
Bunkazai Kenkyjo, ed., Ima, Nihon no bijutsushigaku o furikaeru (Tokyo: Tky Ko-
kuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, 1999); p. 21 of the English text.
17. Joshua Mostow, Nihon no bijutsu gensetsu to miyabi, in Ima, Nihon no bijut-
sushigaku o furikaeru, 232239.
18. Certain scholars still dene Momoyama culture as extending to the rst decades
of the seventeenth century. See Fukui Rikichir, Momoyama jidai no bijutsu, in
Nihon Rekishi Chiri Gakkai, ed., Azuchi-Momoyama jidaishi ron (Tokyo: Jinysha,
1915), 371440.
19. See Hayashiya Tatsusabur, Chsei bunka no kich (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shup-
pankai, 1953); Koten bunka no sz (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1964); and Kin-
sei dent bunkaron (Tokyo: Sgensha, 1974).
20. Many historians continue to speak of a Kanei cultural phase, particularly in ref-
erence to developments in the ancient imperial capital. Along similar lines, John
Roseneld describes a Kyoto renaissance starting slightly earlier than the Kanei cul-
tural phase. See Roseneld, Extraordinary Persons: Works by Eccentric, Nonconformist
Japanese Artists of the Early Modern Era (1580 1868) in the Collection of Kimiko and
John Powers (Cambridge, Mass.: Sackler Museum, 1999), 115.
21. Hayashiya Tatsusabur, Machish: Kyto ni okeru shimin keisei-shi (Tokyo:
Ch Kronsha, 1964). For more on the theory of Kanei cultural eforescence see
Chapter 3 by Keiko Nakamachi in this volume. Hayashiyas notion that a machish-
courtier alliance was central to the classical revival of the Kanei cultural phase is ac-
cepted by a number of scholars, including the prominent art historians Yamane Yz,
Mizuo Hiroshi, Tsuji Nobuo, Minamoto Toyomune, and Kno Motoaki, who speak of
the machish connections of early Edo artists.
22. Recent years have witnessed a strong interest in Japanese arts following such dy-
nastic traditions, as evident in exhibitions on this theme. Catalogs to the exhibits include
the following: Ishikawa Tadashi, Shirahata Yoshi, and Takeda Tsuneo, eds., Miyako no
miyabi: Kinsei no kytei bunkaten (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1988); Sannomaru Sh-
zkan, ed., Kytei bunka no hana (Tokyo: Sannomaru Shzkan, 1993); Sannomaru
Shzkan, ed., Ky Katsurag denrai no bijutsumiyabi to karei (Tokyo: Sannomaru
Shzkan, 1996); and Tokyo National Museum, ed., Kshitsu no meihgosokui jnen
kinen tokubetsuten (Tokyo: Tokyo National Museum, 1999). Recent exhibitions in the
United States reveal a similar interest in Japanese courtly art and dynastic traditions.
Catalogs to these include the following: Roseneld et al., The Courtly Tradition; Wheel-
wright, Word in Flower; Boston Museum of Fine Arts, ed., Courtly Splendor: Twelve
Centuries of Treasures from Japan (Boston: Boston Museum of Fine Arts: 1990); Ann
Yonemura et al., Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collections (Wash-
ington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1997); Hirabayashi
Moritoku et al., Essays: Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collections
(Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1997); and
Maribeth Graybill, Manabe Shunsh, and Sadako Ohki, Days of Discipline and Grace:
Treasures from the Imperial Buddhist Convents of Kyoto (New York: Institute for Me-
dieval Japanese Studies, 1998).
23. David Pollack, for one, elaborates on features of Chinese literature borrowed by
Heian authors and poets, noting that the author of The Tale of Genji repeatedly intro-
duced topics related to China as a means to clarify and glorify the uniqueness of Japan.
See Pollack, The Fracture of Meaning: Japans Synthesis of China from the Eighth
Through the Eighteenth Centuries (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 61.
24. Miyajima Shinichi, Emperors as Artists and Cultural Leaders, trans. Maribeth
Graybill, in Hirabayashi et al., Essays, 1112.
25. The earliest known use of the term yamato-e occurs in a description of folding
screens from an entry dated to the thirtieth day of the tenth month of Chh 2 (999)
in the Gonki (Record of rights) written by Fujiwara no Kzei; however, the current con-
ceptualization of yamato-e was largely formed in the early twentieth century. Two stud-
ies helped lay the foundation of current yamato-e studies: Akiyama Terukazu, Heian
jidai sezokuga no kenky (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1964), and Ienaga Sabur, Jdai
yamato-e zenshi, rev. ed. (Tokyo: Bokusui Shob, 1966).
26. See, for example, Tokyo National Museum, ed., Muromachi jidai no bybuten:
Kokka skan hyakunen kinen (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1989), and Michael R. Cun-
ningham, The Triumph of Japanese Style: Sixteenth-Century Art in Japan (Cleveland:
Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991).
27. For more on this question see Chapter 2 by Satoko Tamamushi.
28. Eiko Ikegami, The Taming of the Samurai: Honoric Individualism and the Mak-
ing of Modern Japan (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), 152.
29. Roseneld, Extraordinary Persons, 115.
30. See Kyto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, ed., Tany shukuzu, 2 vols. (Kyoto: Kyoto
National Museum, 1981).
31. Some of these were only published in the modern era. Tansei jakubokush by
Kano Ikkei (1599 1662), Gad yketsu by Kano Yasunobu (1613 1685), and Honch
gashi by Kano Ein (1631 1697) are published in Sakazaki Tan, ed., Nihon garon tai-
kan, vol. 2 (Tokyo: Meich Fukykai, 1979 1980). See Quitman E. Phillips, Honch
Gashi and the Kano Myth, Archives of Asian Art 67 (1994):4657.
32. Kihara Toshie, The Search for Profound Delicacy: The Art of Kano Tany, in
Miyeko Murase and Judith G. Smith, eds., The Arts of Japan: An International Sympo-
sium (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000), 91.
33. Herbert Plutschow, Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon
Press, 1996), 3233.
Introduction 19
Chapter One
Melanie Trede
Terminology and Ideology:

Coming to Terms with
Classicism in Japanese
Art-Historical Writing
The very title of this book, Critical Perspectives on Classicism in Japanese Paint- The word
ing, 1600 1700, and the assembled chaptersall of which refer to the seem- classic has
a somewhat
ingly familiar Western concept of classicismcompel us to pose a set of ques-
chilly sound.
tions. What does it mean when we characterize a period as being classic in Heinrich
a European context, and what does it mean when we apply this expression to Wlfin
Japanese cultural discourse? We must examine the historical circumstances of
the origins of this term to identify those who shaped it in the past, as well as
those who use it today. We need to scrutinize the aims, purposes, and histori-
cal circumstances of those who employ the term classicism. And we have to
interrogate the specic meanings that emerge when classicism is applied to
particular artworks. These inquiries are important because the concepts and
discourses that develop around works of art are vital to the construction and sub-
sequent reevaluation of objects, styles, and artistic schools, as recent scholar-
ship on Japanese art history demonstrates.1
Rather than analyzing artworks, therefore, this chapter focuses on classicism
and related terms as discursive concepts that have been used in constructing
a history of art of the early Tokugawa period (16001868).2 I analyze several key
notions related to classicism, and I consider several of the painters whose work
is commonly selected to illustrate certain cultural characteristics of the Toku-
gawa period. The result, as we shall see, is a more complex picture of the dif-
ferent agendas and viewpoints of scholars who claim that a classical revival oc-
curred in seventeenth-century Japanese art. While I would avoid using the
term classicism altogether, the aim of this chapter is not to evaluate the ap-
plicability of the term but to explore the historical complexity of this concept
and offer a critical analysis of the discourse surrounding classicism in Japan,
Western Europe, and the United States.
The Chinese art historian John Hay (b. 1939) points out that the transcul-
tural use of the term classical is unavoidably comparative.3 One might add
that a Eurocentric bias informs the academic exercise of locating equivalents
for classicism in a non-Western context. As we shall see, however, aesthetic and
ideological concepts that are similar to classicism did exist in Japan during the
Tokugawa period and later. Such concepts played a role in setting standards
and establishing canons, as critics chose to appraise certain artists and schools
of art while they disqualied others.
I argue in this chapter that the very idea of classicism is a powerful ideolog-
ical construct and that classicism is a veritable twin to canon formation. I pro-
pose that the authoritative selection of a body of approved artworks, a task that
is integral to the designation of classics and canons, is not only subject to spe-
cic historical circumstances but also implicit in the construction of social and
political hierarchies. This chapter uncovers the process by which commentators
came to interpret an alleged revival of past modes instigated by seventeenth-
century Japanese artistsin particular Honami Ketsu (15581637), Tawaraya
Statsu (d. 1643?), and Ogata Krin (16581716)as well as the process by which
these interpretations came to serve specic agendas. It is my contention that the
evaluation of Statsus painting as the epitome of Japaneseness actually originated
in the late eighteenth century, not later as some scholars assert. In Chapter 2,
Satoko Tamamushi convincingly argues that several factors led to a reconsid-
eration of Statsu and his paintings in the late Meiji period; while Tamamushi
is undoubtedly correct, it is also true that the appreciation of Statsus paintings
is not a Meiji invention. As we shall see, eighteenth-century literati art critics
motivated by purposes specic to their positionselected Statsu, among oth-
ers, in constructing a lineage of Japanese painters whom they held, explicitly or
implicitly, to be superior to rival artists of their day. Along the way I highlight the
various concepts employed by modern art historians in describing paintings of
the early Tokugawa period.4 Classicism, it seems, is but one of many options to
describe and categorize painting developments, but it is a problematic concept.
The Concept of Classicism

This section examines aspects of classicism such as etymology and style; its role
as a component of ideology and canon formation; and, nally, classicism as a
disciplinary category.
22 Melanie Trede
Etymology and Style
The etymology of the terms classic and classical is found in the Latin word
classis designating the ve groups of Roman people established by the sixth
king of Rome, Servius Tullius (. 578 534 b.c.), who divided the population
according to wealth. Classicus species the person who summons the classes
of citizens to the Comitiaan assembly of the people serving legal, electoral,
and other functionsand, by extension, the adjective classicus refers only to
that which is of the highest order, the rst class, a superior standard.5 Thus the
identication of something as classical served a decisively social function from
the outset. In his discussion of classicism, David Freedberg (b. 1948) points out
that classical writers of ancient Rome provided literary models in contrast to
the scriptores proletarii, writers of the lowest social strata. As Freedberg aptly
notes, the term classical thereby acquired an ideological dimension from
which it has never managed to escape.6 Consequently, classical carries with
it two implied dimensions that survive from its origins in ancient Rome: a so-
cial dimension, revealing an association with the upper class, and an ideolog-
ical dimension, pertaining to value judgments made by those in power.
Thus we see that Romans conceived of the classic as a standard of perfection
and regarded the classics as works sanctioned by the elite. This understanding
became central to the classics of modern art history. More specically, though,
European art historians for over a century and a half have identied art of the
classic period as Ancient Greek art produced between 480 and 323 b.c. and
Roman art of the rst centuries c.e. Classic Greek and Roman art is character-
ized by such attributes as clarity and unity, balance and restraint, symmetry
and proportion, harmony and decorum.7 Although they did not necessarily use
the term classical, architects, sculptors, and painters of later periodspartic-
ularly from the European artistic movements of the Renaissance and Neoclas-
sicismrelied on these aesthetic qualities as models. Today artists continue to
refer to classic proportions and classical values in their work, as revealed for in-
stance in the 1993 exhibition In a Classical Vein held at the Whitney Museum
of American Art. Inherent in the notion of classical art, therefore, is a reference
to aesthetic models of the past.
Classicism as a Disciplinary Category

In describing Japanese Buddhist sculpture of the Hakuh period (645 710),
modern art historians have frequently employed the term classical, equating
Hakuh works with classical Greek and Roman art. To cite two cases, scholars
have come to regard as classical the bronze Yakushi Buddha Head created for
Te r m i n o l o g y a n d I d e o l o g y 23
Yamadadera in 685 and the Yakushi Buddha Triad in the Golden Hall of Ya-
kushiji in Nara.8 John Roseneld (b. 1924) explains his reasons for categorizing
the two works as such: We call this style classic, because of its high artistic qual-
ity, its universality, its atmosphere of calmness and repose; . . . the predominant
mood is an air of grandeur and serenity.9 Tanaka Hidemichi (b. 1942), profes-
sor of the history of European ne arts at Thoku University in Sendai, echoes
this view in his Art History of Japan in the World (Nihon bijutsu zenshi), label-
ing the Hakuh and Tenpy periods (645 794) as the epoch of classicism in
Japanese art history. For Tanaka, Buddhist sculpture of this period embodies
the sense captured in a famous phrase by Johann Winckelmann (1719
1768), edle Einfalt und stille Grsse (noble simplicity and quiet grandeur),
by which this pioneer of art-historical studies had characterized art from an-
cient Greece.10
In this way, twentieth-century writers dened as classic sacred icons of the
late seventh and eighth centuries that were located in Buddhist centers of the
highest importance to the imperial court and aristocracy, centers such as Yaku-
shiji and Yamadadera. Members of the upper class, who had access to Chinese
Buddhist sculpture of the Tang dynasty (618 907), sponsored the production
of these objects of worship following the Tang models.11 The ideological im-
plication at work here is apparent: these icons were sponsored by the upper
class for the upper class. Furthermore, these icons were later identied as clas-
sic due to the specic combination of political power of their sponsors and use
of an authorized style formed in emulation of foreign, mainland standards. The
perception of these Buddhist icons as classic, however, was possible only after
they came to be reconceptualized as art in late-nineteenth-century Japan.
Ernest Fenollosa (18531908), for instance, claimed that the Buddhist icons of
the Hakuh and Tenpy periods belong to a category of Greco-Buddhist art,
a category that essentially merges modern Western and Japanese notions of
classicism.12
Along the same lines, Tanaka Hidemichi adopts a structure for the history of
Japanese art that follows a modernist account of the stylistic development of
Western art. Not only does he designate the Hakuh and Tenpy periods as the
epoch of classicism in Japanese art history, but he then continues by labeling
art of the Heian period (7841185) as mannerist, art of the Kamakura period
(1185 1333) as baroque, and art of the Muromachi period (1392 1573) and
Momoyama period (15731600 or 1615) as romanticist, following the Western
paradigm of stylistic evolution. Tanaka begins his discussion of Tokugawa-
24 Melanie Trede
period art with the Statsu and Krin school and explains that painting of
this period belongs to the art of Japonisme. While few historians of Japanese
art would subscribe to this mechanical and simplistic appropriation of Western
concepts, Tanakas strategy highlights another fundamental way in which clas-
sicism functions: it serves as an inherent element of a teleological narrative
common to art-historical studies. According to this narrative, there is typically
an implicit reference to a pejoratively connoted before and after for the pe-
riod designated as an age of classicism.13 This function of classicism will be
claried later in the chapter.
Ideology and Canon Formation

That classicism can convey ideological implications becomes evident in an ex-
amination of modern architecture. The classical features of balance and sym-
metry, monumentality and perfect proportionality, visually manifest law and
order, authority and power. These are the messages that nineteenth-century
institutionsnancial, political, educational, militaryalmost invariably in-
tended to convey as they participated in the construction of cultural identities
for their respective new nation-states. For this reason, corporate bank buildings
constructed in Japan during and after the Meiji period were designed in a
Western classicizing mode. One such example is the main building of the Bank
of Japan (Nihon Gink) in Tokyo.14 But we could cite many such buildings of
this type still standing in Europe and the United States.
A forceful case in point is the tomb of Ulysses S. Grant (18221885), the eigh-
teenth president of the United States, which has been described as majestic,
classic, impressively outstanding,15 as well as triumphal, patriotic and inspi-
rational.16 Grants Tomb belongs to a group of commemorative monuments
erected around the world and characterized by a specic combination of style
and function: the style is classicist and the function is as national memorial for
a prominent military leader, in this case a general who had fought in the Amer-
ican Civil War (1861 1865).17 Here style and a sense of authority converge to
legitimize an iconography of contradictory motifs. Whereas the tympanum ex-
hibits Grants motto, Let Us Have Peace, engraved on a stone slab anked by
two relief sculptures symbolizing Victory and Peace, the inside of the building
is replete with nationalist and bellicose imagery.18 These particular motifs were
employed for ideological reasons. As Natalie Kampen remarks in her feminist
evaluation of classical art, the classicizing form alerted the audience to the
value of the program as cultural artifact and also to its authority, based on the
styles, however eclectic, of the past.19 The connection between classical refer-
ences and a quest for national unity and identity is not only evident in Grants
Tomb but of critical importance in writings on classicism in Japanese art.
As we move from one country to the next, from one period to the next, we
notice that the specic past and the particular objects that architects, authors,
and artists chose for their models change. Differences in gender, as well as dif-
ferences in social and political interest, play a role in determining what would
be included in a canon of authoritative works. Canon and classicism, conse-
quently, can be considered as two sides of the same coin.20 The very term clas-
sical embodies, in a broader sense, the notion of excellent standards and a
persuasive traditioncritical features for the formation of a canon. As anti-
foundational canon theory explains, these standards and traditions are con-
structed by dominant communities or institutions and, consequently, subject
to change.
Haruo Shirane (b. 1951) illustrates the vagaries of concepts of canonicity in
his coedited volume on canon formation in Japanese literature of the Meiji pe-
riod, Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Liter-
ature. Shirane explains eloquently how the introduction of Western concepts
of literature transformed the understanding of Japanese written tradition. For
instance, early Meiji-period readers had almost completely forgotten the
seventeenth-century author of books of the oating world (ukiyo zshi), Ihara
Saikaku (1642 1693), until his rediscovery in the 1880s. As Japanese intellec-
tuals began to look for works in their own native tradition that were equivalent to
Western realist novels, they came to recognize Saikaku as a signicant Toku-
gawa-period author and began to praise his work as classical.21 Scholarly en-
deavors of this type were, in effect, frantic searches for works from Japans past
that might match Western works and thereby contribute to the pursuit of na-
tional identity through literary and visual arts. And as cultural historians like
Eric Hobsbawn (b. 1917) have demonstrated, art and literature may seem to be-
long to a sphere separate from politics but in fact they are crucial to the forma-
tion of a nation-state.22
The writing of Fujioka Sakutar (1870 1910), the rst prominent modern
scholar of Heian-period literature, provides us with another example of ideo-
logical objectives informing the reevaluation of the past in establishing classi-
cism. In his book of 1905, A Comprehensive History of National Literature: The
Heian Period (Kokubungaku zenshi: Heianch hen), Fujioka argues that liter-
ature of the Heian period, not the Hakuh or Tenpy periods, corresponds to
the Western classic phase of Greece and Rome. Following the teleological nar-
26 Melanie Trede
rative cited earlier, Fujioka then identies Tokugawa literary and visual arts as
counterparts to arts of the European Renaissance. Furthermore, Fujioka ap-
plies a gendered construct to the two epochs he labels classic and renais-
sance: he describes the Heian culture that celebrated letters and the nobility
as cultivated and feminine; Tokugawa culture he depicts as masculine and con-
cerned with weapons and warriors.23 Just as Fujiokas book was released, the
Japanese military was celebrating a victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904
1905), which helps to explain why he urged the Japanese nation to look for
masculine models to enhance its strength and turn to femininity and the arts
to encourage its cultivation.24 The fact that Fujioka, at the beginning of the
twentieth century, described Heian-period arts in terms of renement, culture,
and femininity, while simultaneously praising these arts as classical, is key to
our discussion of classicism in Japanese art of the early Tokugawa period.
In Tokugawa Japan, as in other times and places, there was an institution
that played a pivotal role in upholding ideology and canon formation as natu-
ral ingredients of artistic classicism: the educational/guild systemmore spe-
cically for this analysis, the schools and academies of painting.25 The art his-
torian Kno Motoaki (b. 1943) compared the Japanese Kano school of painters
with the ofcial French Acadmie, which was established in the seventeenth
century.26 Similarities between the two institutions include the ordering of of-
cial ranks, the bestowing of stipends, and the educating of many generations
of painters. Kno notes two additional similarities: both institutions claimed
aesthetic roots derived from sources of a distant, classical tradition and both
produced art-historical texts canonizing their own philosophy of painting and
view of art history. Finally, the Kano texts, like the Acadmie texts, continue
to exert an inuence on the perception of art in their respective lands.
Based on Knos analysis, we could perhaps say that Kano Tany (1602
1674) was the quintessential classical painter of seventeenth-century Japan.27
Tany was named the leading painter of the inner quarters (oku eshi) for the
Tokugawa shoguns in Edo; he received the highest rank a painter could attain,
that of Dharma Seal (hin), in 1665; he trained a cohort of painters to follow
his style; and he left huge numbers of sketches and paintings that served as
models for his successors. (The activity of copying, of course, is part of the pro-
cess of canonization.) The canonical status of Kano painting during the Toku-
gawa period is revealed in the expression real painting (honga).28 Beyond this,
however, we might also consider Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691) as a classical painter,
although of another type. Mitsuoki reestablished the Tosa school as the ofcial
painting lineage of the imperial court (edokoro azukari) in Kyoto in 1654; he at-
tained the rank of Dharma Eye (hgen) in 1685; and he wrote The Great Tradi-
tion of Painting Methods in Our Country (Honch gah taiden), an art treatise
attacking Kano supremacy.29 Mitsuoki set aesthetic standards for painting that
answered courtly tastes of his time and for future generations of court painters.
There is, then, not just one classicism operating in Japan during the early
Tokugawa period but several classicisms. And as explained in the Introduction,
different people have different opinions about what should be called classical
in seventeenth-century Japanese art. It was later authors and enthusiasts who
identied the varieties of early-Tokugawa-period classicism, and they based their
identication on the social status and geographic location of the patrons, as
well as on the sorts of visual models that painters made use of. In this chapter,
however, I do not intend to evaluate seventeenth-century artists in terms of
who was (and was not) a classicist painter. I restrict my discussion to the meta-
level and examine written texts because my aim is to critically assess the char-
acter of the term classicism as such.
In sum, then, the etymological origins of the term classical demonstrate that
classicist forms and styles have long been tied to ideology and political power.
Classical forms and styles have often been employed to encourage national
unity and a common sense of cultural identity. The concept of classicism is
closely tied to the establishment of a canon, although the canon is liable to
change. And, moreover, the concept of classicism is integral to the constructed
European matrix of stylistic developments in art history.
The Chinese Terms Gudian and Gui

Japanese concepts equivalent to classicism are expressed in the following three
terms: koten (C: gudian) for classics, kotenshugi for classicism, and kurashi-
shizumu, the Japanese phonetic transliteration of the English classicism used
since the Meiji period. I intend to elaborate on koten, but rst I should men-
tion two Chinese terms with related but somewhat different connotations: gui
and guzhuo. Gui (J: koi) is rendered as archaic idea, idea of the ancient,
having an antique, old spirit, or alternatively as evoking the past, turning to
the past. Two historians of Chinese art, Chu-tsing Li (b. 1920) and John Hay,
agree that koi is the most appropriate equivalent for classicism in the arts of
China. In Hays estimation, given that the Chinese tradition was obsessed with
exemplars provided by antiquity, the concept of ku-i may seem a ready can-
didate for classicism. 30 In Japan, pre-Meiji art-historical writers relied heav-
ily on Chinese aesthetic models and employed koi in their texts in ways sim-
28 Melanie Trede
ilar to the Chinese. The term koi was by no means applied monolithically,
however. Melinda Takeuchi points to one clear case in Japanese art-historical
writing where koi was reinterpreted to allow for artistic license. She cites a
comment by the literatus painter and art critic Kuwayama Gyokush (1746
1799), who quotes the Chinese painter Shen Hao (1586after 1661) contending
that when copying the ancients, one need not even have the original in
view.31 For Gyokush, then, koi did not entail a servile adherence to original
antique paintings. In terms of the Chinese concept guzhuo, known in Japan as
kosetsu, its meaning is given in English as antique simplicity and clumsi-
ness, but essentially kosetsu refers to artworks that follow traditional models.
The three conceptskoten, koi, and kosetsuoriginated in Chinese aesthetic
discourse and have been used in different contexts in China, as in Japan. Whereas
koten is closely linked to the literary eld, koi and kosetsu are applied to liter-
ature as well as to painting, calligraphy, and seal carving.
Gudian/Koten
In his Introduction to the Studies of Classics (Kotengaku nymon), Ikeda Kikan
(1896 1956) elaborates on classicism in literature. As he points out, from the
earliest times the Chinese concept of gudian did not refer merely to old texts
as such but to texts that had been understood as a kind of rule on which stan-
dards of judgment are based.32 Texts regarded as classics in China were auto-
matically included in the canon of model worksvery much like the Western
treatment of classics. Japanese discourse followed this Chinese model. An early
example of the use of koten in Ikedas sense in a Japanese text is the fourteenth-
century war epic The Great Peace (Taiheiki). A passage from the second chap-
ter reads:
In another country [China] the subjects Wen Wang and Wu Wang chastised
a ruler lacking virtue, while in our country [Hj] Yoshitoki and Yasutoki
banished unrighteous sovereigns; and the world saw that it was good. So the
classic says: When a ruler looks upon his subjects as dirt and weeds, the
subject looks upon the ruler as a highwayman and an enemy.33
This passage quotes Mengzi (372 289 b.c.e.), whose writings are identied
here as koten and presented as justication for the banishment of several Jap-
anese emperors at the hands of the warrior lords Hj Yoshitoki and Yasutoki.
Ikeda contends that the very term koten was used in Japan to refer to ca-
nonical Chinese classics until the late eighteenth century.34 Then came a
change with the advent of the protonationalist kokugaku group of literary
scholars that included Motoori Norinaga (1730 1801). Norinaga rejected the
term koten because of its inherent Chinese connotations and instead pro-
posed an alternative expression, furukotobumi or furukikotofumi, to designate
ancient texts. Norinaga deliberately rendered furukotobumi and furukikotofumi
in the allegedly more Japanese hiragana syllabary rather than in Chinese char-
acters, and, in keeping, these words were meant to denote old texts that were
specically Japanese. In the Meiji period, scholars felt the need to incorporate
European literature into the aesthetic discourse. The term koten was there-
fore adapted to form kotenshugi, which was being used to translate the Euro-
pean term classicism, and in literature it referred to Chinese, Japanese, and
European old texts.
Gui /Koi
Chinese poems of the Tang dynasty that were devoted to the past often em-
ployed the term gui in their titles. Hans Frankel translates the term as evok-
ing the past, turning to the past, or in ancient style, and says that poets had
established certain patterns of relating to the past by the Tang dynasty.35 In art-
historical commentary, the rst known use of the term occurs in the writings
of the famous painter and calligrapher Mi Fu (1051 1107) of the Northern
Song dynasty (9601126). In his History of Painting (Huashi), Mi Fu uses gui
as a favorable term with which to praise artists and artworks; however, the sense
of the term is not distinctively aesthetic here.36 During the Yuan dynasty (1279
1368), Zhao Mengfu (1254 1322) was decisive in elaborating upon the term
gui. In a famous colophon on his landscape painting dated to 1301, Zhao
writes:
A sense of antiquity (ku-i) is essential in painting. If there is no sense of an-

tiquity, then although a work is skillful, it is without value. . . . The fact is
that if a sense of antiquity is lacking, all types of faults appear throughout a
work, and why should one look at it? What I paint seems to be summary and
rough, but connoisseurs realize that it is close to the ancients, and so con-
sider it beautiful.37
It is no coincidence that the practice of aestheticizing things of the past oc-

curred contemporaneously with the rise of literati art theory in the Yuan dy-
nasty and the Ming dynasty (1368 1644). A central tenet of literati painting is
the study and thorough knowledge of past models. Even though the preceding
comment by Zhao Mengfu does not clarify which specic antiquity he is refer-
ring to, later Ming critics of art, in particular Dong Qichang (15551636) and
30 Melanie Trede
his circle, do specify. Following Chan Buddhist concepts, these Ming critics
developed a theory dichotomizing Chinese painting traditions into a positively
connoted Southern school of painting (C: nanzong; J: nanshga; also nanga,
bunjinga) and a less favorably valued Northern school of professional painters.38
Although this theory entered Japan presumably just before the end of the sev-
enteenth century, it was taken up in art-historical writing only during the eigh-
teenth century concurrent with the emergence of literati painting and literati
art criticism in Japan.39 The concepts of koi and kosetsu play a more limited
role in the pre-Meiji Japanese discourse than they do in Chinese writing, how-
ever, and do not match the importance given to classicism in European art
treatises.
The Concept of Koi

Art-historical writing in Japan began to take shape on a large scale in the sev-
enteenth century and from the start was indebted to Chinese precedents.40 But
it was not until the latter half of the eighteenth centurywhen Japanese lite-
rati painters began to study and emulate Chinese painting manuals, including
texts by Dong Qichangthat koi became an important concept.41 Nakayama
Ky (1717 1780), a literati painter and poet from Tosa domain (present-day
Kchi prefecture), appears to have been the rst Japanese author to employ
the notion of koi. Ky uses this term in his Gratuitous Chats on Painting
(Gadan keiroku) of 1775 (Anei 4),42 but only in his discussion of Chinese paint-
ing. Ky employs koi to praise the use of color in pre-Tang Buddhist and
Daoist gure painting and to describe the effective rendering of plum trees
with ink wash. In volume three of Gratuitous Chats, Ky then echoes Zhao
Mengfus famous phrase, though without quoting him: The ancients also re-
vered the antique spirit; if there is no antique spirit, the painting might have
been technically perfect but to no avail. If one does not learn by looking at old
masters, then the essential antique spirit will be lacking.43 This passage empha-
sizes the weight given to the study of earlier artworks and shows that for Ky
and other literati painters koi was an indispensable quality of good painting.
The earliest known reference to seventeenth-century Japanese paintings
that exhibit koi and kosetsu is made by the eighteenth-century artist and critic
cited earlier, Kuwayama Gyokush, in his Humble Words on Matters of Paint-
ing (Kaiji higen) dated to 1799 (Kansei 11), the year of Gyokushs death. Hum-
ble Words was printed posthumously by Kimura Kenkad (1736 1802), Gyo-
kushs friend, partner in painting discussions, and literatus painter in his own
right. Kenkad, as we shall see, was probably responsible for making a number
of signicant editorial changes while putting Gyokushs manuscript into print.
Humble Words seems to have been printed in a small edition, judging from the
few extant copies.44 Because Gyokush was an art critic and literatus painter
well versed in Chinese aesthetics, it is no surprise that he derived his most deci-
sive arguments from Chinese theoretical treatises. It is astonishing, however,
that he applied the aesthetic qualities of koi and kosetsu to the early-Tokugawa-
period painters Statsu and Krin:
In recent times, Statsu and Krin followed another kind of painting. Even
though Statsu specialized in applying color in his ower and grass paint-
ings, his works possess antique spirit (koi) in abundance. Also, in his boneless
method of ink painting, his style is increasingly simple and exquisite; in all
this he followed the laws of nature, and he created paintings that possess
spirit resonance (kiin). Krin aimed at antique simplicity (kosetsu) in all his
gure and ower paintings, and he often avoided the usual way of painters.45
For Gyokush, Statsus colored paintings exemplify the quality of antique spirit
(koi) and his work in general possesses spirit resonance (J: kiin; C: qiyun),46
while Krins paintings demonstrate antique simplicity (kosetsu). The only
other forms in painting that Gyokush describes as possessing antique simplic-
ity are the gures in old Tosa paintings, which he characterizes with the term
kiin (spirit resonance).47
Gyokush probably derives this assessment in part from Kys Gratuitous
Chats, which mentions grasses and owers by Statsu and Krin, along with
gure painting by Toba Sj (10531140) and pictures of the revered vagabond
Hotei by Shkad Shj (1584 1639). Ky refers to these artists as profes-
sional painters (senmonka), having previously praised the large number of ex-
quisite (my) professional painters in China.48 Like Gyokush, Ky regards
the gures in Tosa paintings as being rened (ga), but Gyokush adds a new
dimension to the evaluation by introducing for the rst time the positively con-
noted qualities of koi and kosetsu from Chinese art treatises to celebrate these
Japanese painters. The only other seventeenth-century Japanese painter Gyo-
kush evaluates in similar terms is Kano Tany. He lauds in particular Tanys
depictions of Mount Fuji, describing them, like Statsus paintings, as possess-
ing spirit resonance (kiin). But in Gyokushs appraisal, Tanys work conveys
a limited sense of antique spirit, or koi, unlike Statsus paintings.49
Why does Gyokush single out Statsu and Krin for such high approba-
tion in his assessment of Japanese painting? I believe that his reasons are linked
32 Melanie Trede
to the overall rhetoric of his Humble Words. The thrust of this treatise lies in its
endeavor to apply the Northern/Southern theory of Dong Qichang to the
Japanese case and to construct a lineage of Southern school painters in Japan.
Gyokush observes that the style of the Northern school had been passed on
gradually to Japan through the paintings of Josetsu (. 1394 1428), Shbun
(ca. 1400 ca. 1454), and Kano Motonobu (1476 1559). According to Gyoku-
sh, the Southern school had not been transmitted sufciently but was just
starting to take shape.50 He identies recently deceased artistsGion Nankai
(16771751), Sakaki Hyakusen (16981753), and Yanagisawa Kien (17061758)
as the founders of the Southern school in Japan and places Ike no Taiga
(1723 1776) at the pinnacle of this group. Clearly Gyokush regards these
painters as precursors of his own painting in the literati mode. And for Gyoku-
sh, paintings by his teacher Taiga naturally convey the epitome of this devel-
opment. There is a signicant sentence in the printed edition of Humble Words:
I thought, surreptitiously, whether it is not possible to refer to the ink plays of
Lord Konoe [Konoe Nobutada (1565 1614)], the paintings by Seisei [Sh-
kad Shj], Statsu, Krin, and others also as the Southern school of our coun-
try?51 Nobutada, Shj, Statsu, and Krin are implicitly lauded here as the
pioneers of a Japanese version of Dongs favored Southern school of painting.
Kobayashi Tadashi (b. 1941) compares Gyokushs original manuscript of
Humble Words with Kenkads later printed version and elucidates Kenkads
pivotal role in taking the rhetorical gist of Gyokushs manuscript a step fur-
ther in print. It is not clear whether the sentences that Kenkad added to the
manuscript reveal his personal opinion or whether they convey the content of
previous discussions between Kenkad and Gyokush. But because Kenkad
had the nal word as editor of the text, I will refer to the foregoing quotation
concerning Nobutada, Shj, Statsu, and Krin as a shared comment by
Gyokush and Kenkad.52 Why did Gyokush and Kenkad add this com-
ment when Statsu and Krin had already been identied as the founders of
the Southern school in a previous passage of Humble Words? Scholars have
suggested that they added this comment due to the styles employed by the
painters in question, as well as their personalities and their eccentricity.53 While
these features are certainly part of the picture, another factor seems to be
equally decisive: neither Nobutada, Shj, Statsu, nor Krin belonged to a
lineage of painters or a school of painting as had the Kano and Tosa artists.
Thus they were apt candidates to push the origins of the Southern school fur-
ther back in time.54 It is signicant that Statsu and Krin preceded the con-
structed lineage of literati painters, and Gyokush and Kenkad describe them
as painters who could express koi and kosetsu, suggesting that they are masters
with superior aesthetic capacities.
There are parallels between, on the one hand, Gyokushs and Kenkads
discussion of seventeenth-century painters who made effective use of native
traditions and, on the other, the quest in late-eighteenth-century Japan for a
common identity vis--vis Chinese traditions.55 Gyokushs and Kenkads mo-
tives in delineating a distinctly Japanese literati style of paintingas well as
their search for earlier origins of a Southern school reaching back beyond the
generation of Gion Nankaimust be set in the context of their times and
against the backdrop of multifold activities of social and political elites. The per-
sonalities involved in such activities had as their goal the creation of a distinctly
Japanese tradition realized in part through collecting, recording, copying, and
reevaluating works of art and literature. Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758 1829),
who had served as chief counselor to the shogun since 1787 and regent since
1788, ordered the painter Tani Bunch (17631840) and others to compile the
Ten Types of Collected Antiquities (Shko jisshu), an encyclopedic project
including exact drawings of some two thousand antique treasures kept around
the Japanese states. Results of the project were rst printed in eighty-ve vol-
umes in 1800.56 A few years earlier, in the restoration of the Kyoto imperial
palace, which had burned to ashes in the disastrous Tenmei re of 1788, builders
followed the Heian-period palace model as it had been recreated in historical
studies.57
In 1790, nine years before the publication of Humble Words, Motoori Nori-
naga labored to prove the superiority of Japanese cultural traditions over other
ethnic and national legacies in his extensive study of the Kojiki of 712, the ear-
liest historical account of Japan. As Naoki Sakai (b. 1946) notes, Norinagas ar-
gument demonstrates a prototypical international consciousness comparable
to the various European nationalisms of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-
turies.58 What distinguishes this thinking from European forms of nationalism,
however, was the perceived necessity of encouraging two concurrent forms of
nationalism in Japan. As Haruo Shirane notes, one of these forms was an Asian
or East Asian nationalism and the other was a nationalism unique to Japan.59
Although these two forms of nationalism became prominent only in the Meiji
period, we nd traces of them in the passage from Humble Words quoted ear-
lier. Clearly Gyokush and Kenkad were attempting to construct and ap-
praise an independent lineage of Japanese painters by designating Nobutada,
Shj, Statsu, and Krin as the Southern school of Japan.
Gyokushs and Kenkads intentions become more apparent in an argu-
34 Melanie Trede
ment made by Anzai Unen (1807 1856) in his Chats About Calligraphy and
Painting of Famous Masters of Recent Times (Kinsei meika shoga dan), printed
in three stages in 1830, 1844, and 1852 (Tenp 1, Tenp 15, and Kaei 5). In fact, in
Chats Unen quotes Gyokushs lineage of the Japanese Southern school, be-
ginning with Gion Nankai. Unen, a native of Edo who had studied painting in
Nagasaki, was a dealer in painting and calligraphy but is best known for his writ-
ings on connoisseurship. Although Unens rhetoric in Chats is not as straight-
forward as Gyokushs in Humble Words, he certainly did his homework in
reading literati criticism. Unen quotes Zhao Mengfus famous comment on
studying old masters, cited earlier, and he makes use of the term koi to dis-
tinguish good from bad painters throughout his Chats. Unen, like Gyokush,
follows Dong Qichangs dichotomy of Northern and Southern schools. Identi-
fying Statsu and Krin as professional painters, Unen explains that their
paintings of grasses and owers, along with Shjs gures, deserve respect and
praise. Unen then states:
Furthermore, it is said that Tawaraya Statsu studied painting methods

under Eitoku [Kano Eitoku, 1543 1590], Ogata Krin studied under Yasu-
nobu [Kano Yasunobu, 16131685], and Seisei studied under Sanraku [Kano
Sanraku, 15591635]. Afterward they discarded everything they had learned,
and yearned for an indigenous old style of our country, thereby forming a
separate school. This indeed is skilled learning.60
Unen applauds Shj, Statsu, and Krin for abandoning their initial Kano
school training and striving to develop a style informed by models from Japans
past. Thus Unen not only highlights the two differing traditions of the Kano
school and the old style of our country, but he ties the use of past models to
the (proto-)nationalist idea of a superior Japanese mode of painting.
Here we encounter a fundamental difference between the Japanese and the
Chinese discourses on classicism. In Tokugawa Japan, the classical koi was
employed to dene an indigenous character in the arts, thereby implying that
Japanese painting exhibits creative independence and even superiority over
foreign models. In Chinese writings, by contrast, the classics were used to es-
tablish a link to antiquity and social elites and to offer subtle criticism against
current politics. In the next section I explore how nationalizing aspects of the
classical continue to be of vital importance in Japanese art-historical discourse.
In examining references to koi and kosetsu in early Tokugawa painting,
therefore, the following points can be made. Chinese art critics considered
turning to the past or rendering the antique spirit as positive qualities that
a painter should strive for. These notions, however, are not mentioned in
Japanese art-historical writing until the late eighteenth century. Gyokush is
the rst to use these concepts in reference to seventeenth-century paintings,
and he initiates the evaluation of Statsu and Krin as painters who mastered
such classical qualities. Gyokush and Kenkad construct an imaginary line-
age of Southern school Japanese painting, advancing Statsu, Krin, Nobu-
tada, and Shj as its originators. What we have, then, is another form of early
Tokugawa classicism designed to t Gyokushs and Kenkads agenda. Fur-
thermore, Gyokush, Kenkad, and Unen add a (proto-)nationalist note in
appraising this classical Japanese tradition as superior to the Japanese North-
ern school, as exemplied by the Kano style that was associated with foreign
models. Finally, the implication that there is an indigenous stylistic tradition
preferable to foreign models adds a distinct sense to the concept of the classi-
cal, one that seems to be specically Japanese.
Although this rhetoric begun by Gyokush and Kenkad was probably not
the dominant thought on painting in its day, it did prevail among literati cir-
cles. We can conclude, then, that within late-eighteenth-century literati circles a
discourse emergesone that canonizes Nobutada, Shj, Statsu, and Krin
as painters of classical and national importance. This discourse combines a no-
tion of classical art with a search for indigenous cultural identity while working
within a Chinese theoretical framework.
References After 1880 to Classicism

An exhaustive analysis of the complex issues related to Japanese art history after
the Meiji Restorationthe creation of a modern art vocabulary, the institu-
tionalization of art education in national schools, and the impact of such de-
velopments on reconceptualized art histories of Japanare beyond the scope
of this chapter.61 Instead I want to examine the rhetorical strategies in a selected
group of narratives by modern Japanese and European authors who discuss
early Tokugawa painters and painting. My analysis highlights the uidity of
words and stylistic connections, along with the individual mindsets and polit-
ical zeitgeist that have informed art-historical opinions and arguments to date.
It also reveals the problems that result from superimposing terminology devel-
oped within a European discourse onto a Japanese cultural context. One trou-
blesome issue that late-nineteenth-century authors had to deal with is how to
characterize early Tokugawa objects using European terminology. Another
36 Melanie Trede
issue that vexed scholars is which painters to single out for work that might be
called classical.
A late-nineteenth-century Scottish surgeon and ardent collector of Japanese
art, William Anderson (18421900), was one early writer to attempt a panoramic
account of Japanese painting history. Anderson lived in Japan between 1873
and 1880 and gradually acquired a collection of things Japanese that he subse-
quently sold to the British Museum. In his Pictorial Arts of Japan (1886), An-
derson assesses early Tokugawa painting as follows:
The seventeenth century brought many good artists, but on the whole must
be regarded as the commencement of a period of decadence. . . . The most
noted pupils of the Tosa and Sumiyoshis in this period, like Iwasa Matahei
[Iwasa Matabei (15781650)], were seceders from the traditions and motives
of the school. Statsu, a pupil of Hiromichi [Tosa Hiromichi, a.k.a. Sumi-
yoshi Jokei (15991670)], struck out [in] an original manner which, perhaps,
foreshadowed that of Krin; Kyetsu became famous for his bold pictorial
decoration of lacquer.62
Anderson shows no indication of believing there had been any such thing as a
classicist movement in seventeenth-century Japan. Rather he draws a distinc-
tion between a period of decadence and creative individuals who managed
to detach themselves from tradition. Among the latter he counts the painters
Matabei and Statsu. Andersons focus on originality and novelty in art of the
period dismisses visual repetition and copying, but clearly it is informed by
modern Western art-historical narratives.
Next we turn to the rst comprehensive modern overview of the history of
Japanese art, Histoire de lart du Japon, published in French in 1900 for the
Worlds Fair in Paris.63 The staff of the Japanese Imperial Museum, working
under the editorial supervision of the museums director, Kuki Ryichi (1888
1941), contributed entries to this history, which is specically addressed to a
Western audience. Like Anderson, the Histoire follows a Western art-historical
rhetoric in criticizing painters who turn to the past at the expense of original-
ity: In the world of ne arts, an excessive cult of tradition was established [in
the early Tokugawa period]. Everyone was afraid to change anything that was
informed by old formulas and by ancient methods.64 In a chapter dealing
specically with painting, the early Tokugawa period is characterized as a time
when painting realized a harmonization of various inuences and a diversity
of styles, but it lacked innovation. In short, the painting [of this phase] is calm
and without great originality.65 Then, in a section of the Histoire surveying the
character and evolution of the ne arts of the early Tokugawa period, an au-
thor singles out the Kano school as having the best painters of the day, as the
only lineage that was prospering, and as the choice of kings (shogun) in the
world of painting.66 The Histoire offers a pastiche of sometimes contradictory
opinions and categorizations of Tokugawa-period art, but its authors do not fol-
low a straightforward, integrated narrative. In the third chapter on painting, for
example, the authors apply the label Japanese renaissance to early-Tokugawa-
period art of the Tosa, Sumiyoshi, and Krin schools.67 And in an enlarged edi-
tion of 1916published in Japanese onlythe architect and pioneer in mod-
ern Japanese architectural history, It Chta (18671954), added a section on
Japanese architectural history in which he refers to the building style of this pe-
riod as the rococo of our country.68
Five years after the publication of Histoire de lart du Japon, the art historian
Taki Seiichi (18731945), a regular contributor to the inuential arts magazine
Kokka, digs up a new set of revivers of early-Tokugawa-period Japanese-style
painting (yamato-e). In his Three Essays on Oriental Painting, originally pub-
lished in 1905, Taki writes:
To some the statement may be a revelation, yet nevertheless it is true that

the one who brought about the [early Tokugawa artistic] revival, in its true
sense, of Yamato-ye gure painting at the beginning of the modern ages was
rst of all Sanraku Kano. . . . Next to Sanraku, those who revived the spirit of
Yamato-ye painting were the early masters of the Ukiyo-ye [pictures of the
oating world] . . . and whether time will ever produce another Sanraku
once more to effect the renaissance of the old Yamato-ye seems at this mo-
ment to be a very distant hope.69
Although the notion of a revival of yamato-e seems to have been widely acknowl-
edged among interpreters of seventeenth-century painting, scholars did not
easily agree on which artists should be credited with initiating and participat-
ing in the movement. A contributor to the Histoire identies the revivers as artists
of the Tosa, Sumiyoshi, and Krin schools, whereas Taki identies the fore-
most reviver of yamato-e gure painting as Kano Sanraku along with the ukiyo-e
painters. Few writers, however, seem to have accepted Takis glorication of
Sanraku.
Soon after Taki published his essay, two articles dealing with related issues
appeared in Kokka. In these articlesoriginally written in English and pub-
lished in 1906 and 1907the anonymous authors (or author) present Ketsu,
38 Melanie Trede
Statsu, and Krin as leaders of a revival of Japaneseness in the history of
Japanese painting. Apparent in the articles rhetoric is the modern dilemma of
having to prole novel and progressive art movements while at the same time
answering the call to dene a national tradition. Consequently the authors of
the two Kokka articles implicitly cast painting of the Muromachi period, con-
sidered a phase when Chinese subject matter and styles were introduced and
appreciated in Japan, as a primitive form of art from Japans Middle Ages.
The authors continue:
But upon the appearance of Ketsu, Statsu, and Krin, a new tide of prog-
ress set in; for they on the one hand exerted themselves to bring about a re-
vival of the old Yamato- style, and on the other hand originated a style re-
taining the spirit and technics of the Yamato- combined with the nobility
and vigour of Celestial painting. . . . These examples [of painting] are valu-
able . . . as ink-sketches of the purely Japanese type.70
The fact remains that Ketsu, Statsu, and Krin were the three great mas-
ters in the periods between the Kanyei [Kanei, 16241644] and the Genroku
[16881704], who developed a style of painting of the Japanese stamp and of
poetic taste.71
Common to early-twentieth-century scholarship on Tokugawa art was a search

for purely Japanese artistsa search that was undisturbed by the outlandish
inuences appearing in the book on Heian literature by Fujioka Sakutar,
published only shortly before, in 1905. We need to set this search for Japanese-
ness against the backdrop of the times: the Japanese had just emerged victori-
ous from the Russo-Japanese War, which resulted in a surging nationalist move-
ment that would soon pervade Japanese society.72 Thus Japanese writers made
use of the Western teleological narrative in contrasting the purportedly pro-
gressive and positive developments of an indigenous seventeenth-century artis-
tic revival with the supposedly negative continental artistic modes of earlier
centuries. Taki Seiichi, for instance, explicitly characterized the seventeenth-
century yamato-e renaissance as a reaction against Chinese styles, along the
lines of Unen, and described this development as a cry among a class of peo-
ple for the revival of classic art.73 Rhetorically he constructed this reaction as
a battle between styles, a thinly disguised war between Japan and China:
The introduction of Sung and Yan paintings in the Ashikaga [Muromachi]

period caused a change in popular taste for the lighter and simpler style of
Chinese origin, naturally counteracting against the popularity of richer na-
tive paintings. But from the close of that period to the commencement of the
Tokugawa period a tide of reaction had set in, and there came a cry among
a class of people for the revival of classic art. At such an age one may natu-
rally expect the renaissance of the Yamato-ye. And this indeed did arise.74
Interestingly, this lexiphanicism is not restricted to Japanese authors. Ernest

Fenollosa took up a similarly polemical tone in discussing the stylistic develop-
ment of early-Tokugawa-period painting in his Epochs of Chinese and Japanese
Art, published posthumously in 1912:
The very reaction of the Tokugawa age against the medievalism and exces-
sive classicism of Ashikaga ought to have been a violent return to Japanese
tradition and subject. And so it would have been but for the novel need of
the yashikis [residential architecture of the social elite] and the genius of
Tanyu. . . . Two phases of this revived Japanese movement arose in the mid-
dle and later half of the seventeenth century. One was the work of Tosa Mit-
suoki. . . . The other movement was started by a Tosa style of painter about
1650, named Sumiyoshi Jokei. . . . The Koyetsu-Korin school of design
painting and industriesis, rst of all, a prime sign of that natural return to
Japanese subject, after the Ashikaga debauch of idealism, which otherwise
Tanyu so nearly frustrated by his Chinese renaissance. . . . But the Koyetsu-
Korin school . . . goes far closer to the heart of the creators of 1200 than the
pseudo-Tosa could do, because its purpose was not scholastic but creative.
. . . It may be called the true Japanese school of impressionism; . . . as a
purely artistic school of impressionism . . . future critics will doubtless place
it ahead of anything that the world has ever produced. . . . Yes, we may call
this Korin school the Japanese school of impressionism.75
Fenollosa, like Taki, credits the early-Tokugawa-period painters who adopted a

natural return to Japanese subject with rescuing Japanese art from the demo-
nized, Chinese-inuenced medievalism of Ashikaga painting styles. Fenol-
losa describes Tosa Mitsuoki and Sumiyoshi Jokei as two representative painters
who revived Japanese styles. But in his characterization of a Ketsu-Krin
school, Fenollosa epitomizes the tendency in Japanese painting scholarship to
meld classicism and nationalism. While Fenollosa completely avoids the terms
classicism and renaissance in this context, he labels the Ketsu-Krin
school painters as impressionist in the most positive sense of the term and
40 Melanie Trede
praises their thorough knowledge of Heian-period gure painting. Brimming
with nationalist parlance, Fenollosa reveals his bias toward patriotism and an
ideology of superior races:
[The Koyetsu-Korin school] attempts to give an overmastering impression, a

feeling vague and peculiarly Japanese, as if the whole past of the race with
all its passions and loves surged back in a gigantic race memory inwrought
in the inheriting nervesa patriotism as gorgeous and free and colossal as
ones grandest dreams.76
The search for painters who could embody a distinctly Japanese spirit seems
to have been of foremost interest to Laurence Binyon (18691943) as well. Bin-
yon, curator at the British Museum, has been described as poet, art-historian
and critic.77 In his Painting in the Far East, written in 1913, Binyon evaluates
Statsu as a technical innovator and praises his and Ketsus revival of the
glory of colour, which Binyon sees as a critical ingredient of Japanese-style
painting. He echoes Fenollosas account but employs a less aggressive diction
when he writes:
Sotatsus art had its roots in the old art of Tosa, the national style of Japan,
but was developed by him into freedom, breadth, and suppleness. Korin car-
ries the style to climax and extreme, so that in him we see the distinctive es-
sence of the Japanese genius in nal ower. He is perhaps the most Japanese
of all the artists of Japan.78
Predictably the notion of Japaneseness reappears three decades later during

the high tide of Japanese fascism. In 1941, Wakimoto Tkur (18831963) pub-
lished an article in the art journal Gasetsu on Statsus ink painting of a lotus
pond. Describing Statsu as the Son of Japan (Yamato Onoko), Wakimotos
analysis is thoroughly implicated in the wartime ideology of Japanese superior-
ity. He states: Moreover, in only one petal, just like the palm of an old person
covering a babys head, he [Statsu] has observed the form that protects the
fruit very well; even this one aspect of Statsus untrammeled heart lets us ad-
mire the superior blood of this Son of Japan.79 In Japan after World War II,
writers continued to advance the notion that Statsu stands at the pinnacle of
a pure, native tradition within Japanese painting, along with the notion that
this tradition is devoid of any Chinese elements and independent from Tosa
school inuence. To cite just one example, Yamane Yz (1919 2001) writes
in an English adaptation of 1959:
The work of Statsu has been acclaimed since the beginning of the [twen-
tieth] century as the essence of the native tradition of Japanese painting.
This tradition, owing only remote and disputable origins to Chinese inu-
ence, stands in broad contrast, during more than a thousand years, with suc-
cessive schools of painting which consciously followed Chinese models.80
More recently, Tanaka Hidemichi has presented a comparable interpreta-

tion in his Art History of Japan in the World (1995). He views the art of the en-
tire Tokugawa period as belonging to an age of Japonisme, claiming not only
that it came to attain an international reputation but that it revived unique
forms of Japanese expression which had been developing since the Kamakura
period. Tanaka asserts:
In a sense, genre painting (fuzokuga) is the liberation from a Japanese

complex about Chinese-style painting (kanga) and signies the revival of
yamato-e. Based on a new kind of expression, perhaps we can say that Edo
art came to belong to an international art. There was a gradual revival of
Japanese forms of expression produced from the Kamakura period on. I call
this phenomenon Japonisme, deliberately using a Western term.81
Even though Tanaka considers Chinese inuence on Japanese painting to be

negative, he places great signicance on Western recognition of Tokugawa-
period accomplishments in art. His equating of Tokugawa art with world art
bespeaks the rhetoric of the so-called Edo booma phase of fascination with
things from Edo that occurred in Japan during the 1990s, when Tanaka pub-
lished the book in question. A conspicuous example of the Edo boom was the
opening of the Edo Tokyo Museum in Tokyo in 1993, which was both a result
of the ongoing boom and itself a generator of interest in Edo culture. Not co-
incidentally, the slogan internationalization (kokusaika) came into widespread
use in the 1990s as a keyword employed at all levels of the government as well
as in educational and cultural institutions.82 Thus Tanaka both reected and
shaped the prerogatives of his time. In terms of the discussion at hand, he was
yet another of the twentieth-century writers who coupled the idea of a classical
revival with a nationalist stance.
Another contemporary art historian, Doris Croissant, seriously questions the
idea of a yamato-e revival inherent in Statsus work. Instead she suggests that
we discuss his renderings of The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) and the Tales
of Ise (Ise monogatari) in terms of parody, or mitate. In a paper presented in
1998, Croissant explains:
42 Melanie Trede
The obvious difference between Statsus Yamatoe vocabulary and contem-
porary Tosa painting could, certainly, not remain unnoticed by connoisseurs
of classical painting. But, would they regard such suggestions as being tan-
tamount to a serious Yamatoe revival? I believe that Statsus innovative pic-
torialisation of the Genji and Ise novels rather corresponds to a parody (mi-
tate) of medieval subject[s] than to a revival of Yamatoe style. . . . His playful
remodelling of Yamatoe motives is not due to genuine visionary power, but
aims at a completely new combination of prefabricated singular elements
taken from old sources. This partly imitative, partly ironic dealing with the
past, probably, corresponds to the melancholic references to classical poetry
by contemporary poets like Karasumaru Mitsuhiro [15791638].83
More than twenty years earlier Croissant had strongly questioned the use of
terms such as classicism and renaissance in reference to works by Ketsu
and Statsu.84 Croissant belongs to a group of scholars who historicize, contex-
tualize, and demythologize Ketsu, Statsu, and Krin, artists now recognized
as the leading representatives of a classicizing movement in seventeenth-
century art.85
In sum, then, some modern art-historical texts criticize seventeenth-century
painting as decadent and unduly dependent on tradition. At the beginning of
the twentieth century, however, most writers praised an ostensible reaction
against and liberation from excessive Chinese inuences by using the term
renaissance or by referring to a revival of Japanese styles. Painters credited
with having created purely Japanese forms of expression range from Sanraku
to Mitsuoki, Jokei, Ketsu, Statsu, and Krin. Modern scholars have pointed
to the latter three artists as painters who could express a Japanese aesthetic pro-
moting the superiority of Japanese culture over foreign models. This tendency
culminated in the 1940s with Wakimotos battle cry lauding Statsu as the
Son of Japan endowed with superior blood. Although postwar writers of art-
historical narratives continued to praise Statsu as the prime Japanese painter
of his age, a number of recent studies reassess Statsus historical persona and
look at his achievements in more complex ways.
Conclusion
My aim in this chapter has been to demonstrate just how ideologically charged
the term classicism is. And, as various quotations from scholarly writing show,
there was no single classicism in early Tokugawa painting but a variety of clas-
sicisms. Certainly the writing of art history and the evaluation of artists using
imported terminology was not new to the Meiji period. Earlier writers had bor-
rowed Chinese concepts to compose art-historical narratives and evaluate artists.
With the introduction of European art terminology in the late nineteenth and
twentieth centuriesand with a whole host of concurrent social and political
changes in Japana signicantly different discourse emerged. But the art his-
tories of the Tokugawa period, too, were constructed to realize specic objec-
tives. This chapter is therefore a call for historians to reconsider the role of pre-
Meiji art-historical writing within the framework of its time.
Both the Chinese term gudian and the English term classicism were
tied from the outset to canon formation and issues of ideology, and they were
imported as such into Japan. Yet when late-eighteenth-century literati writers
attributed the classicist qualities of koi and kosetsu to early Tokugawa painters,
they were implying that these painters conveyed an indigenous Japanese aes-
thetic in their art. This process begins in 1799 with Gyokushs and Kenkads
discussion of works by Nobutada, Shj, Statsu, and Krin and is continued
by Unen in his treatise published some thirty years later. The same basic argu-
ment is then taken up by Meiji writers, but with more blatantly nationalist in-
tentions. The modern scholars and enthusiasts writing Japanese art history
both in Japan and the Westtend to concur that there was a close connection
between the notion of a seventeenth-century yamato-e revival and the con-
struction of a uniquely national art for Japan. Thus classicism is integral to the
teleological narrative of Japanese artistic evolution, and this narrative devalues
pre-Tokugawa painting styles with strong Chinese inuence, which implicitly
or explicitly are categorized as medieval. Most twentieth-century writers canon-
ized Ketsu, Statsu, and Krin as the denitive classicizing Japanese painters
who returned to Heian models, while they criticize other major artistic cur-
rents of the seventeenth century. Modern writers disparage Tosa art as worn-
out and degenerate due to its diligent preservation of yamato-e modes and den-
igrate Kano art as eclectic and impure due to its reliance on Chinese models.
Such writers base their evaluation of indigenous Japanese artistic develop-
ments on a valorization of artistic originality coupled with a valorization of the
classical revival.
Apparently one characteristic of the Japanese discourse on classicism is a
compelling desire to seek out art forms that ennoble Japans classic past and
position them at a polar extreme or as a counteraesthetic to Chinese and other
imported styles. It is particularly important to recognize the political and ide-
ological implications of such rhetoric in light of Karatani Kjins (b. 1941) re-
44 Melanie Trede
mark that nationalism in generalnot only the varieties of nationalism born
in Japanis shaped by an aesthetic consciousness and that Japan has always
been perceived of, by itself as well as by others, in aesthetic terms.86 Only re-
cently have scholars begun to question the modern evaluation of Statsu and
Krin, and new interpretations are being proposed to free us from the limiting
discourse in which Statsu and Krin uniquely and invariably represent Japa-
neseness. A comment by Natalie Kampen (b. 1944) sums up the implications
of the term classicism: Classicism is, thus, much more than a value-free mat-
ter of taste or visual ideals; it may become the instrument of a wide-ranging
ideology, a device and a metaphor for social control.87
Notes
I dedicate this chapter to my colleagues Natalie Boymel Kampen of Barnard College
and Haruo Shirane and Henry Smith of Columbia University. I thank Joseph Loh for
his initial proofreading and Elizabeth Lillehoj for her invaluable editorial suggestions,
and my gratitude is due also to Jaqueline Bernd, Doris Croissant, Christine Guth, and
Lothar Ledderose and Henry Smith for signicant comments on previous drafts of this
chapter.
1. See, for example, Sat Dshin, Nihon bijutsu tanj: Kindai Nihon no kotoba
to senryaku, (Tokyo: Kdansha, 1996), 32 66; Joshua Mostow, Nihon bijutsushi gen-
setsu to miyabi, in Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, ed., Ima, Nihon no bijutsu-
shigaku o furikaeru (Tokyo: Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, 1999), 232239; and
Tamamushi Satoko, Nihon bijutsu sshokusei to iu gensetsu, in Ima, Nihon no bi-
jutsushigaku o furikaeru, 240257.
2. The early Tokugawa period roughly covers the seventeenth century. I prefer this
designation to Edo period because Edo was yet to play an inuential cultural role as
a city in the seventeenth century whereas the Tokugawa shoguns and their government
had already begun to recongure and control every level of the social, economic, and
political development of the land.
3. John Hay, Some Questions Concerning Classicism in Relation to Chinese Art,
Art Journal 47(1) (Spring 1988):27.
4. For a number of reasons I limit this chapter to painting. First, painting is the books
central focus. Second, most art-historical writing from premodern Japan focuses on the
medium of painting. Architecture, for example, has been described in completely sep-
arate termsas is demonstrated by the earliest full-edged modern account of Japanese
art history: Commission Impriale du Japon, ed., Histoire de lart du Japon (Paris: Mau-
rice de Brunoff, 1900). And third, with the acceptance of Western art-historical method-
ology and the hierarchical (re-)structuring of the arts in the Meiji period, painting came
to be ranked as the most important art medium in Japan. As a consequence, art histo-
rians who work in modern Japan on seventeenth-century Japanese art typically have
specialized in painting studies. These scholars have discussed painting styles and forms
in terms of Western terminology to a greater extent than scholars who research other
media.
5. Charlton Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1966), 350.
6. David Freedberg, Classical: Concept and Ideology, in Whitney Museum of
American Art, ed., In a Classical Vein: Works from the Permanent Collection (New York:
Whitney Museum of American Art, 1993), 15.
7. Michael Greenhalgh in Jane Turner, ed., The Dictionary of Art, vol. 7 (London:
Macmillan, 1996), 382.
8. These two works of Buddhist sculpture are often reproduced. For an illustration of
the Buddha head that is housed in Kfukuji see, for example, Matsushima Ken,
Kfukuji: Shinpen meih Nihon no bijutsu, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Shgakukan 1990), pl. 29; for
an illustration of the Yakushi triad see Matsuyama Tetsuo, Yakushiji: Shinpen meih
Nihon no bijutsu, vol. 2 (Tokyo: Shgakkan, 1990), pls. 17. Both works are also repro-
duced in Sugiyama Jir, Classic Buddhist Sculpture: The Tempy Period, trans. Samuel
Crowell Morse (Tokyo: Kodansha International and Shibund, 1982), 36 and 4143.
9. John M. Roseneld, Japanese Arts of the Heian Period: 7941185 (New York: Asia
House Gallery, 1967), 23.
10. Tanaka Hidemichi, Nihon bijutsu zenshi (Tokyo: Kdansha, 1995), 26 and 381.
Later in the chapter I will return to Tanaka to consider his interpretation of Tokugawa
art. Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this chapter are mine.
11. The Buddha icon of Yamadadera was created in 678 in memory of the high-rank-
ing aristocrat and minister of the right, Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawamaro (d. 649)
(Matsushima, Kfukuji, 93); and Emperor Tenmu (d. 686) pledged in 680 to build
Yakushiji for the recovery of the empress (Yakushiji to Tshdaiji, Nihon koji bijutsu
zensh, vol. 3 [Tokyo: Sheisha, 1979], 91). Kuno Takeshi discusses a Chinese Buddha
sculpture in the Chinese temple of Shentongsi of Shandong province with an inscrip-
tion dating to 658, which might have served as a model for the Yakushi triad of
Yakushiji. See Kuno, Butsuz no rekishi: Asuka jidai kara Edo jidai made (Tokyo: Ya-
makawa Shuppansha, 1987), 88 90. See also Sugiyama, Classic Buddhist Sculpture,
4445.
12. Ernest Fenollosa, Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art, vol. 1 (New York: Dover,
1963), 90115; originally published in 1913. Christine Guth has traced the changing per-
ception of Buddhist objects from sacred icons to commodities of the evolving art mar-
ket during the Meiji period. See Christine M. E. Guth, Art, Tea, and Industry: Masuda
Takashi and the Mitsui Circle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 100117.
13. Thanks to Christine Guth and Henry Smith for sharpening my argument here.
14. The headquarters of the Nihon Gink at Nihonbashi in Tokyo were built by Ta-
tsuno King (18541919) in 1896; the Osaka branch of the same bank was built in a clas-
sicist style ve years later, as was the Kobe branch of the Mitsubishi bank in 1900. See
Fujimori Terunobu, Bakumatsu Meiji hen: Nihon no kindai kenchiku, vol. 1, Iwanami
shinsho 308 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1994), 228229.
15. Albert Ulmann, A Landmark History of New York (New York: Appleton-Century,
1939), 337. Grants mausoleum, completed in 1897, is located in Manhattan at 122nd
Street and Riverside Drive. See also the eulogizing account by Donald Martin Rey-
nolds in U.S. Grant: His Tomb, His Life, and His Generals, in Monuments and Mas-
terpieces: Histories and Views of Public Sculpture in New York City (New York: Thames
& Hudson, 1997), 214223.
16. Eric A. Reinert, Grants Tomb (Ft. Washington, Pa.: Eastern National, 1997), 12.
46 Melanie Trede
17. For another such case in point see the article by Lothar Ledderose on the Mao
Mausoleum in Beijing (1977), where he discusses Chinese architectural traditions
mixed with Western models of classicist mausoleums and memorial halls; Ledderose,
Die Gedenkhalle fr Mao Zedong, in Jan Assmann and Tonio Hoelscher, eds., Kul-
tur und Gedchtnis (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1988), 311339; referred to also in Brunilde
Sismondo Ridgway, Fourth Century Styles in Greek Sculpture (Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1997), 111.
18. Two circular niches are dedicated to Grants military achievements as a general.
Surrounding eight ags of various regiments are painted wall maps exhibiting major
sites of the Civil War, which demonstrate Grants participation. The maps are framed
on top by painted friezesclearly inspired by classic Greek relief sculpture of the
fourth century b.c.depicting battle scenes. Comparable motifs can be identied in
the Amazon frieze of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, kept in the British Museum.
For illustrations see Bernard Ashmole, Architect and Sculptor in Classical Greece (New
York: New York University Press, 1972), pls. 194 208. I owe this identication to Gn-
ther Kopcke.
19. Natalie Boymel Kampen, The Muted Other, Art Journal 47(1) (Spring 1988):15.
20. The best account of the history of canon as word and concept in various cultures
is presented by Jan Assmann in Das kulturelle Gedchtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung, und
politische Identitt in frhen Hochkulturen (Munich: Beck, 1992 1997), 103 129. Ass-
mann discusses the subtle relationship between the terms canon and classicism in
the section titled Der geheiligte Bestand: Kanon und Klassik, 118 121. According to
Assmann, Different epochs and different schools make different selections. Canon for-
mations in terms of classic and classicism are fundamentally variable. Each period has
its own canon; p. 121.
21. Haruo Shirane, Issues in Canon Formation, in Haruo Shirane and Tomi
Suzuki, eds., Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Litera-
ture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 7. Thanks to Haruo Shirane for allowing
me to use his book manuscript well before its publication. On the effect of this ten-
dency on early-twentieth-century Japanese literature see Roy Starrs, Writing the Na-
tional Narrative: Changing Attitudes Toward Nation-Building Among Japanese Writ-
ers, 1900 1930, in Sharon A. Minichiello, ed., Japans Competing Modernities: Issues
in Culture and Democracy 1900 1930 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998),
206 227.
22. See Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 19831997), 270272. A project that greatly eluci-
dated this tendency was a recent German exhibition on European myths of the nation
that visualized the mythological creation of nations through painting in nineteenth-
century European countries. See the exhibition catalog, Monika Flacke, ed., Mythen
der Nationen: Ein Europisches Panorama (Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum,
1998). See also the provocative essay on the topic included in this catalog by the late
Stefan Germer, Retrovision: Die Rckblickende Erndung der Nationen durch die
Kunst, 3352.
23. Fujioka Sakutar, Kokubungaku zenshi: Heianch hen, Ty bunko 198 (Tokyo:
Heibonsha, 1971), 89; originally published in 1905. Thomas Keirstead discusses Meiji-
period predecessors of Fujioka who gender the Heian culture as feminine and criticize
it for its ostentation and luxury while appraising the Middle Ages as an epoch of mas-
culinity and heroismas, for example, Mikami Sanji and Takatsu Tetsusabur, Nihon
bungakushi (Tokyo: Kinkd, 1890). See Keirstead, The Gendering and Re-Gendering
of Medieval Japan, U.S.-Japan Womens Journal, English Supplement 9 (1995):7792,
particularly 7882.
24. Fujioka, Kokubungaku, 8.
25. Thanks to Christine Guth for pointing out the importance of the academy in clas-
sicism and canon formation.
26. Kno Motoaki, The Kano School: The Japanese Academy and Its Literature
(originally published in English), Bijutsushi Rons 5 (1989): 125 129. Kno points out
differences between the Japanese and French cases, as well, including the hereditary
status of Japanese painters and the lack in Japan of institutionalized exhibitions like the
salon, which played such an important role in French art.
27. For more on Kano Tany see Chapter 5 by Joshua Mostow and Chapter 6 by
Karen Gerhart.
28. Kobayashi Tadashi, Gazoku no ko: Honga to ukiyo-e, in Nakano Mitsutoshi,
ed., Nihon no kinsei (Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1993), 12:351376, particularly 356.
29. For more on Tosa Mitsuoki see Chapter 4 by Laura Allen. See also Tosa Mitsuoki,
The Great Tradition of Painting Methods in Our Country [Honch gah taiden], written
in 1690; transliterated in Sakazaki Tan, ed., Nihon kaigaron taikei, vol. 5 (Tokyo: Mei-
ch Fukykai, 1980); Vera Linhartov, Sur un fond blanc: crits japonais sur la peinture
du IXe au XIXe sicle (Paris: ditions Gallimard, 1996), 240 246; and Makoto Ueda,
Literary and Art Theories in Japan (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University, 1967),
128144.
30. Hay, Some Questions, 27. Here the quotes use the Wades-Giles system of
transliteration, and the pinyin term gui is rendered, therefore, as ku-i. Chu-tsing Li
has observed that the term classicism has seemed the most appropriate equivalent of
ku-i in Yan criticism. See Li, The Autumn Colors on the Chiao and Hua Moun-
tains: A Landscape by Chao Meng-fu, Artibus Asiae Special Issue (1965):70.
31. Melinda Takeuchi, Taigas True Views: The Language of Landscape Painting in
Eighteenth-Century Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 145.
32. Ikeda Kikan, Kotengaku nymon (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 19521991), 1517.
33. See Helen Craig McCullough, trans., The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Ja-
pan (Rutland: Tuttle, 1959), 44.
34. Ikeda, Kotengaku, 17. The Heian-period Tales of Ise, The Tale of Genji, the Collec-
tion of Poems Old and New (Kokin wakash), and other Japanese prose and poetry texts
had, in fact, attained canonical status at least by the second half of the seventeenth century
evident from inventories of daimyo libraries as well as educational treatises advocat-
ing these texts as a sine qua non of bridal trousseaux. In aesthetic discourse, however,
it seems they were not referred to as classical (koten), a term reserved for Chinese texts.
35. Hans H. Frankel, The Contemplation of the Past in Tang Poetry, in Arthur F.
Wright and Denis Twitchett, eds., Perspectives on the Tang (New Haven: Yale Univer-
sity Press, 1973), 345 and 363. In his translations of Tang-dynasty poetry, Stephen Owen
(b. 1946) renders the term gui variously, giving all of these translation possibilities:
ancient theme/attitude, imitation of an old theme, meditation on the past, ancient
morality, or the use of a historical subject; Owen, The Poetry of the Early Tang (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 104 105. My thanks to Martin Kern for advice on
the use of this term in Chinese literary history.
48 Melanie Trede
36. Li, Autumn Colors, 70.
37. Translated by Susan Bush in The Chinese Literati on Painting: Su Shih (1037
1101) to Tung Chi-chang (1555 1636), Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies, 27 (Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971), 121122.
38. Wen Fong, Tung Chi-chang and Artistic Renewal, in Wai-kam Ho, ed., The
Century of Tung Chi-chang 1555 1636 (Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art/
University of Washington Press, 1992), pt. 1, 4749.
39. Linhartov, Sur un fond blanc, 179.
40. The most comprehensive anthology of Japanese art-historical treatises is Sakazaki
Tan, ed., Nihon kaigaron taikei, 5 vols. An annotated publication of individual treatises
is currently being published as a series, of which four volumes have appeared to date.
See Kobayashi Tadashi and Kno Motoaki, eds., Teihon Nihon kaigaron taisei (To-
kyo: Perlikansha, 1995). The most comprehensive survey of Japanese art treatises in a
Western language, including translated excerpts, is found in Linhartov, Sur un fond
blanc.
41. The following review of terminology is based on a thorough search of the respec-
tive terms in Tokugawa-period art treatises enabled by a complete digital database of
Sakazakis Nihon kaigaron taikei, as well as Chinese art treatises. I thank Yonekura Mi-
chio of the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties for generously giv-
ing me access to the institutes database and assisting me in my search.
42. Keiroku, which I translate as Gratuitous Chats, refers in a metaphorical sense
to something that has little value of itself but is difcult to discard. The same word ap-
pears in the title of several Song-dynasty books. See Morohashi Tetsuji, DaiKanwa jiten
(Tokyo: Taishkan Shoten, 1974), 11:12582.
43. Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 2:287. I thank Barbara Ford, Matthew McKelway, and To-
moko Sakomura for their helpful suggestions on the translations.
44. Kobayashi Tadashi transliterated the original manuscript in his article Kkan
Kuwayama Gyokush ch Gaen higen [Critical transliteration of Kuwayama Gyo-
kushs Humble Words on the World of Painting], Museum 218 (May 1969):4 12. For
Kenkads published version of Humble Words see Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 1:134151. Both
the manuscript Gaen higen and Humble Words will be included in Kobayashi and Kno,
Teihon Nihon kaigaron taisei, vol. 5. Although Humble Words was probably circulated
mostly among Kenkads friends, two Gaen higen manuscripts were transmitted in the
important library of the Kish Tokugawa clan; see Kobayashi Tadashi, Shahon Gaen
higen to Kaiji higen, Museum 197 (August 1967):2730, particularly 27.
45. Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 1:148.
46. This quality belongs to the rst of the famous Six Principles (C: liufa; J: ropp)
outlined by Xie He (. 500 535) in his Record of Classications of Ancient Painters
(Guhua pinlu). See Bush, The Chinese Literati, 40. Many authors of Japanese painting
treatises from varying schools repeated the Six Principles, beginning with Kano Ikkei
(1599 1662) in his Themes in Chinese Painting (Ksosh) of 1623. See Linhartov, Sur
un fond blanc, 215. This list of treatises referring to the Six Principles also includes Tosa
Mitsuokis Honch gah taiden of 1690. By then the introduction to Japan of the Chi-
nese painting manual The Mustard Seed Garden (Jieziyuan huazhuan) had caused vary-
ing interpretations of the Six Principles, but they remained a standard phrase used to
praise paintings; Linhartov, Sur un fond blanc, 293.
48. Kobayashi and Kno, Teihon Nihon kaigaron taisei, 6:40 41. See also Kno
Motoaki, Ogata Krin: Krin geijutsu no tokuch to utsukushisa, in Kno Motoaki,
ed., Ogata Krin: Nihon bijutsu kaiga zensh (Tokyo: Sheisha, 1976), 17:120.
50. Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 1:140. See also Sakai Tetsuo, Kuwayama Gyokush no garon
ni tsuite: Discourses on Painting, Bijutsu Shigaku 2 (1979):141.
51. Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 1:148. This famous remark appears in the printed version but
not in the original manuscript. See Kobayashi, Kkan Kuwayama Gyokush, 11. Thanks
to Nakamachi Keiko for alerting me to this fact.
52. Kobayashi, Shahon Gaen higen to Kaiji higen. Kenkad apparently borrowed
the title for the printed version from a Ming-dynasty art treatise, Humble Words on Mat-
ters of Painting (Huashi weiyuan), 30.
53. Melinda Takeuchi writes: What must have linked these painters in Gyokushs
mind, beyond their highly distinctive styles, is the force of their personality, a requisite
component of spirit-resonance, with which their work overows. The paintings of all
four artists, it should be added, also possess a quality of exuberance that borders on ec-
centricity. See Takeuchi, Taigas True Views, 142.
54. Kobayashi also suggests this point in his Shahon Gaen higen, 30.
55. This parallel can be seen, for example, in Gyokushs demand for a more appro-
priate way of rendering Japanese landscapes, which he refers to as true views (shin-
kei). He claims that the forms and styles of such landscape painting need to be mar-
kedly different from those of China, and he dismisses Tosa and Kano modes of painting
due to various shortcomings. Obviously, this point is also part of his overall rhetoric in
praising the Southern school of painting as the approach that manages to capture true
Japanese landscapes. See Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 1:141142; see also Sakai, Kuwayama Gyo-
kush, 142143.
56. See the exhibition catalog, Fukushima Kenritsu Hakubutsukan, ed., Shko jissh
(Fukushima: Fukushima Kenritsu Hakubutsukan, 2000); for a short reference see also
Timon Screech, The Shguns Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese
States, 17601829 (London: Reaktion Books, 2000), 254255.
57. The aristocrat Uramatsu Kozen (1736 1804) began researching Heian-period
handscrolls in 1788 in order to nd models for restoring the architecture and interior
decoration of the imperial palace. Subsequently he played a major role in the palaces
reconstruction after its destruction in 1788. See Nishi Kazuo, Kenchiku to shhekiga:
Kenchikushi kenky no shinshiten (Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1999), 1:318319.
58. Naoki Sakai, Preface, trans. Ann Wehmeyer, in Kojiki-den Book 1, Motoori Nori-
naga, Cornell East Asian Series 87 (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1997), xi.
59. Shirane, Issues in Canon Formation, 14.
60. Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 1:332. In his chapter on Connoisseurs and Art Treatises,
Sakazaki discusses Unens background, his connoisseurship, and his appraisal by con-
temporaries such as Watanabe Kazan (1793 1841); Sakazaki, Nihonga no seishin (To-
kyo: Perikansha, 1995), 144 149. Gyokush also mentions in his Humble Words that
Shkad Shj had allegedly studied under Sanraku but later decided to take up a dif-
ferent style; Sakazaki, Kaigaron, 1:147.
61. Numerous accounts have dealt with them extensively. See, for instance, Kitazawa
Noriaki, Me no shinden: Bijutsu juyshi nto (Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1989); and
Sat, Nihon bijutsu tanj.
50 Melanie Trede
62. William Anderson, The Pictorial Arts of Japan (London: Sampson Low, 1886), 59.
In 1886, Anderson also published the Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of a Collec-
tion of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum, the Japanese section of
which included his own collection. This catalog was the rst of its kind on holdings in
the British Museum other than Japanese books. See Craig Clunas, Oriental Antiqui-
ties/Far Eastern Art, in Tani E. Barlow, ed., Formations of Colonial Modernity in East
Asia (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), 423. Note that today scholars would nd
fault with Andersons claims that Statsu was a pupil of Hiromichi (a.k.a. Sumiyoshi
Jokei).
63. The book, edited by the Commission Impriale du Japon in 1900, was published
in a Japanese translation a year later. On the publication history and the politics behind
its conception see Mabuchi Akiko, 1900nen Pari bankoku hakurankai to Histoire de
lart du Japon o megutte, in Ima, Nihon no bijutsu shigaku o furikaeru, 4355.
64. Commission Impriale, Histoire, 195.
65. Ibid., 197.
66. Ibid., 194.
67. Ibid., 200.
68. Khon Nihon teikoku bijutsu ryakushi (Tokyo: Rybunkan Tosho Kabushiki
Kaisha, 1916), 441483.
69. Taki Sei-ichi, Three Essays on Oriental Painting (London: Bernard Quartich,
1910), 910; originally published in Kokka, July 1905 and July 1907.
70. Anonymous author, A Lotus Pond by Statsu Nomura, Kokka 196 (September
1906):429.
71. Anonymous author, Plum Trees on Folding-Screens by Statsu, Kokka 205 (June
1907):716.
72. Carol Gluck, Japans Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1985), 157158 and 184.
73. Taki, Three Essays, 9.
74. Ibid., 9.
75. Fenollosa, Epochs, 2:125128.
76. Ibid., 2:127128.
77. L. G. Wickham Legg and E. T. Williams, eds., The Dictionary of National Biog-
raphy (19411950), 7981; quoted in Clunas, Oriental Antiquities, 443. For a brief ac-
count of Binyon see Clunas, ibid., 426427.
78. Laurence Binyon, Painting in the Far East (London: Edward Arnold, 1913), 215.
79. Wakimoto Tkur, Statsu hasu no hana suikin-zu, Gasetsu (July 1941):455.
80. Yamane Yz, Statsu, adapt. William Watson (London: Faber Gallery of Orien-
tal Art, 1959), n.p.
81. Tanaka, Nihon bijutsu zenshi, 264.
82. Publications of the early 1990s demonstrate that internationalization was a key-
word on all levels of government. See, for example, Hasegawa Shigeo, Ogi Shigeo, and
Kawamoto Shuji, Nihon no zaimu shohyo ga kawaru: Kaikei no kokusaika no shinten
(Tokyo: Ch Keizaisha, 1994); International Promotion Section, International Affairs
Division, Bureau of Citizens and Cultural Affairs, Tokyo Metropolitan Government,
comp., Tokyo Metropolitan Government Guidelines for the Promotion of International
Policies: A New Approach to International Policies for the Twenty-rst Century (Tokyo,
1995).
83. Doris Croissant, Sotatsu: Yamatoe Revival or Yamatoe Parody? paper presented
at the symposium Rimpa ArtTransmission and Content (School of Oriental and
African Studies, London, 16 May 1998).
84. See Doris Croissant, Statsu und der Statsu Stil: Untersuchungen zu Repertoire,
Ikonographie, und sthetik der Malerei des Tawaraya Statsu (um 16001640), Mnch-
ner Ostasiatische Studien 3 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1978), 81.
85. Scholars of this group include Keiko Nakamachi (b. 1951) and Satoko Tama-
mushi (b. 1955). While Nakamachi uses the concept of classicism in discussing S-
tatsu (see her chapter Koten e no kaiki in Rimpa ni yumemiru [Tokyo: Shinchsha,
1999], 106 113), Tamamushi considers it inappropriate to compare Sotatsus motiva-
tions with revival efforts of the European Renaissance (see Chapter 2 in this volume).
86. Karatani Kjin, Japan as Museum: Okakura Tenshin and Ernest Fenollosa, in
Alexandra Munroe, ed., Scream Against the Sky: Japanese Art After 1945 (New York:
Abrams, 1994), 34.
87. Kampen, The Muted Other, 18.
52 Melanie Trede
Chapter Two
Satoko Tamamushi
Tawaraya Statsu and the

Yamato-e Revival
Modern Japanese art historians typically identify Tawaraya Statsu (d. 1643?) as
an independent town painter (machi-eshi) active in the city of Kyoto in the early
Edo period (16001868), or more specically around 1630.1 Sometime before
1630, the court appointed him to the rank of hokky (Bridge of the Law) ow-
ing to his great talent, and they provided him with many imperial commissions.2
In addition, art historians maintain that Statsu was one of the seventeenth-
century artists who revived the classics, infusing a new and open vitality into
traditional Japanese-style painting (yamato-e).3 For all his fame, however, S-
tatsu remains an enigmatic gure. In this chapter I analyze the standard image
of Statsu formulated by scholars and connoisseurs in the early twentieth cen-
tury and consider the evaluative strategy used in canonizing Statsus art. I
focus here on four of his masterworks: the restored handscroll segments from
the decorated sutras dedicated to the Taira family (Heike nky); the Ma-
tsushima Screens (Matsushima-zu bybu); the Sekiya and Miotsukushi Chap-
ters from The Tale of Genji Screens (Genji monogatari Sekiya-Miotsukushi-zu
bybu); and the Wind and Thunder Gods Screens (Fjin-Raijin-zu bybu). I
focus on these four works of art because they are so widely admired and so cen-
tral to modern studies of Rimpa (the school of Krin), especially as it relates to
classicism and canon formation. Three of the four works were registered by the
Japanese government as national treasures in the twentieth century, and the
fourth work, the Matsushima Screens, would probably have been registered too
if it had not left Japan in 1906.
Statsu was virtually lost to history after the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury, following the death of the artist Ogata Krin (1658 1716). Statsu, who
had died several decades before Krins birth, was a great inspiration to Krin,
but ironically people later remembered Krins art while nearly forgetting
about Statsu or even confusing Statsu with Krin. In fact, the artist Sakai
Hitsu (1761 1828), who revived Krins painting style in the early part of the
nineteenth century, knew little about the facts of Statsus life. It was not until
the early twentieth centuryfrom the late Meiji era (18681912) to the Taish
era (1912 1926)that interest in Statsu was revived and he came to be rec-
ognized as the rst great painter of Rimpa. At this time a number of tea mas-
ters, collectors, and scholars inaugurated the modern study of Statsu, portray-
ing him in their writings as an individual (kojin)a concept of personal identity
newly introduced from the West. It is worth noting that Japanese art history
was concurrently being established as an academic eld, and the evaluative
strategy employed by intellectuals of the time naturally inuenced modern
scholarship on Statsu. In fact, this strategy continues to shape Statsu schol-
arship as it is practiced today.
The Heike nky Handscrolls

Statsus earliest signicant project was the repair of several sections of paint-
ing in a famous Buddhist text from the late Heian period (7941185), the Lotus
Sutra (Hokeky), that had long been preserved at Itsukushima Jinja, a Shinto
shrine near Hiroshima.4 This worka sutra set composed of thirty-four hand-
scrolls, each of which opens with a gorgeously painted frontispiecewas ded-
icated to Itsukushima Shrine by the Taira family. Because the Taira family is
also known as the Heike, the set is referred to as the Heike nky. Scholars
concur that Statsu added six segments of painting to replace the covers and
frontispieces of three Heike nky scrollsthe Ganmon, Kejyubon, and
Shokuruibonwhen the feudal lord Fukushima Masanori (1561 1624) had
the scroll set restored in 1602 (Figures 2.12.3). Shortly before, the warrior leader
Tokugawa Ieyasu (15421616) had named Masanori lord of two provinces, Aki
and Bingo (present-day Hiroshima prefecture) in appreciation for Masanoris
distinguished service in 1600 at the Battle of Sekigahara, where he supported
Ieyasu in leading the Eastern Army to victory. Masanori was to serve as the lord
of Aki and Bingo until he was transferred in 1619. Art historians conclude that
Masanori must have undertaken the restoration of the Heike nky while he
was lord of Aki and Bingo, probably soon after he arrived at this post in the rst
years of the seventeenth century.
Today most Japanese scholars agree that it was Statsu who made the repairs
to the Heike nky in 1602, even though there is no denitive proof for this at-
tribution. In fact, there is very little documentary information to verify any of
54 S a t o k o Ta m a m u s h i
figure 2.1.
Frontispiece of the
Ganmon Scroll
from the Heike
nky, 1164, silver
and gold on paper,
27.9 264.5 cm
(full-length), Itsu-
kushima Shrine,
Miyajima.
Statsus activities early in his career; nor, for that matter, is there much to doc-
ument his later years as an artist. An early clue to Statsus involvement with
the Heike nky does exist, however, found on one of two storage boxes asso-
ciated with the sutra set, a black-lacquered chest with an ivy design.5 The clue
is a dedication written in lacquer sprinkled with gold powder (maki-e). The
dedication, composed by the lord Masanori and dated 1602, is inscribed on the
back of the lid of the chest:
I restored and rededicated one set of the Hokeky, which consists of twenty-
eight scrolls, along with one scroll each of the Murygiky, Kanfugen-
ky, Amidaky, Hannya Shingy, Ganmon with calligraphy by Lord
Kiyomori [Taira no Kiyomori, 1118 1181], and Rishuky written by Kb
Daishi [Kkai, 774835], as these treasures had been extensively damaged.
T a w a r a y a S o t a t s u a n d t h e Y a m a t o - e R e v i v a l 55
figure 2.2.
Frontispiece of the
Kejyubon Scroll
from the Heike
nky, 1164, silver
and gold on paper,
25.6 668.5 cm
(full-length), Itsu-
kushima Shrine,
Miyajima.
Moreover, Asano Mitsuakira (1617 1693), a feudal lord later responsible for
the region of Hiroshima, appended an additional sentence to the inscription
on the chest lid. Here Mitsuakira relates that he too ordered repairs to the
Heike nky and that these repairs were completed in 1648. The two-part in-
scription on the chest lid, however, has given rise to questions. Above all, we
are left wondering which of the thirty-four scrolls were restored in the seven-
teenth century and what Mitsuakiras restoration entailed.
Subsequent to the 1602/1648 chest-lid inscriptions, we have no detailed
records concerning the Heike nky until the nineteenth century. Then we en-
counter an extensive treatment of the sutra set in the second volume of the Il-
lustrated Guide to the Treasures of Itsukushima (Itsukushima hmotsu zue), a
series of woodblock-printed books edited in 1841 by Okada Kiyoshi (d. 1878), a
figure 2.3.
Frontispiece of the
Shokuruibon
Scroll from the
Heike nky, 1164,
silver and gold on
paper, 25.6 91.2
cm (full-length),
Itsukushima Shrine,
Miyajima.
retainer of the Hiroshima clan and a scholar of classical Japanese literature.6

The Illustrated Guide includes lavish illustrations of the covers and texts for
each scroll of the Heike nky, showing the scrolls unrolled. Moreover, this
book offers long descriptions of the scrolls manufacture and their component
parts, such as the rollers, titles, edges, rings, covers, strings, papers, ruled lines,
characters, and frontispieces. Despite the elaborate documentation, no men-
tion is made of the restoration of the covers and frontispieces of the Ganmon
(Figure 2.4), Kejyubon (Figure 2.5), and Shokuruibon (Figure 2.6), which
only later came to be recognized as paintings by Statsu.
To establish when Statsu was rst credited with the 1602 restoration of the
Heike nky, we must follow a series of attributions starting with one that ap-
pears in a book published four decades later in 1882. This book, The Supple-
figure 2.4.
Ganmon Scroll in
the Illustrated
Guide to the Trea-
sures of Itsukushima
(Itsukushima
hmotsu zue), vol. 2,
afterword dated
1841, printed on
paper, 25.2 16.5
cm, Seikad Bunko
Library, Tokyo.
mental Album of Antique Paintings (Zho kko gafu), was compiled by Fu-
rukawa Miyuki (1810 1883) based on manuscripts prepared by Kurokawa Ha-
rumura (1799 1866), a late-Edo scholar of classical Japanese literature.7 The
rst volume of The Supplemental Album contains an entry on The Itsuku-
shima Nky and Its Decorated Paperprobably dating to the time of Kuro-
kawa Harumurawhich reads: Ryhan [Kohitsu Ryhan, 1790 1853] said
there were a few scrolls among the sutras [the Heike nky] that Hokky Krin
[Ogata Krin] restored. I do not know whether that is correct or not.8 It is re-
markable that Ryhan, a connoisseur of calligraphy employed by the Edo figure 2.5.
shogunate, could generally identify a sense of the Rimpa painting style in cer- Kejyubon Scroll
(with handscroll
tain scrolls of the Heike nky. Ryhan was personally acquainted with Sakai
shown rotated on its
Hitsu, who admired Krin and revived his manner in the late Edo period. In side) in the Illus-
fact, Hitsu claimed he had learned the location of the grave of Krins brother, trated Guide to the
Ogata Kenzan (1663 1743), when he was present at a tea ceremony held by Treasures of Itsuku-
shima (Itsukushima
Ryhan. This claim, recounted by Hitsu in the epilogue to his Extant Works
hmotsu zue), vol. 2,
by Ogata Kenzan (Kenzan iboku), leads us to conclude that Ryhan was famil- afterword dated
iar with Krins style of painting, at least to a limited extent.9 1841, printed on
An important late-Meiji art history text, The Compendia of Asian Art (Ty paper, 25.2 33 cm
(two-page spread),
bijutsu taikan) published in 1908, includes the passage from The Supplemen-
Seikad Bunko Li-
tal Album quoted earlier. mura Seigai (18681927), who wrote a descriptive brary, Tokyo.
entry on the Heike nky for the second volume of The Compendia of Asian
Art, cites the remarks attributed to Ryhan and continues as follows:
Ryhan was probably referring to the frontispieces of the Kejyubon and

Shokuruibon scrolls. But Fukushima Masanori had this set of sutras re-
stored in 1602, and Lord Asano restored it again during the Keian era [1648
1652]. Both were before Krins time. [Thus] it is clear that Krin was not
the painter who restored the set.10
figure 2.6. Here, for the rst time in print, a scholar identies the portions of the Heike n-
Shokuruibon ky that had been restored and, based on historical investigation, argues against
Scroll (with hand-
the theory that Krin had been involved. This is a prime case of a twentieth-
scroll shown rotated
on its side) in the century art historian attempting to use a modern approach to verify or disprove
Illustrated Guide to a view put forth in the late Edo period. Although mura rejects the theory that
the Treasures of Itsu- Krin had restored the scrolls, he offers no new suggestion regarding the iden-
kushima (Itsuku-
tity of the painter-restorer. Only later, after the Meiji period, would scholars
shima hmotsu zue),
vol. 2, afterword openly advocate the theory that Statsu had restored the scrolls.
dated 1841, printed Soon after mura wrote his Heike nky entry in 1908, a book containing
on paper, 25.2 32.9 signicant insights on the sutra-set restoration was published by the Ketsu As-
cm (two-page
sociation (Ketsu-kai), which had been established by a group of acionados
spread), Seikad
and tea masters to commemorate the life and art of another pioneer of Rimpa:
Honami Ketsu (15581637). The book, titled Ketsu (edited and published in
1916), could be called the standard early text on this multitalented artist. In it
the craft-designer Kishi Kkei (18401922), who had been serving as an impe-
rial household artist (Teishitsu gigeiin) since 1909, published an article on the
Heike nky, which he referred to as the Itsukushima sutras.11 Here Kishi ex-
presses his agreement with an assessment made by Kurokawa Mayori (1829
1906)namely that Ketsu had painted two sections of repair to the Heike
nky, one the frontispiece of Black Pine with Water (the frontispiece of the
Shokuruibon or Kejyubon scroll) and the other a frontispiece of Autumn
Grass with Deer (the frontispiece of the Ganmon scroll). According to Kishi
and Kurokawa, Ketsu had traveled to Hiroshima to undertake the restoration.
Kishi was a passionate admirer of Ketsu. Early in 1893 he had supervised a
ceremony at Hnpoji in Kyoto commemorating Ketsus death.12 Kishi had
urged Masuda Don (Takashi; 1848 1938), founder of Mitsui Bussan Com-
pany, to organize an exhibition featuring Ketsus works. Masuda complied
and oversaw this exhibition in 1907 at a tea ceremony that was held by the
Daishi Association (Daishi-kai) and presided over by Masuda.13 Given his in-
terest in Ketsu, it is no surprise that Kishi, as well as members of his circle in
the early Taish period, concluded that Ketsu had restored the painting of
Autumn Grass with Deer on the frontispiece of the Ganmon scroll and the
painting of Black Pine with Water on the frontispiece of the Shokuruibon or
Kejyubon scroll. This attribution was sanctioned by a lineage of scholars
that included Kohitsu Ryhan, Kurokawa Harumura, and Kurokawa Mayori.
Thus thoughts on the Heike nky repair reached a new stage in the early
Taish period, just prior to our rst encounter with the proposal that it was
Statsu who had restored the sutra set.
How, then, did scholars come to claim that it was Statsu who had repaired
the Heike nky? I rst learned of the origins of the claim at a small sympo-
sium held in 1977 in conjunction with the publication of an issue of Kokka fea-
turing articles on the Heike nky and Statsu.14 The symposium, chaired by
Mizuo Hiroshi, included talks by two senior art historians, Tanaka Ichimatsu
and Minamoto Toyomune. In his presentation, Tanaka said that the artist Ta-
naka Chikayoshi (18751975)who had participated in a project to reproduce
the Heike nky during the 1920ssuggested early on that Statsu was respon-
sible for the Heike nky restoration. Minamoto agreed and added that people
began to pay attention to Statsu after the mid-1920s, inuenced by a growing
interest in Statsu among cultural salons that included millionaire collectors
such as Masuda Don and Hara Sankei (18681939), as well as artists such as
Tanaka Chikayoshi.15 According to members of these salons, a shared appre-
ciation of Statsu led many of them to postulate that Statsu may have restored
the Heike nkywhich, as it turns out, was an important contribution to
scholarship.
Tanaka Chikayoshi was certainly familiar with the Heike nky. As noted
earlier, he had participated as a painter in a project to replicate the sutra set.
He undertook this projectalong with the art historian Fukui Rikichir (1886
1972) and the chief priest of Itsukushima Shrine, Takayama Noboruin order
to preserve the original composition of the Heike nky.16 Masuda Don and
Takahashi San (18611937) made nancial contributions in support of the proj-
ect. After the projects completion in November 1925, the original and the rep-
lica of the sutra set were exhibited together in the Hykeikan at Tokyo Imper-
ial Museum.
At the time, Masuda Don owned a work by Statsu, the Illustrated Hand-
scroll of The New Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry with Deer
(Shika shita-e Shinkokinsh waka-kan emaki), which is now divided among
several collections (Figure 2.7). Dan Takuma (18581932), who was one of the
contributors to the 1925 Hykeikan exhibit, owned another work painted by
Statsu, the Illustrated Handscroll of The Collection of Japanese Poetry for
One Thousand Years with Flower Paintings of the Four Seasons (Shiki kusa-
bana shita-e Senzaish waka-kan emaki) (Figure 2.8). Because ve scrolls of
the Heike nky were borrowed from the Itsukushima Shrine and displayed at
a meeting of the Daishi Association in 1920, it is not difcult to imagine that
Masuda, Dan, and others had ample opportunity to compare their Statsu
paintings with repaired segments of the Heike nky. Their appreciation of works
known to be by Statsu must have led them to recognize that it was Statsu
who had restored the sutra set.
Meanwhile, Kishis suggestion that Ketsu had restored the sutra scrolls
came to the attention of Fukui Rikichir, one of the organizers of the project
to replicate the Heike nky. Fukui, who was named the rst professor of art
history at Thoku Imperial University in the late Taish period, was an active
Rimpa scholar. Earlier, in 1915, Fukui had presented the rst modern scholarly
analysis of Ogata Krin in the bulletin of Kyoto Imperial University.17 It may
have been Fukui who took the initiative in a lecture of 8 August 1927 to pro-
pose that Statsu had restored the Heike nky. This lecture, which was pub-
lished four years later, included a section on Statsu and Krin where Fukui
relates:
I still remember the strange feeling I had when Kishi Kkei, who died a few
years ago, rst called my attention to [what he identied as] Ketsus restora-
tions in the Heike nky. His comments were so fascinating it was hard to
believe they could really be true. After that, however, when I initiated a gen-
eral survey of all the sutras at Itsukushima Shrine, I actually saw sections of
Ketsu-style restoration in two sutra scrolls and in Ganmon. Due to the
constant stream of works by Statsu discovered since that time, Kishi now
would probably agree [if he were still alive] that these Ketsu-style restora- figure 2.7.
tions were not by Ketsu but by Statsu.18 Tawaraya Statsu,
calligraphy by
Three important points can be gleaned from Fukuis lecture. First, it was in the Honami Ketsu,
detached segment
late Edo period that connoisseurs and scholars began to advocate that a Rimpa
of Illustrated Hand-
painter had restored the Heike nky. Second, as works by Statsu were discov- scroll of The New
eredone emerging right after another during the Meiji and Taish periods Collection of An-
people began changing their minds about the attribution of the Heike nky cient and Modern
Japanese Poetry
repair, tentatively switching their attribution from Ketsu to Statsu. Third
(Shinkokinsh
came a dramatic realization that, in fact, it was Statsu who had restored the waka-kan) with
sutra set. Deer, early 17th cen-
Along the same lines, Tanaka Ichimatsu concluded in a 1929 article that if tury, hanging scroll,
gold, silver and
the restoration of the sutra set actually did date to the Keich era (15961615),
ink on paper,
then the painter must have been Statsu.19 For Tanaka the brushwork in the 33.9 75.3 cm,
restored parts of the Heike nkynow attributed to Statsuis particularly MOA Museum,
interesting in light of the claim that Statsu had played a central role in the re- Shizuoka.
vival of yamato-e. From the outset Tanaka attached great importance to the fact
that Tanaka Chikayoshi had painted a replica of the Heike nky in the mid-
1920s and, soon thereafter, others began to concur that Statsu was the artist
who had restored the sutra set. With this attribution, the long-lasting ambigu-
ity about Statsus identity started to fade and Statsu came to be seen as one
of the greatest masters of early-seventeenth-century Japanese art. Along with
this growing awareness, a sense began emerging in modern scholarship of
figure 2.8. Statsus unique individualityand this sense overlapped perfectly with the
Tawaraya Statsu, identication of Statsu as a participant in the revival of yamato-e traditions.
calligraphy by
The theory that Statsu had restored the Heike nky was vested from its rst
Honami Ketsu,
detail of Illustrated appearance with meanings related to a rebirth of Japanese traditions.
Handscroll of The Next we turn to a group of Statsus paintings on folding screens (bybu),
Collection of Japa- starting with a famous pair of sixfold screens signed Hokky Statsu. It was
nese Poetry for One
apparently sometime before 1630 that the imperial court honored Statsu with
Thousand Years
(Senzaish waka- the title of hokkyand at that point he joined the ranks of rst-class painters.
kan) with Flower
Paintings of the
Four Seasons, early The Matsushima Screens
17th century, hand-
scroll, gold, silver Modern texts on Japanese art written before 1990 typically maintain that one
and ink on paper, of Statsus later paintings reveals his interest in the classics. This work, a mas-
34 922.2 cm, pri- terpiece that Statsu produced after being named hokky, is the pair of sixfold
vate collection,
screens widely known as the Matsushima Screens (Figure 2.9). The screens dy-
Tokyo.
namic composition features views of the sea and shorebelieved specically
to be Matsushima, a spot in northern Japan near Sendai long regarded as one
of the three most beautiful landscape sites in the country. Until recently, most
scholars have held that Statsu was inspired to create the Matsushima Screens
while restoring the Heike nky and that, as a model for the screens composi-
tion, he turned to the design of waves and seashore on the cover of the Juki-
bon scroll of the Heike nky (Figure 2.10). As the screens left Japan in 1906
before Japanese scholars could see and evaluate them in person, art historians
in Japan were not entirely familiar with the screens during the early twentieth
figure 2.9.
Tawaraya Statsu,
Matsushima
Screens, early 17th
century, pair of six-
fold screens, color
and gold on paper,
152 355.7 cm
each, Freer Gallery
of Art, Washington,
D.C.
century. Yashiro Yukio (1890 1975) introduced the Matsushima Screens for
the rst time in a Japanese publication of 1938.20 Later, in 1973, Akiyama
Terukazu presented a detailed report on the screens at a symposium held in
conjunction with the publication of a special issue of Kokka.21
More recently, ta Shko and Keiko Nakamachi have published ground-
breaking research on the Matsushima Screens. tas studypresented in her
1995 essay The Matsushima Screens by Tawaraya Statsufocuses special at-
tention on the two motifs depicted in the screens: rough sea (ariso) and shore
(suhama).22 She discusses multiple meanings of these motifs in terms of the
broad range of sea imagery as well as the manner in which artists from various
Asian countries rendered and expanded upon these motifs. In the same year,
Nakamachi published an article, A Study of the Matsushima Screens by
Tawaraya Statsu, in which she investigates the screens production by exam-
ining documents and presenting new ndings.23 Particularly relevant in her
discussion are a temple and two men: the merchant Tani Shan (1589 1644)
and the priest Takuan Sh (15731645). The temple in question is Shunji of
figure 2.10. Sakai, where the Matsushima Screens were stored until the middle of the Meiji
Cover of Jukibon period. Shunji was built by Shan, who called on the priest Takuan to found
chapter from the
the temple. Takuan had bestowed the Buddhist name Kaigan (Seashore) on
Heike nky, 1164,
gold and silver on Shan, and Nakamachi believes that it may have been this name that moti-
paper, 26.3 250.8 vated Statsu to create the Matsushima Screens. Moreover, she quotes from a
cm (full-length), survey of the temple treasures carried out in 1895, which reveals that the Ma-
Itsukushima Shrine,
tsushima Screens were called Rough Sea Screens (Ariso bybu) until the
Miyajima.
mid-Meiji period.
Thus research by ta links nicely with research by Nakamachi. The two
scholars have given us a new and broader understanding of the Matsushima
Screens that liberates these works from the limited interpretation of former
times. Their research enables us to envision other iconological meanings for
the remarkable, shining gold sea that courses through the screens and allows
us to locate these meanings in the larger context of Japanese culture. Specif-
ically, we now can postulate that the screens were produced for the milieu of
the Sakai merchant Tani and his acquaintance, the monk Takuan. As a result,
we can tie the subject of the screens to the Sumiyoshi Sea and the Sumiyoshi
Great Shrine (Sumiyoshi Taisha) near Sakai; the deity of this shrine has been
worshiped as a god of poetry and the sea since ancient times.
Research of this sort, excavating the lost context of the Matsushima Screens,
claries that there was a relationship between a group of artworkswhat we
could perhaps call a Sumiyoshi connection (Sumiyoshi no yukari). These works figure 2.11.
include screens of the same general subject by Krinone of which is also a Ogata Krin, Ma-
tsushima Screen,
Matsushima Screen from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Figure 2.11)as
early 18th century,
well as the Suminoe Writing Box designed by Krin after Ketsu, today in the sixfold screen, color
Seikad Bunko Art Museum (Figure 2.12). The impact of recent research even and gold leaf on
extends to another masterpiece by Statsu, the Sekiya and Miotsukushi Screens, paper, 154.7 369.4
cm, Museum of
a key work that has encouraged scholars to identify Statsu as one of the artists
Fine Arts, Boston.
who revived traditional yamato-e. Let us turn next to that piece.
The Sekiya and Miotsukushi Chapters

from The Tale of Genji Screens
It is well known that the pair of sixfold screens by Statsu titled the Sekiya and
Miotsukushi Chapters from The Tale of Genji (Plate 1), now in the Seikad
Bunko Art Museum, was formerly in the collection of Daigoji in Yamashina
near Kyoto. In a 1953 essay, Yashiro Yukio made the story of the screens origins
widely known.24 The screens were displayed publicly in an exhibition of Dai-
goji treasures held in the autumn of 1895 at Heian Jing, a Shinto shrine that
had recently been built in Kyoto. A list of items in the exhibition, recorded in
a report in the art journal Kaiga Sshi, gave the title for the work as Screens of
a Pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi Shrine (Sumiyoshi mde bybu) and attributed the
painting to Hokky Statsu.25 This seems to be the rst record of a public ex-
hibition of the screens. The Daigoji treasure exhibition occurred at a time when
Japan was experiencing a sense of its increased national power following the
Sino-Japanese War (1894 1895). The spirit of the age was felt strongly in
figure 2.12.
Ogata Krin, Sumi-
noe Writing Box,
18th century, lead,
silver characters,
and gold maki-e on
black-lacquered
ground, 25.8 23
10 cm, Seikad
Bunko Art Mu-
seum, Tokyo.
Kyoto, where the fourth domestic exposition was held and where long-neglected
Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples were being repaired or rebuilt. A modern
image emerged of Kyoto as the old town (koto), a place that preserved Japa-
nese traditions. School excursions to Kyoto began at this time.
According to a correspondence that I learned about recently, Iwasaki Yano-
suke (1851 1908), founder of the Seikad, procured artworks from Gyokuen
Kai, the steward of Daigoji. In June of 1895just before the opening of the
Daigoji treasure exhibitionIwasaki exchanged letters with Gyokuen in the
course of his receiving Buddhist altar ttings from the temple.26 As remunera-
tion for these items, Iwasaki sent 150 yen to Daigoji, which the temple then
used for repairs. It was via this connection, I believe, that Daigoji presented the
Sekiya and Miotsukushi Screens to Iwasaki. Although I have yet to locate any
record of the screens transfer, according to an essay by Yoneyama Toratar, di-
rector of the Seikad Bunko Library, it occurred in the following year, 1896.27
After being moved to Tokyo, the pair of screens was introduced for the rst
time as scenes of Sekiya and Miotsukushi in the identifying label to a large collo-
type illustration in the second volume of Selected Relics of Japanese Art (Shinbi
taikan), published in 1906.28 The screens represent two separate episodes from
the renowned early-eleventh-century novel The Tale of Genji (Genji mono-
gatari). The right screen depicts a scene from the Miotsukushi chapter in
which Prince Genji meets a former lover, Lady Akashi, near the Sumiyoshi
Shrine. The left screen portrays a scene from the Sekiya chapter, set at the
saka-no-seki Gatehouse; on his way to Ishiyamadera, Genji again encounters
a former lover, in this case Utsusemi. The Sekiya and Miotsukushi Screens
later were included in the earliest public exhibition of Statsus work, titled
Statsu-kai, held in Tokyo to commemorate the accession of Emperor Tai-
sh to the throne in 1913. Organizers borrowed major works from various col-
lections, and the imperial court even lent a pair of screens with Statsus fan
paintings based on a Tale of the Hgen War and A Tale of the Heiji War (Hgen-
Heiji monogatari-zu senmen harimaze bybu).29
Upon viewing the exhibition, a young painter of the Japanese art academy,
Hayami Gyosh (18941935), adopted the artistic pseudonym Gyosh, mean-
ing Steering a Boat, inspired by Lady Akashis boat which Statsu depicted in
the upper right panel of the Miotsukushi screen. This well-known episode not
only expresses Hayamis admiration for Statsu but indicates more generally
the esteem for this painter in the early twentieth century. Evidently some peo-
ple had begun to virtually worship Statsu, considering him the founder of
Rimpa, and these advocates reformulated the genealogies of Statsu and Krin
by constructing the pedigree of the artists as a school of painters from different
centuries who were ardent admirers of Statsu and Krin.
From this point forward, descriptions of the Sekiya and Miotsukushi Screens
tended to concentrate on decorative qualitiescalling attention to such de-
tails as the abstract simplication of the background hills. Or the descriptions
tended to praise the modernity of the screensemphasizing the ways in which
Statsu transformed traditional yamato-e into a contemporary style. In other
words: modern writers elucidated the marvelous aesthetic qualities of the Se-
kiya and Miotsukushi Screens and afrmed that both the traditional (or old)
and the creative (or new) are essential to a correct understanding of the screens
essence.
In the twentieth century, the Sekiya and Miotsukushi Screens have been ad-
mired by many; in fact, they have become a classic of Japanese art, at least as
dened by art historians and painters of the modern Nihonga (Japanese paint-
ing) movement. For centuries writers have lauded The Tale of Genji, which is the
thematic basis for the screens, as a classic of Japanese literature, and twentieth-
century art historians correspondingly have attempted to create a lineage of
classical artworks, some of which illustrate The Tale of Genji. Accordingly, in
government-sponsored academic books and journals, such as Selected Relics of
Japanese Art and Kokka, writers bestowed a new name on the Seikad screens.
Today we usually read their title as Sekiya and Miotsukushi Chapters from The
Tale of Genji Screens. This is how the Japanese government titles the screens
in its list of artworks designated as national treasures.
There is another signicant matter concerning the title of these screens that
figure 2.13.
Label on packing bag for
the Sekiya and Miotsu-
kushi Screens, ink on cot-
ton, Seikad Bunko Art
Museum, Tokyo.
we should consider. I still remember my surprise upon seeing the labels on

packing bags in which the screens are stored at the Seikad Bunko. Written on
the labels is a completely different title, Illustration of a Pilgrimage to Sumi-
yoshi Shrine (Sumiyoshi mde zu) (Figure 2.13), reminding us that when the
screens were rst publicly exhibitedin Kyoto in 1895their title was given as
Pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi Shrine. In most modern descriptions of the screens,
writers deal with the classical literary allusions but have little to say about im-
agistic parallels or layers of thematic content. Most scholars identify these scenes
simply as Genji motifs without elaborating on the prevalence in early Edo art
of illustrations of famous sites (meisho-e), in which the awe-inspiring beauty of
the landscape evokes a religious response in the viewer. The labels on the
packing bags seem to be valuable evidence as to the original content of the
screensthat is, their content as it was understood before the late nineteenth
century, when the screens were moved from Daigoji in Kyoto to the collection
of Iwasaki Yanosuke in Tokyo. Even though modern writers generally dwell on
features of the screens that are considered characteristic of a yamato-e revival,
the work apparently conveys a close connection with the site of Sumiyoshi, as
well.
One event that helped to shed light on this issue was an exhibition, Sumi-
yoshi Great Shrine: The World of Utamakura (Sumiyoshi Taisha: Utamakura
no sekai), held at the Sakai City Museum in 1984.30 Gathered together in the
exhibit, which claried the continuity of the Sumiyoshi-pilgrimage theme
from ancient times onward, were a variety of artworks and designs depicting
Sumiyoshi Shrine or the Sumiyoshi Sea, itself a divine being. From this exhi-
bition, which offers new insights into the meaning of Statsus Sekiya and Mi-
otsukushi Screens, we now understand that this imagery has a multiplicity of
complex layers that draw from various sources current in the seventeenth cen-
tury. As helpful as the new research has been, however, I suspect that there is
still a signicant story behind these screens and look forward to future re-
search. To illustrate the ways in which recent scholarship has furthered our un-
derstanding of Statsu, I turn next to another masterpiece by the artist: the pair
of twofold screens of the Wind and Thunder Gods from the collection of Ken-
ninji in Kyoto.
The Wind and Thunder Gods Screens

Only recentlyin the past hundred years or sohave scholars and connois-
seurs acknowledged that Statsu was the original master painter of Rimpa,
even though Krin was widely recognized and acclaimed throughout the eigh-
teenth century and well into the nineteenth. One of the earliest publications
to portray Statsu as Krins teacher (that is, to present Statsus art as an in-
spiration to Krin) was the second volume of Selected Relics of Japanese Art,
published in 1899. In the explanatory text accompanying an illustration of S-
tatsus Wind and Thunder Gods Screens, the author describes Statsus paint-
ing as the model for Krins screens of the same theme, now in the Tokyo Na-
tional Museum (Plate 2).31
Information recorded in the Edo period concerning Statsus Wind and
Thunder Gods Screens is ambiguous, especially information recorded after
Krins death.32 Krin actually documented the existence of Statsus Wind
and Thunder Gods Screens by copying them, but thereafter it is difcult to say
whether Edo-period artists knew of Statsus original version of the composi-
tion. Even though a few late Rimpa artists of the Hitsu school were familiar
with the composition, it is not clear whether they could identify it as a design
rst painted by Statsu. Most renderings of the Wind and Thunder Gods
theme followed Krins version or a later version by Hitsu. As for Hitsu, de-
spite his having painted Wind and Thunder Gods Screens and despite his hav-
ing revived Krins style, he probably was not aware that Statsu had painted
the original Wind and Thunder Gods composition. This surmise is based on
several facts: Hitsu lived after Krins day; little had been written on Statsus
art in Hitsus day; and Hitsu worked in the city of Edo. Residing in Edo,
Hitsu must have had greater access to information on Krin than information
on Statsu. Krin, although native to Kyoto, lived in Edo for a number of years
in the middle of his life while serving several daimyo families. Statsu, by con-
trast, appears to have had little or no connection with Edo, even though his
successor, Tawaraya Ssetsu (. mid-seventeenth century), painted sliding
doors for the Maeda warrior household in Edo around 1650. So even though
Hitsu painted his Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn (Natsuakikusa-
zu) on the reverse side of Krins Wind and Thunder Gods Screens, he proba-
bly knew little about Statsu.
It was only in the late nineteenth century that scholars and connoisseurs be-
came aware of Statsus Wind and Thunder Gods Screens. In August 1884, an
American advocate of Japanese art, Ernest Fenollosa (18531908), reported in
his survey of the Kenninji collection that the temple owned a pair of Wind and
Thunder Gods Screens attributed to Statsu.33 Then, in 1895, the public had an
opportunity to view the Wind and Thunder Gods Screens for the rst time in a
pioneering exhibition in Kyoto that arranged works of Japanese art in chrono-
logical sequence. Like Fenollosa, the author of the exhibition list attributed
the screens to Statsu.34
In the spring of 1903, the Tokyo Imperial Museum presented an exhibition
that included the rst large-scale display of art by the Krin school. Appear-
ing in the catalog to the exhibit are three versions of the Wind and Thunder
Gods Screens, one each by Statsu, Krin, and Hitsu.35 It is not certain whether
the three versions were exhibited at the same time, side-by-side, at this venue.
The author of an exhibition review published in the art journal Bijutsu Shinp,
however, claimed that the three versions were placed in the same display case
and that it was very interesting to compare them.36 Thus we can say that the
three versions probably were in the same display case at the same time. The
catalog list identies Statsus version as genuine and the prototype for ver-
sions by Krin and Hitsu. Clearly we see germinating here the concept that
Rimpa had been founded by Statsu, who was followed by Krin and Hitsu.
Scholars were not merely formulating a theory on a Rimpa lineage, though;
they were also advancing a notion that the value of art depends on its original-
ity. Thus Statsus Wind and Thunder Gods Screens came to be prized as an
important artwork and came to play an integral role in the modern under-
standing of Rimpa.
The concept of Rimpa as it was being shaped through the evaluation of the
Wind and Thunder Gods Screens is closely connected with an issue currently
debated by historians of modern Japan: the question of a creation of tradition
(dent no sshutsu).37 Following the wording of this debate, we could say that
a newly created tradition, or a modern construct, was emerging in twentieth-
century Japanese art history along with a reorganized and reinforced concept
of a Rimpa lineage. According to this newly created tradition, Statsu was a
great master of the early Edo period who had turned to earlier classics to for-
mulate fresh and contemporary classics. We should note that post-Taish writ-
ers frequently spoke of classics, using the word koten to translate the English
word classics.38 We should note also, as stated in the Introduction to this vol-
ume, that Fukui Rikichir was the rst Japanese art historian to present a coher-
ent theory that culture of the Momoyama period (15731600 or 1615) can be
compared with that of the Renaissance in Europe. (Actually, Fukui extended
the Momoyama period into the early seventeenth century.)39 Thus in early-
twentieth-century scholarship we encounter for the rst time the historical no-
tion of antique Japanese art as traditional or classicalin other words, art of
the Momoyama and early Edo periods is cast as a type of renaissance art. Em-
pirical research on Statsu was inaugurated at this time, as well, and writers
took advantage of this research to reinforce the image of Statsu as a painter
who had revived tradition.
Elsewhere I have criticized the biased modern discourse on Statsus Wind
and Thunder Gods Screens, a discourse that I consider too dependent on out-
dated approaches to the study of Japanese cultural history.40 Here I wish to
offer a proposal about his Wind and Thunder Gods Screens. In my opinion,
there is an intriguing relationship between Statsus screens and the thunder-
god design on a curtain behind the marionette theater that is depicted in a
painting from approximately the same time: the Pleasures of the Shij Riverside
Screens from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Figure 2.14). For the present,
however, the lost context of Statsus Wind and Thunder Gods Screens remains
a mystery.
Conclusion
As we have seen, then, scholars and collectors from the world of nance and
industry at the end of the nineteenth century created the image of Statsu as
a painter partly responsible for reviving yamato-e. These scholars and collec-
tors were inspired by several important exhibitions and by the return to tradi-
tions in Kyoto. Then, in the early twentieth century, a second crucial process
shaped the modern image of Statsu: the repeated uncovering of unknown
works by Statsu, works that fostered a sense of the artists individuality. At the
same time, scholars and connoisseurs began attributing the Heike nky res-
toration to Statsu. Soon this attribution was appreciated as an epoch-making
discovery providing evidence for the claim that Statsu had personally encoun-
tered and been inuenced by classical arts of the Heian period. In fact, the at-
tribution of the Heike nky restoration to Statsu is so rmly set in the minds
of contemporary scholars that they cannot escape from its spell. We have lost
sight of other possibilities for understanding Statsus work, especially for eval-
uating stylistic and thematic connections between Statsus paintings and
other visual imagery of the early Edo period. I am condent that the innova-
tive research by ta and Nakamachiwhich so vividly describes Statsus so-
cial connections and activities as a painterwill be highly inuential as mod-
els for the future study of Statsu.
Statsus interest in court culture, moreover, should not be treated as com-
parable to revival efforts of the European Renaissancea time when people
figure 2.14.
Thunder god in
Pleasures of the
Shij Riverside
Screens (detail),
early 17th century,
left panel of pair of
sixfold screens,
color on gold-leafed
paper, 104.1 190
cm, Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston.
were extricating themselves from the Dark Ages, or the Middle Ages, and
when artists were drawing inspiration from the Greek and Roman classics. If
we continue to supercially apply this Western construct employed by Japa-
nese scholars since the early twentieth century, we will, in essence, be clinging
to a hollow and antiquated strategy. Scholars once considered this a useful strat-
egy for elevating native Japanese developments in art because it allowed them
to draw connections between Japanese and Western art history and set Japan
on an equal plane with the West. That aim might well seem benign, but there
is more to the story. As they made Statsus art relevant to modern political con-
cerns in Japan, scholars simultaneously made themselves complicit with na-
tionalistic agendas that were, at best, quite problematic.
Thanks to recent studieswhich are increasingly detailed and reveal the
rich creativity of yamato-e produced before Statsus time, especially works
from the Muromachi period (13331573)the early Edo period might appear
to us today more as an age of continuity or inheritance than an age of creativ-
ity. Certainly there was much innovation in seventeenth-century art, but we
should not focus on the novelties of early Edo art at the expense of recognizing
its reliance on earlier artistic forms. Moreover, recent research on culture of
the Kanei era (16241644) has been instrumental in changing our outlook on
seventeenth-century art. This research is well represented by the scholarship of
Oka Yoshiko, who deals with such interesting issues as the commercialization
of court culture in the early Edo periodas seen, for example, in the circula-
tion among warriors and merchants of portraits of immortal poets (kasen-e).41
Finally, we must not limit ourselves to a simple genealogical treatment of
Statsu as the founder of Rimpa. There is much more to learn about his art.
Notes
This chapter was translated by Patricia Fister and the author and was edited by Eliza-
beth Lillehoj.
1. Despite the great acclaim granted Tawaraya Statsu, little is known about his life
or his activity as an artist. For more on Statsu in English see Mizuo Hiroshi, Edo Paint-
ing: Sotatsu and Korin, trans. John M. Shields (New York: Weatherhill/Heibonsha,
1978), 40 48 and 140 150; Howard A. Link, Exquisite Visions: Rimpa Paintings from
Japan (Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1980), 22 30; and Yamane Yz, For-
mation and Development of Rimpa Art, in Yamane Yz, Masato Nait, and Timothy
Clark, eds., Rimpa: Art from the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo (London: British Museum
Press, 1998), 1349.
2. To reward an eminent artist, the court would bestow upon him the honoric title
hokky.
3. For more on the concept of classicism in Japanese art-historical discourse see the
Introduction and Chapter 1 of this volume.
4. For more on this sutra set see my Heike nky to Tawaraya Statsu, in Heike
nky to Itsukushima no hmotsu (Hiroshima: Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum,
1997), 122125.
5. The second of these storage boxes for the Heike nky, which was ordered by the
Heike family, is a thick metallic box with three tiers called the Lacquered Copper Box
with Dragon Among Clouds Design Decorated with Silver and Gold (Kingin s
unrymon dsei ky bako).
6. Okada Kiyoshi, ed., Itsukushima hmotsu zue, vol. 2 (Hiroshima: Itsukushima
Jinko [afterword dated 1841]).
7. Furukawa Miyuki, Zho kko gafu, vol. 1, rev. Kurokawa Mayori (Tokyo: Yrind,
1882).
8. Ibid., recto and verso of p. 28.
9. There is little documentary proof, but I think that Ryhan, a member of Hitsus
art appreciation network, probably learned a great deal about Krins art through
Hitsu.
10. Tajima Shiichi, ed., Ty bijutsu taikan (Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 1908), 2:93.
11. Kishi Kkei, Ne-no-hi no tana oyobi Itsukushima kykan ni tsuite, in Ketsu
(Kyoto: Unsd, 1916), 316.
12. Morita Seionosuke, Ketsu shaika Kishi Kkei , in Ketsu betsuden Taka-
gamine yorai (Kyoto: Unsd, 1919), 103106.
13. According to the catalog for this special exhibition, the viewing of Ketsus works
occurred at the twelfth tea ceremony of the Daishi-kai on 22 March 1907. See Daishi-
kai tenkan zuroku (Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 1911), 1:2021.
14. Minamoto Toyomune, Tanaka Ichimatsu, and Mizuo Hiroshi, Zadan-kai: Heike
nky to Statsu, Kokka 997 (1977):1732.
15. For more on these cultural salons see Christine M. E. Guth, Art, Tea, and Indus-
try: Masuda Takashi and the Mitsui Circle (Princeton, Princeton University Press,
1993).
16. Tanaka Ichimatsu, Tanaka Chikayoshi oboegaki, in Tanaka Chikayoshi
(Tokyo: Meicho Kankkai, 1985), 1:5470.
17. Fukui Rikichir, Krin k, pt. 1, Geibun 6 (1915):6190; pt. 2, 6598; and pt. 3,
42 79. I discuss the signicance of Fukuis thesis in Krinkan no hensen 1815 1915,
Bijutsu Kenky 371 (1999):170.
18. Fukui, Bijutsu, 104162.
19. Tanaka Ichimatsu, Heike nky to Jikjiky, in Nihon emakimono shsei (Tokyo:
Yzankaku, 1929), 6:326.
20. Yashiro Yukio, Statsu hitsu Matsushima bybu, Bijutsu Kenky 73 (1938):18.
21. Akiyama Terukazu, Tanaka Ichimatsu, and Mizuo Hiroshi, Zadankai: Freer
Gallery z Statsu no Matsushima-zu bybu o megutte, Kokka 958 (1973):526.
22. ta Shko, The Matsushima Screens by Tawaraya Statsu no Matsushima-zu
bybu, in E wa kataru, vol. 9 (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1995).
23. Nakamachi Keiko, Tawaraya Statsu hitsu Matsushima-zu bybu kj, pt. 1, Ji-
ssen Joshi Daigaku Bijutsushi Gaku 10 (1995):21 34. For more on this question, see
Chapter 3 in this volume.
24. Yashiro Yukio, Zuihitu Statsu, pt. 1, Yamato Bunka 10 (1953):51 62. Yashiro
mistakenly identied the name of the collector of this pair of screens as Iwasaki Yatar.
In fact the collector was Iwasaki Yanosuke, who was the younger brother of Yatar and
the founder of the Seikad collection.
25. Author unknown, Daigoji no hmotsu tenkan, Kaiga Sshi 107 (31 December
1895):2.
26. What remains of this correspondence is two letters written by Gyokuen Kai that
are addressed to Iwasaki Yanosuke and dated 10 June and 30 June 1895. The letters are
preserved in the Seikad Bunko Library; materials related to the Iwasaki family are not
open to the public, however.
27. Yoneyama Toratar, Seikad no enkaku to bijutsuhin, in Seikad hkan (Tokyo:
Seikad Foundation, 1992), 48.
28. Tajima Shiichi, Shinbi taikan (Kyoto: Nihon Shinbi Kyokai, 1906), 12:pl. 27.
29. This pair of screens, afxed with fan paintings that illustrate scenes from A Tale of
the Hgen War and a Tale of the Heiji War, is still in the Imperial Household Collec-
tion, Tokyo.
30. Sakai City Museum, ed., Sumiyoshi Taisha: Utamakura no sekai (Sakai: Sakai
City Museum, 1984).
31. Tajima Shiichi, Shinbi taikan (Kyoto: Nihon Bukky Shinbi Kykai, 1899), 2:pl. 36.
32. One ambiguous matter concerning Statsus Wind and Thunder Gods Screens is
their provenance. For more on this question see Chapter 3 in this volume.
33. Ernest Fenollosa, Survey of the Collection of Kenninji, August 1884. See Mu-
rakata Akiko, ed. and trans., The Ernest F. Fenollosa Papers in the Houghton Library,
Harvard University (Tokyo: Museum-Shuppan, 1982), 1:220.
34. This exhibition of 1895, titled A Chronological Exhibition of Japanese Art (Ji-
daihin tenrankai), was held in Kyoto in conjunction with the fourth domestic exhibition.
35. The exhibition was held from 12 April to 10 May 1903. More than six hundred
works were displayed, including ancient bronze objects from Japan and abroad, along
with paintings from the Kano school and the Krin school. Accompanying the exhibit
was a catalog, Tokubetsu tenrankai reppin mokuroku, which is preserved in the Re-
search and Information Center of the Tokyo National Museum.
36. Author unknown, Jih, Bijutsu Shinp 3(2) (1903):2122. I learned of this review
from research by Soutome Harue, a graduate student at Thoku University. See Sou-
tome, Hishida Shuns Ochiba no kkan ksei ni kansuru ichi ksatsudjidai kaiga
no naka de no ichizuke, Bijutsushigaku 20 (1998):79.
37. Among the historians studying modern Japan, one who has taken the initiative in
debates over creation of tradition is Takagi Hiroshi. Takagi points out that the Meiji
government fostered the establishment of Japanese art history as an academic eld in
order to convey to Western countries that Japan had its own traditions as suited a mod-
ern nation. See Takagi, Nihon bijutushi no seiritsu shiron: Kodai bijutsushi no jidai
kubun no seiritsu, Nihonshi Kenky 400 (1995):74 98. Stefan Tanaka discusses this
issue from another perspective in his MiidasaretamonoNihon to Seiy no kako
toshite no Nihon bijutsushi, in Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, ed., Ima, Nihon no
bijutsushigaku o furikaeru (Tokyo: Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, 1999), 5060.
38. For further discussion of koten and classicism see the Introduction and Chap-
ter 1 of this volume.
39. Fukui Rikichir, Momoyama jidai no bijutsu, in Nihon Rekishi Chiri Gakkai,
ed., Azuchi-Momoyama jidaishi ron (Tokyo: Jinysha, 1915), 371440.
40. Tamamushi Satoko, Sakai Hitsu hitsu Natsuakikusa-zu bybu to Takarai
Kikaku no amagoikuEdo no Fjin-Raijin ish no bunmyaku kara, Jissen Joshi Dai-
gaku Bigaku Bijutsushi 13 (1998):79 89. See also my Rinpa: The Past, Present, and
Future, in Miyeko Murase and Judith G. Smith, eds., The Arts of Japan: An Interna-
tional Symposium (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000), 133160.
41. Oka Yoshiko, M hitotsu no Kanei bunka ron: Buke to dgu no kankei,
Kytoshi Rekishi Shirykan Kiy 10 (1992):389419.
Chapter Three
Keiko Nakamachi
The Patrons of
Tawaraya Statsu
and Ogata Krin
Recent research on the history of Japanese art reveals that a construct known
as Japanese art history (Nihon bijutsu shi) began emerging at the start of
Japans modern era, that is, during the Meiji period (1868 1912) and the Tai-
sh period (19121926). This construct contributed to the formation of a Japa-
nese sense of national identity in the early twentieth century and, consequently,
it can be associated with the emergence of Japan as a modern nation-state.1 It
was in this context that artworks by two so-called Rimpa painters, Tawaraya
Statsu (d. 1643?) and Ogata Krin (1658 1716), came to be regarded as the
decorative successors of a Japanese style of painting (yamato-e) that suppos-
edly had originated in the Heian period (7941185).2 Specically, Statsu and
Krin were integrated into a discourse on the classical revival (koten fukk) in
art of the early Edo period (1600 1868). But where did this revival occur and
why? And who appreciated the classical elements in Statsus and Krins
work?
This chapter examines social dimensions of the classical revival, which I de-
ne as one of several artistic movements based on Heian yamato-e: the Japanese-
style painting actually produced under the inuence of Chinese art of the
Tang dynasty (618907). Here I consider the circumstances in which works by
Statsu and Krin were viewed and appreciated in the seventeenth century,
along with the strata of society to which their patrons belonged, whether war-
rior, aristocratic, or commoner. After investigating the function of Statsus
and Krins work in Edo society, I offer some observations on the changing
concepts of Statsu and Krin from the Edo period to the present.
But rst we should consider the relationship between Rimpa and modern
theories of a classical revival in early Edo art. The modern images of Statsu
and Krin were established in the rst two decades of the twentieth century
along with a sudden rise in the popularity of Rimpaat a time when the pub-
lisher Shinbi Shoin released several large and luxuriously illustrated compen-
dia of works by the two artists and Statsus grave was discovered in Kanazawa.3
In 1915, moreover, an exhibition commemorating the two-hundredth anniver-
sary of Krins death opened in Tokyo and Kyoto, accompanied by a catalog
published by Unsd.4 Within a few years, the art of Statsus contemporary
and colleague, Honami Ketsu (15581637), was being acclaimed as well.5
Whereas late-Edo-period scholars and connoisseurs had based their evalua-
tions of art by Statsu and Krin on standards set in Chinese painting histo-
ries and anthologies, modern writers viewed the two Rimpa artists from a to-
tally different perspective.6 Authors of the early-twentieth-century compendia
reevaluated Statsu and Krin in terms of art as dened in the Westthat is to
say, on European bases. Two points characterize the modern scholars treat-
ment of art by Statsu and Krin. First, they elaborated on features considered
to be decorative in Statsus and Krins art, following a current Western no-
tion, and this was a positively construed sense of decorativeness (sshokuteki).7
Second, modern writers adopted a nationalistic tone in describing Rimpa and
yamato-e as traditional styles of Japanese painting untouched by Chinese in-
uence. Such an interpretation of Statsus and Krins art t perfectly into the
constructed fabric of modern Japanese art history and became undeniably im-
portant since art history was one of the many discourses being integrated into
the modern project of nation-state formation in Japan. This way of thinking
problematic as it may beendures today and provides steady support for the
continuing interest in Rimpa.
From the 1940s on, historians of early-Edo-period culture in Kyoto, partic-
ularly Hayashiya Tatsusabur and his cohort, began to link the phrase classi-
cal revival with Statsu.8 According to their analyses, Kyoto experienced a
Kanei cultural phase in the rst half of the seventeenth century when culture
prospered under Emperor Gomizunoo (1596 1680; r. 1611 1629), his associ-
ates, and a number of inuential townspeople including members of the
Honami and Suminokura families. This was, in the words of Hayashiya and
his circle, a phase of classical revival with a rebirth of dynastic traditions
(ch dent no fukkatsu) deriving from the Heian period, distinguishing as-
pects of which can be seen in architecture, tea ceremony, ower arrangement,
and other artistic forms. There was, for example, the tastefully discriminating
(sukiya) architecture in teahouses at Shugakuin Detached Palace built by
Gomizunoo, at Katsura Detached Palace built by Hachij no Miya Toshihito
80 Keiko Nakamachi
(1579 1629; uncle of Gomizunoo) and Hachij no Miya Toshitada (1619
1662), and at the Ekan Sans built by Ichij Kanet (1605 1672; younger
brother of Gomizunoo), all located in or near Kyoto.9 These individualsall
from the aristocracyhosted tea gatherings conducted in the style of Kana-
mori Swa (1584 or 15891656) following an aesthetic referred to as beautiful
and tranquil (kirei sabi).10 There were also the exhibitions of owers arranged
by Ikenob Senk II (1536?1621), which were displayed at the Kyoto imperial
palace.11 Hayashiyas group advanced the theory that such cultural forms are
expressions of a brilliant Kyoto culture that owered during the Kanei cultural
phase. Although there are problems with this theory and the concept of an
early-Edo classical revival, I adopt these notions here as a means to evaluate
the social dimensions of Statsus and Krins art.
During the Kanei era, the Edo military government (bakufu)under the
third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu (16041651; r. 16231651)made clear its in-
tentions to consolidate the Edo political structure and subordinate the impe-
rial court. In Kyoto opposition to the Tokugawaalong with feelings of resigna-
tion and estrangement from politicsdrove members of the court to cultural
activities. In 1626, hoping to revive traditional court ceremonies, Gomizunoo
commissioned the painter Sumiyoshi Jokei (1599 1670) and his assistants to
copy the Narrative Handscrolls of Annual Rites and Ceremonies of the Court
(Nenj gyji emaki), the original version of which had been ordered by retired
Emperor Goshirakawa (1127 1192; r. 1155 1158) at the end of the Heian pe-
riod.12 The Nenj gyji emaki is an illustrated calendar of events at the impe-
rial court, including scenes of ofcial rites and festivities. Thus this commis-
sion is taken as evidence that Gomizunoo looked back with nostalgia to a day
when society revolved around the emperor and his court nobles.
Elite Kyoto townspeople played a role in the seventeenth-century classical
revival. For centuries they had felt a deep reverence for the emperor and had
developed a sense of close afliation with the court, which was often antago-
nistic to the military government. From within the educated and wealthy ranks
of commoner society emerged men who helped to shape the eras culture,
such as Honami Ketsu and Suminokura Soan (1571 1632), and it was from
this group of Kyoto townspeople that Statsu emerged.13 A discovery made
around 1950 has strengthened our understanding of Kanei-era ties between
Statsu and the court. This discovery was a letter by Gomizunoos brother,
Ichij Kanet. Dated 1630 and addressed to a court lady in the service of the re-
tired emperor, this letter states that Gomizunoo had commissioned Statsu to
paint three pairs of screens, one of which was covered with gold and featured
T h e P a t r o n s o f T a w a r a y a S o t a t s u a n d O g a t a K o r i n 81
a painting of trees with myrica berries (ybai).14 Thus Gomizunoo and Kanet
both knew Statsuas did the courtier Karasumaru Mitsuhiro (15791638)
indicating that Statsu can be placed within a network of courtier culture.
Noteworthy in this regard is the prominent role played by nobles and towns-
people in shaping cultural developments of the early Edo period, just as they
had done earlier in the Momoyama period (1573 1600). Even though the
early Edo period is generally conceived of as an age of warriors, townspeople
and others seem to have exerted considerable inuence on cultureas, I sus-
pect, future research will fully demonstrate. Much work is needed, however, to
clarify Statsus activities, his involvement with the classical revival, and his
link to court culture. Many themes that Statsu chose to illustrate reveal a
strong sense of afnity with aristocratic culture, and Statsu associated with
people who were tied to the court in the Kanei era. These courtiers, though,
were not his only patrons.
The Patrons of Statsu

Table 3.1 lists extant works by Statsu and Statsu-school artists whose prove-
nance is clear. Although no one has established that these works were made on
commission, it is highly likely that they were. From Table 3.1 we realize imme-
diately that many works with a known provenance painted by Statsu and S-
tatsu-school artists currently belong or once belonged to Daigoji, a temple in
Yamashina to the east of Kyoto. A total of ve such paintings are known if we
include the piece depicting Zhutou (J: Chot) and Budai (J: Hotei), a twofold
screen that the Muryjuin of Daigoji probably owned at one time. The other
four paintings are the pair of sixfold screens of Sekiya and Miotsukushi Chap-
ters from The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari Sekiya-Miotsukushi-zu bybu;
Plate 1); the pair of twofold screens of Bugaku Dancers (Bugaku-zu bybu); the
pair of twofold Screens with Fans (Senmen harimaze bybu); and the single-
panel screen with painting on two sides of Ducks and Reeds (Ashigamo-zu tsui-
tate).15 In fact, two of the paintings associated with Daigojithe screens of
Sekiya and Miotsukushi and the screens of Bugaku Dancersare among S-
tatsus best-known works. Although scholars have yet to clarify the relationship
between Statsu and Daigoji, we do know that a subtemple of Daigoji, the
Sambin, owned several of these works and that clerics at the Sambin main-
tained close ties with members of aristocratic society as it was one of the Bud-
dhist temples afliated with the imperial family (monzeki). It is clear, there-
fore, that individuals at Daigoji were connected with the court.
82 Keiko Nakamachi
table 3.1. Provenance of Works by Statsu and the Statsu School
Subject/ Title Current Collection Former Collection Related Facts
Folding screens (byobu) and sliding doors-and-panels (fusuma)
Tale of Genji: Seikad Bunko Daigoji

Sekiya and Museum
Miotsukushi
Bugaku Dancers Daigoji Daigoji
Screens with Fans Daigoji Daigoji
Ducks and Reeds Daigoji Daigoji Single-leaf screen,

formerly wall paint-
ing (kabeharitsuke-e)
from Muryjuin,
Daigoji
Wind and Thunder Kenninji Mykji Restored by Udda Kinnori

Gods
Matsushima Freer Gallery Shunji, Sakai Shunji built by Tani

Shan
Screens with Fans Sannomaru Imperial Collection Formerly in Date

Shzkan family coll.?
Narrow Lane with Manno Museum Tsugaru family Inscription by Mitsuhiro

Ivy of Art
Pine, Chinese Lions, Ygenin Ygenin, Kyoto Restored by wife of

Elephants Tokugawa Hidetada
Zhutou, Budai Hkaiji Hkaiji, Kyoto Supposedly in former

coll. of Muryjuin,
Daigoji, Kyoto
Hanging scrolls (kakefuku), handscrolls (makimono), and other formats
Oxen Chmyji Chmyji, Kyoto Inscription by Mitsuhiro
Handscrolls of the Idemitsu Museum Mri family coll. Formerly in Echizen

Life of Saigy and elsewhere Matsudaira family coll.?
Inscription by
Mitsuhiroa
Heike nky Itsukushima Shrine Itsukushima Shrine
a. Another set of Handscrolls of the Life of Saigy is found in the Watanabe collection.
Another point we glean from Table 3.1 is that three works by Statsu and
Statsu-school artists bear inscriptions by the renowned courtier and calligra-
pher Karasumaru Mitsuhiro. These three works are the set of Handscrolls of
the Life of Saigy (Saigy monogatari emaki); the diptych of hanging scrolls
with ink paintings of Oxen (Ushi-zu); and the pair of sixfold screens of Narrow
Lane with Ivy (Tsuta-no-hosomichi-zu bybu). In studies reconstructing the ca-
reer of Statsu, scholars regularly cite one of these, the Handscrolls of the Life
of Saigy formerly in the Mri family collection. Mitsuhiros inscription on this
set of scrollsa postscript on the fourth scroll, which is dated to 1630 (Kanei
7)states that a certain Honda Izunokami Tomimasa ordered this set and that
Statsu hokky (a name the artist adopted) borrowed and copied an original
set of the Handscrolls of the Life of Saigy from the imperial collection.16 In
earlier years, this Honda Izunokami Tomimasa (1572 1649) had served as the
chief retainer (kar) of Matsudaira Hideyasu (15741607), second son of Toku-
gawa Ieyasu (1542 1616) and former lord of Echizen province (present-day
Fukui prefecture). Then, after Hideyasus death, Mitsuhiro married his widow,
Tsuruko. Thus Mitsuhiro probably became acquainted with Honda Tomimasa
through this connection. It is possible that someone in the Matsudaira family
later presented the Saigy scroll set as a wedding gift to a Mri clanswoman on
her marriage to a Matsudaira clansmanthe bride and groom are as yet un-
identiedand, subsequently, the Mri family passed down the scroll set from
one generation to the next.
This possibility leads us to two conclusionsthat the set of Handscrolls of
the Life of Saigy was made for the Echizen Matsudaira family and that when
a Matsudaira woman married, a scroll set might function as part of her trous-
seau. Not only can we characterize the Saigy scroll set as a symbol of cultural
renement t for ladies, but we can see members of the warrior class incorpo-
rating aspects of aristocratic culture into their own. During the Edo period,
members of warrior families commonly selected aristocratic themes to deco-
rate items being made for their daughters trousseaux. To cite a famous exam-
ple, the Tokugawa ordered a set of wedding furnishings (dgu) to commemo-
rate the marriage of Chiyohime (Reisenin), the rstborn daughter of the third
shogun Iemitsu, to the second lord of the Owari domain, Tokugawa Mitsutomo
(16251700). (This set is today in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum
in Nagoya, Figure 4.7) Scenes decorating the surfaces of this set of dgu illus-
trate The First Warbler (Hatsune) chapter from The Tale of Genji. As a nal
note on the Handscrolls of the Life of Saigy, we can speculate that Mitsuhiro
assumed a greater role in producing the scroll set than merely writing the text
84 Keiko Nakamachi
and the postscript. Evidently he also acted as coordinator of the sets produc-
tion, making the collaborative project possible through his personal connec-
tions. In this case, in addition to borrowing the original set from the imperial col-
lection, he may have played a part in selecting Statsu to paint the illustrations.
Next we turn to the pair of screens of Narrow Lane with Ivy in the Manno
Museum of Art, originally owned by the Tsugaru family, military lords (daimyo)
of a part of Mutsu province (the present-day western region of Aomori prefec-
ture). Most scholars now believe that one of Statsus leading students painted
these screens, which also bear an inscription by Mitsuhiro running across the
upper part of the composition. In this inscription Mitsuhiro refers to a passage
from the Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari), a classic of Japanese court literature that
dates to the late ninth or early tenth century. Based on this reference, we can
surmise that the ivypainted here in green (rokush) against a gold ground
alludes to the road overgrown with ivy appearing on Mount Utsu (Utsuyama)
as described in the ninth chapter of the Tales of Ise.17 The unusual nature of
the composition in Narrow Lane with Ivy results as much from the long in-
scription added by Mitsuhiro as it does from the depiction and arrangement of
forms, which are abstract yet with a high sense of design. Earlier, in the Keich
era (1596 1614), Statsu had painted ivy in gold, silver, and polychrome on
square poem sheets (shikishi); consequently, some scholars might characterize
Narrow Lane with Ivy as a students enlargement of a small ornamental com-
position by Statsu to the large-scale screen format. Today people tend to value
Narrow Lane with Ivy more for its innovative composition than for the inscrip-
tion. In fact, descriptions of the screens in the many illustrated books on Rimpa
usually mention the inscription only in passing. Yet the person who commis-
sioned this work probably placed the highest value on Mitsuhiros aristocratic
calligraphy. This is why the screens should be categorized as a calligraphic
work by Mitsuhiro and not as an enlarged ornamental composition for screens.
We can imagine that Mitsuhiro, having been asked to grace a pair of screens
with his calligraphy, turned to Statsu and requested that the artist create a pic-
torial design that essentially would serve as underpainting for the screens.
It is also noteworthy that the screens of Narrow Lane with Ivy, like the Hand-
scrolls of the Life of Saigy, were passed down in a daimyo family. Admittedly
both the image and the inscription on Narrow Lane with Ivy refer to courtly
culture. Not only did the nobleman Mitsuhiro add his calligraphyhere adopt-
ing the Teika style (Teika-ry), an aristocratic manner supposedly developed by
the famous poet Fujiwara no Teika (1162 1241)but the poem-and-painting
theme is borrowed from the Tales of Ise. The owner of the screens belonged to
the warrior class, however. And although we do not know who commissioned
the screens, that person may have been from the warrior class as well. Because
Mitsuhiro acted as an emissary between the Kyoto court and the Edo govern-
ment, he must have had ample opportunity to interact with members of the
warrior class as he traveled between the two cities. On the road he would have
encountered many warriors participating in a system of alternate attendance
(sankin ktai) instituted by the Tokugawa shogunate. Therefore, we can postu-
late that Mitsuhiro played a pivotal role in introducing Statsus works to war-
rior lords.
The pair of Screens with Fans in the Museum of the Imperial Collections
(Sannomaru Shzkan) is one work by Statsu that denitely was passed down
through the generations at court. Screens with Fansmany of the fans illustrat-
ing scenes from two early-thirteenth-century war narratives, The Tale of the
Hgen War and The Tale of the Heiji War (Hgen-Heiji monogatari)may
have been treasured at court for centuries, but just when they entered the court
remains unclear. According to early accounts, the Date family, warrior lords of
Sendai in the southern part of Mutsu province, presented the screens to the
imperial family during the Meiji period, but it is now believed that the screens
entered the imperial collection sometime before the late 1760s.18 Thus we
must consider the possibility, yet to be established, that Screens with Fans was
one of the three pairs of screens that Ichij Kanet discusses in his letter to
Emperor Gomizunoo.
There are, as well, two works by Statsu commissioned or once owned by
members of the townspeoples community. These are the pair of sixfold screens
known as the Matsushima Screens (Matsushima-zu bybu) in the Freer Gal-
lery of Art, formerly belonging to Shunji in Sakai (see Figure 2.9), and the pair
of twofold screens titled the Wind and Thunder Gods Screens (Fjin-Raijin-zu
bybu) in the collection of Kenninji, once supposedly owned by Mykji at
Narutaki in Kyoto (Plate 2). Shunji was built in the early Edo period with funds
supplied by a wealthy and powerful merchant of Sakai, Tani Shan (1589
1644), who donated his personal possessions to the temple.19 The founder of
Shunji was Takuan Sh (15731645), a prominent priest from the Zen tem-
ple of Daitokuji where Shan practiced meditation. Takuan bestowed the sobri-
quet (g) Kaigan (Seashore) upon Shan before the construction of Shunji,
and this name apparently served as a catalyst for the creation of the Matsu-
shima Screens, which were known as the Rough Sea Screens (Ariso bybu)
into the Meiji period. In other words: Shan ordered the screens painted in
commemoration of the new temple, and the screens were linked to him the-
86 Keiko Nakamachi
matically as they pictured the seashore and Shans sobriquet was Kaigan.
The various auspicious motifs that appear in the Matsushima Screens reect
the circumstances under which the work was painted. Moreover, it is possible
that Mitsuhiro, who was familiar with Takuan, may have played a part in intro-
ducing the Sakai patron Shan to the Kyoto painter Statsu.
As for the Wind and Thunder Gods Screens, it is assumed that Statsu painted
these for Mykji in Kyoto, a Zen temple that traced its origins to the Muro-
machi period (13921573) but was reestablished in the early Edo period.20 Late
in the 1630s a rich merchant from Echizen (present-day Fukui prefecture),
Udda Jemon Kinnori (d. 1647), saw to the reconstruction of Mykji in a
tranquil area, away from the center of Kyoto, where a number of wealthy indi-
viduals had built retreats. In refurbishing Mykji, Kinnori intended to revive
this spot as a getaway where poets from the aristocracy could fraternize with
poets from other classes.
We learn more about Mykji and the Udda family from seventeenth-
century records. According to an entry in the Kakumeikia diary kept by the
nobleman-cleric Hrin Jsh (1593 1668)on the twenty-fourth day of the
eighth month of 1649 Hrin accompanied two men from Kyoto temples
Konchiin Genry (dates unknown) and Sank Jeki (15731650)along with
a temple employee, Hiraga Seibei (d. 1652), to Narutaki Betsuya (a retreat at
Narutaki in northwestern Kyoto, that is, Mykji).21 There Hrin met Udda
Jemon (Kinnoris son Kagenori [d. 1670]) for the rst time.22 Sank Jeki may
have instigated this visit; three years earlier, in 1646, he had conducted services
commemorating the 350th anniversary of the death of Hott Kokushi (1207
1298), founder of Mykji. Then, years later, on the eleventh day of the third
month of 1660, retired emperor Gomizunoo, who was on his way to Ninnaji in
northwestern Kyoto, stopped at the mountain retreat of a certain Itoya Joun
(an alternate name for Kagenori) at Mykji.23 A visit by Gomizunoo was more
than welcomed by the Udda, who were striving to afliate themselves with cul-
tural elites and associated with prominent literary gures like the poet of comic
linked verse (haikai no renga) Matsunaga Teitoku (15711653) and the master
of court poetry (waka) Kinoshita Chshshi (15691649). Thus Statsus Wind
and Thunder Gods Screens made their rst appearance in elegant and rened
spaces for leisure that had been created by cultured townspeople and courtiers.
The rise and fall of eminent early Edo merchants like members of the Udda
family is told by Mitsui Takafusa (16841748) in his Record of Merchants (Ch-
nin kkenroku), written around 1730 and narrated from the perspective of a
new breed of townspeople.24 In the Chnin kkenroku, Takafusa speaks of
Udda Kinnori as Itoya Jemon, and he reveals Kinnoris free-spending lifestyle
in accounts of his initiating reconstruction at Mykji and acquiring ac-
claimed tea utensils. Kinnori receives harsh criticism here for not knowing his
proper place and for seeking to mingle in court circles, which is said to have
caused his eventual bankruptcy.25 Because the Chnin kkenroku was meant
as a didactic text conveying Mitsui family precepts, it tends to preach prudence
and restraint. Its author was a new type of merchant, a type that became even
more active in the middle of the Edo period. These merchants held quite dif-
ferent economic and cultural values than those of their predecessors. For them,
Kinnoris activities could only be thought of as wasteful. Accordingly, they con-
demned Kinnori and other early Edo merchants for coveting high culture and
aspiring to afliate with aristocratic society.
In sum, then, Statsu apparently painted the Matsushima Screens and the
Wind and Thunder Gods Screens for two wealthy urban commoner patrons,
Tani Shan and Udda Kinnori. Indeed Statsu was himself a member of the
urban commoner class, though he came from Kyoto whereas Shan and Kin-
nori were from other cities. While temples may have been major patrons of
Statsu, it was individuals from the urban commoner, aristocratic, or warrior
classes serving at temples who became Statsus patronsand as my focus here
is on the social dimension of early Rimpa patronage, the class afliation of pa-
trons is crucial.
The Patrons of Krin

In the Genroku era (1688 1704), a generational shift occurred in the great
merchant families who had served as Statsus patrons. Second- and third-
generation descendants of these families could no longer afford to construct
temples or commission artists like Statsu to paint large-scale gilt screens. In
1689, a turning point came in the relationship between the Tani family, for
whom Statsu painted the Matsushima Screens, and Shunji, which had orig-
inated as the temple of Tani Shan and Takuan Sh. In that year Shunji be-
came afliated with the Daisen sect of Daitokuji and entered the next phase in
its history. The Udda family, who had sponsored the reconstruction of Mykji
and commissioned Statsu to paint the Wind and Thunder Gods Screens, de-
parted Kyoto in 1703 when the grandson of Kinnori, Mitsunori (1664 1731),
was appointed to serve in the Nakamura domain of Sma (present-day Fu-
kushima prefecture). It was around this time that Ogata Krin began actively
pursuing the art of painting. The Ogata family shopthe Kariganeya, which
88 Keiko Nakamachi
had prospered early in the Edo period as one of the leading dry-goods stores in
the countrywas no longer active, having been forced to close its doors due to
poor business.
From around the end of the seventeenth century, life among the aristocracy
was not as lively as before. Krin often called on aristocratic households, but his
visits were mainly socialand, as far as we know, his courtier acquaintances
placed no orders with him for large-scale painting. Although records state that
the noblemen Nij Tsunahira (1672 1732) and Takatsukasa Fusasuke (1637
1700) visited Krins home, their visits were purely a matter of leisure, with few
or no nancial benets for Krin.26 Apparently hoping to break free from such
conditions, Krin left Kyoto and traveled to Edo, making several round trips
between Kyoto and Edo in the years from 1704 to 1709. Krins purpose for vis-
iting Edo was to nd an alternative group of patrons. Apart from the merchants
living in Edo, there were numerous warriors in the new capital. The warrior
lords, required to reside in Edo every other year in keeping with the alternate
attendance system, all kept ne residences in the city. According to surviving
records, in 1707 and 1708 Krin was employed by the Sakai family, warrior
lords of Kzuke province (present-day Gumma prefecture). The painter Sakai
Hitsu (1761 1828), a later admirer of Krin, was born into this very family.
Records suggest that Krin also frequented a number of other daimyo house-
holds, including that of the Tsugaru. In a letter he sent from Edo to a friend
in Kyoto, Krin complains that he is tired of painting in daimyo households.
Although serving in warrior households might not have agreed with Krins
personality, the success of his stay in Edo is attested to by the many worksin
fact, a large percentage of his entire artistic outputthat once were found in
the collections of prominent daimyo families. Most of Statsus works, by con-
trast, entered temple collections in the Kyoto area.
Table 3.2, listing the works by Krin with known provenance, indicates that
most of his well-known screensother than the relatively early Iris Screens
belonged to prominent daimyo families. These families included the Tsugaru,
the Hachisuka, the Ikeda, and the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa. Strictly speaking,
however, no one knows exactly when these works entered the daimyo collec-
tions. We can date some of the pieces listed in Table 3.2 to the years following
Krins stay in Edo based on the painting style. In any case, more of Krins
works belonged to daimyo families than did Statsusand this phenomenon
undeniably was associated with Krins stays in Edo, a city of warriors.
Warrior lords must have been happy to acquire paintings by the Kyoto artist
Krin, whose works differed in avor from those by members of the Kano
table 3.2. Provenance of Works by Krin
Subject/Title Current Collection Former Collection
Screens
Red and White Plums MOA Museum Tsugaru family
Black Pine and Maple Tokyo University of Fine Arts Hachisuka family
Trees Museum
Yatsuhashi Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY) Ikeda family
Wind and Thunder Gods Tokyo National Museum Hitotsubashi Tokugawa

family
Taigong Wang Kyoto National Museum Ikeda family
Iris Nezu Art Museum Nishi Honganji
Peacocks and Hollyhocks Tokyo National Museum Kuj family
Matsushima Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) Unknown daimyo coll.
Hanging scrolls and other formats
Flowering Grasses of Private coll. Tsugaru family

Four Seasons
Azalea Hatakeyama Museum Kuroda family
Kosode with Autumn Tokyo National Museum Fuyuki family?

Grasses
school, ofcial painters to the shogunate (goy-eshi), who also were working in
Edo. As recent scholarship demonstrates, it was individuals from the warrior
class who sought out and purchased much of early-Edo-period art, even work
by artists who supposedly catered to the tastes of Kyoto aristocrats. One such
artist was Nonomura Ninsei (d. ca. 1694), who opened a kiln at Omuro near
Ninnaji in Kyoto and produced the nest ceramics decorated with overglaze
polychrome enamel (iro-e tki).27 Omuro appealed to a large clientele, includ-
ing the newly afuent townspeople and high-ranking warriors, who appreci-
ated Ninnajis association with ancient courtly culture and who themselves
hoped for some connection with rened, classical society. Moreover, many of
the motifs that Ninsei painted on his ceramic wares were drawn from courtly
life; in this respect at least, his pieces are inarguably products of court culture.
90 Keiko Nakamachi
More than any others, however, it was members of the warrior class on the pe-
riphery of aristocratic circles who typically owned objects so evocative of Kyoto
grace and renement. That late-seventeenth-century warriors were fond of tea
utensils made by Ninsei is not unexpected; nor is it surprising that they sought
the same level of renement in other utilitarian objects, such as folding screens.
And just as warriors purchased ceramic wares by Ninsei in emulation of Kyoto
aristocratic culture, so they acquired screens by Krin.
But some of the recurring themes in works by Statsu and Krinowering
plants like iris, chrysanthemum, and poppy, as well as Japanese narrative tales
were not necessarily held in the highest regard by those in power during the
Momoyama and early Edo periods: the warriors. Warrior lords considered such
themes to be of minor signicance, representing the private sphere rather than
the public. Gender associations accompanied these themes; the private con-
noted the female whereas the public connoted the male.28 As has frequently
been noted, those holding power in Japan commonly adopted images from
China (Kara) as symbols to legitimize their power.29 Although Kara literally
means the Tang dynasty, Edo writers used it more broadly in reference to an-
cient China or China imaginatively idealized as a foreign country. The ten-
dency to seek legitimacy through references to Kara changed from one period
to the next in Japan. But generally speaking, the trends set by warrior leaders in
the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries continued through the Edo
period.
Painting on sliding doors and panels tells us much about the role of painting
during the Edo periodat least the role of painting as dened by those hold-
ing power. Supervisors of artistic projects followed a system in determining
which subjects and which techniques would be employed for paintings placed
in ornamental architectural spaces, such as paintings on sliding doors and pan-
els decorating the various rooms of castles and palaces. The artistic supervisors
based their selections on the function, status, and gender of those who would
occupy the room in question. In rooms for important persons, they tended to
choose scenes from Chinese history or narratives featuring ancient gures
(Kara jimbutsu) like the Legendary Hermits (Sennin), the Seven Sages of the
Bamboo Grove (Chikurin no shichiken), and the Four Accomplishments (Kin-
kishoga). For formal or ceremonial spaces, they selected owers-and-trees (kabo-
kuzu) or owers-and-birds (kachga). In ceremonial spaces, moreover, the su-
pervisors strove to illustrate a single season or to avoid indicating a season at
allfor example, showing only a type of evergreen such as pine instead of add-
ing various plants to the scene that would indicate spring or autumn. The the-
matic category of owers-and-birds, like ancient Chinese gures, had been im-
ported from China. For decorating the inner quarters, however, which held a
lower status and were not used on formal occasions, supervisors typically se-
lected classical Japanese tales or owering grasses with no large accompanying
trees. Neither Japanese tales nor owering grasses suggest Chinese authority.
To illustrate this system, consider the paintings executed in the imperial
palace constructed by the Tokugawa around 1612.30 Here a subject used since
the Heian period, Chinese Sages (Kenj no sji), appeared on screens placed
in the Shishinden (a building for state ceremonies), in which important court
events such as coronations were held. Ancient Chinese gures and owers-
and-birds ornamented the inner quarters of the Seiryden (a building that
served ceremonial purposes in the seventeenth century), as well as the Tsune-
goten (a building with formal rooms for various functions). In the case of the
palace reconstruction of 1641, paintings of ancient Chinese gures and owers-
and-birds lled the Shishinden and the rst four rooms of the Tsunegoten;
however, renderings of owering plants and narrative talessuch as Fields in
Autumn (Aki-no-no) and the Tales of Iseappeared in the inner quarters. In-
cidentally, members of the Kano school undertook the paintings of both the
1612 and the 1641 palace reconstruction.
Essentially, then, if images from ancient China held the foremost rank, paint-
ings by Statsu and Krin held a lower status. Their paintings did not t into
the hierarchical evaluative strategy followed by warrior patrons at the time. Ac-
cording to this strategy, themes relating to ancient China were displayed in for-
mal spaces and were most highly esteemed. In contrast, the main spaces in
which Statsus and Krins works were displayed had no connection with po-
litical power, ceremony, or status. Consequently their paintings had no asso-
ciation with the authority of Kara. Their art was meant for the world of play, so
to speak, closer to a realm of leisure. This is one reason why Statsu and Krin
were not bound by convention or tradition and were free to employ novel and
original artistic effects. Perhaps as a direct result of this situation, the two painters
incorporated aspects of play and humor into their innovative compositions.
Working in a society that valued ancient Chinese imagery so highly, Statsu
and Krin employed a sophisticated Japanese taste to develop approaches that
were chic and elegant. This was the signicance of Rimpa in Edo Japan.
An interesting point was later raised by Kuwayama Gyokush (17431799),
who although not a Rimpa patron was aware of Rimpas social place in the
eighteenth century. An artist and a theorist, Gyokush belonged to the Kansai-
area circle of literati (C: wen jen; J: bunjin)also known as the Southern
92 Keiko Nakamachi
schoola loosely afliated group of individuals who claimed to follow the pre-
cepts of nonprofessional painters of China. In his Humble Words on Matters of
Painting (Kaiji higen; published in 1799), Gyokush asked:
Can ink play by those such as Lord Konoe [Konoe Nobutada (15651614)],
Seisei [Shkad Shj (1584 1639)], Statsu, and Krin be considered a
Southern school of our own?31
Here Gyokush advances Statsu and Krin as painters of a Japanese South-

ern school. Alongside Statsu and Krin, he places Konoe Nobutada, a noble-
man who rose to the highest ranks at the imperial court. Nobutada was a prom-
inent calligrapher and a painter known for his gures of divine beings rendered
in ink with quick, concise brushwork. To the group of Southern school artists
Gyokush adds Shkad Shj, another renowned calligrapher and an aci-
onado of tea. Like Nobutada, Shkad produced humorous ink sketches of g-
ures. In short, Nobutada and Shkad were individuals of elite culturespecif-
ically, they represented Kyoto high culture of the late Momoyama and early
Edo periods. Because Nobutada and Shkad painted as an avocation, that is
to say as amateurs, it may seem inappropriate from a modern perspective to
group them with Statsu and Krin, who made a living from their art. For
Gyokush, however, a late-eighteenth-century literatus, these four gentlemen
possessed similar characters. Furthermore, in their art they conveyed a sense of
noble amateurism and an intent to shun vulgarism, one comparable to South-
ern-school Chinese art. Gyokushs comments on Statsu and Krin are rele-
vant because they reveal that at the end of the eighteenth century Statsu and
Krindespite making a living from their paintingswere regarded as
literati, that is, as painters outside the professional world of painters, apart in
particular from ofcial painters such as those of the Kano school.
Conclusion
In the seventeenth century, Statsu and Krin were not grouped in the same
category as artists who served the ruling Edo lords, members of the profes-
sional Kano school. Statsu and Krin were different; they were painters from
Kyoto, the center of aristocratic culture. Certainly there were Kano artists work-
ing in Kyoto, even in the imperial palace, and it was not just Kyoto aristocrats
who owned works by Statsu and Krin. As we have seen, many paintings by
Krin belonged to warrior families. Nevertheless, I think we can say that peo-
ple of the day considered Statsus and Krins paintings as the most valuable
art of Japanin other words, as art that was non-Chinese. Thus Statsu and
Krin were essentially perceived in the Edo period as painters who conveyed
the luxurious side of native Japanese taste.
In the early twentieth century, however, writers placed too much emphasis
on the Japaneseness of Statsus and Krins art. This tendency spread nation-
ally, and then internationally, such that Statsus and Krins art today is seen
around the world as typically Japanese. On one level, works by Statsu and
Krin did present a typical Japanese style (and by this I mean that theirs is a
classical manner), just as their paintings hold high artistic value from a mod-
ern point of view. Yet they worked in a class-based society, and the social func-
tion of their painting was by no means so divorced from social tensions of their
day as modern interpretations imply. Being typically Japanese was merely one
quality of their art. The time has come, therefore, to reexamine commonly held
notions about the identities of Statsu and Krin. We need to shed our bias
and consider where to situate these two painters within the diverse eld of Edo-
period art.
Paintings, especially paintings on sliding doors and folding screens, were not
only appreciated aesthetically in the Edo period. They were valued for their so-
cial function as well. Paintings of human gures rendered in the Chinese
mode on gold-leaf grounds were used for ceremonial purposes, for example,
and esteemed more than the owering plants in the Japanese mode. Although
the works of Statsu and Krin were not highly ranked, they were valued by
wealthy urban commoners and warriors who lived in cities like Kyoto and Edo
because such paintings embodied the rened taste of aristocratic culture these
individuals desired for themselves.
Notes
This chapter was translated by Midori Oka and edited by Elizabeth Lillehoj.
1. For more on this point see, for example, Sat Dshin, Sekaikan no saihen to re-
kishikan no saihen, in Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, ed., Ima, Nihon no biju-
tsushigaku o furikaeru (Tokyo: Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, 1999), 111127; Sat
Dshin, Nihon bijutsu tanj: Kindai Nihon no kotoba to senryaku (Tokyo: Heibon-
sha, 1996); and Kitazawa Noriaki, Me no shinden: Bijutsu juyshi nto (Tokyo: Bijutsu
Shuppansha, 1989).
2. See my Bakumatsu kara Meiji no Statsu-Krin kan, in Rimpa ni yume miru
(Tokyo: Shinchsha, 1999).
3. Krin-ha gash, 5 vols. (Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 19031906); Ty bijutsu taikan, vol.
5 (Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 1909); Statsu gash (Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 1913); and Ketsu-
ha sanmeika sh (Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 1915).
94 Keiko Nakamachi
4. Krin: Krin gasei nihyakunenki kinen (Kyoto: Unsd, 1915).
5. Ketsu Association, ed., Ketsu (Kyoto: Unsd: 1916), and Ketsu Association, ed.,
Ketsu betsuden Takagamine yorai (Kyoto: Unsd: 1918).
6. For an Edo-period example see Kuwayama Gyokushs evaluation of Statsu and
Krin discussed in Chapter 1 of this volume, pages 31 34. For a modern example see
the preface by Kuki in Krin-ha gash published by Shinbi Shoin. Kuki held several
posts in succession, including head administrator of the Teishitsu Museum, and he was
a leader in connoisseurship of antiquities in the Meiji and Taish periods. In his pref-
ace, which is full of classical Chinese terminology, Kuki praises artists of the Krin school
(including painters from Krin through Suzuki Kiitsu [1796 1858]) for their skills at
decorating. Kuki states here that the distinguishing features of the school are its com-
position, organization, sense of design, and use of color. Kukis comments in essays such
as this preface helped form a methodological basis for modern art-historical research.
7. The concept of the decorative was changing dramatically, even in art theory of
Western Europe, after the 1860s when Japanese art historians rst applied the concept
to paintings by Statsu and Krin. Tamamushi Satoko has analyzed modern attempts to
lend a sense of signicance to so-called decorative work by Statsu and Krin by mak-
ing it seem universal. See Tamamushi, Nihon bijutsu no sshokusei to iu gensetsu,
in Ima, Nihon no bijutsushigaku o furikaeru, 240257.
8. For more on this discourse of a seventeenth-century classical revival in culture, see
the Introduction to this volume.
9. Kanet (also known as Akira and Ekan) was adopted into the Ichij family and
later rose to a high rank at court. The Ekan Sans was moved to Kamakura in 1959.
10. Swa (a.k.a. Shigechika) is credited with founding aristocratic tea (djcha) and
was a leading gure in seventeenth-century Kyoto culture. He was the son of Kanamori
Yoshishige (1558 1615), who was a military retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu and lord of
Takayama Castle in Hida. For more on the aesthetic term kirei sabi in English see
Kumakura Isao, Kanei Culture and Chanoyu, in Paul Varley and Kumakura Isao,
eds., Tea in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 1989), 143149.
11. Senk II developed standing owers (rikka), a novel style of ower arrangement
in which owers, branches, and leaves are treated as monumental sculpture. Large-
scale rikka was considered a form of ceremonial display. After the end of the seven-
teenth century, many other informal types of ower arrangement came to be appreci-
ated by a range of practitioners, including townspeople and warriors.
12. According to some accounts, Gomizunoo commissioned Jokei and his son Gukei
(1631 1705) to paint the scrolls in 1626. See, for example, Okudaira Hideo, Narrative
Picture Scrolls (New York: Weatherhill/Shibundo, 1973), 135. Since Gukei was born in
1631, however, that is improbable. It is more likely that Gukei, if involved in the project,
produced copies later. During Gomizunoos reign, the sixty scrolls of the twelfth-
century Nenj gyji emaki belonged to the emperors collection; but later in the seven-
teenth century they were lost in palace res, leaving the Sumiyoshi copy as the only
Nenj gyji emaki in existence. This Sumiyoshi set survives as sixteen handscrolls and
is found today in the Tanaka collection along with a few other related scrolls.
13. For more on courtier/commoner connections in seventeenth-century Kyoto see
Chapter 7 in this volume.
14. This letter is preserved in the collection of Tokuriki Tomikichir; Hayashiya, Kin-
sei dent bunkaron, 79. Scholars had thought that these screens no longer survive, but
recently Hayashi Susumu introduced a sixfold screen painted with myrica berry and
other kinds of trees; this screen is in a private collection in Osaka. Hayashi proposed
that it is the same myrica berry screen mentioned in Kanets letter; Hayashi, Shin-
shutsu no Statsu-hitsu Ybai-zu bybu ni tsuite, Bijutsushi 147 (1999):152153.
15. Yamane Yz, Statsu and DaigojiAshigamo-zu tsuitate o chshin ni, Yamato
Bunka 26 (1958):4858. For an extensive discussion of the relationship between Statsu
and Daigoji see my Daigoji taikan (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, forthcoming).
16. A number of versions of Handscrolls of the Life of Saigy (also known as the
Saigy hshi gyj ekotoba) survive. The earliest known scrolls are apparently from a set
dated to the thirteenth century, one now in the Manno Museum of Art and the other in
the Tokugawa Museum of Art. Statsu painted two versions of the Handscrolls of the
Life of Saigy, one formerly in the Mri family collection and the other in the Wata-
nabe collection. Statsu copied an original set of Handscrolls of the Life of Saigy
painted by Kaida Uneme (dates unknown) in 1500. Kaidas set is not known to survive,
but there are other copies of Kaidas set besides Statsus version that do survive. For
more on the various versions see Yamane Yz, Statsu to Saigy monogatari-e, in
Rimpa kaiga zensh 1 Statsu-ha (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, 1977), 4959.
17. For a translation of this passage see Helen Craig McCullough, ed. and comp.,
Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 42.
18. Kondo Takemoto, Gomotsu Statsu Senmen-chirashi bybu no denrai ni tsuite
no goden, Kobijutsu 33 (1971):7882.
19. For more on the screens see my Statsu-hitsu Matsushima-zu bybu k, Jissen
Joshi Daigaku Bigaku Bijutsushigaku 10 (1995):2134.
20. Apparently the screens were transferred at some point from Mykji in the north-
ern part of Kyoto to Kenninji closer to the heart of Kyoto. Aimi Ku speculates that the
screens were moved from Mykji to Kenninji around 1829, although he provides no
documentary support for his claim. See his Statsu Fraijin to Mykji, in Nihon
shoshigaku taikei 45, 1 Aimi Ku sh (Tokyo: Seishd Shoten, 1985), 4449. Elsewhere
I elaborate on Aimis suggestion and consider the possibility that Krin copied Statsus
Wind and Thunder Gods Screens when they were stored at Mykji, located near Naru-
taki Kiln, where Krins brother Kenzan produced ceramics; see my Fjin-Raijin-zu
bybu to Statsu-Krin, Jissen Joshi Daigaku Bigaku Bijutsushi 1 (1986):89104.
21. Hrin, who served as abbot of Rokuonji in northwestern Kyoto and had many aris-
tocratic connections, kept his diary, the Kakumeiki, between 1635 and 1668. See Aka-
matsu Toshihide, ed., Kakumeiki, 6 vols. (Kyoto: Shibunkaku Shuppan, 1997).
22. Through the generations, the head of the Udda family was commonly called
Jemon. In 1649, when Hrin recorded the diary entry under consideration, Kinnori
was no longer living, so the Jemon referred to here must have been Kinnoris son
Kagenori. See Akamatsu, Kakumeiki, 2:544555.
23. Ibid., 4:636.
24. Mitsui Takafusa, Chnin kkenroku, in Nihon shisshi taikei (Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten, 1975), 59:175233.
25. Ibid., 59:181182.
26. Kawasaki Hiroshi, Shosoyogin ni arawareta Krin to Kenzan, Kobijutsu 81
(1987):5890 and Kobijutsu 82 (1987):8490.
27. Ninsei opened a kiln at Omuro near Ninnaji in Kyoto apparently with the assis-
96 Keiko Nakamachi
tance of Kanamori Swa. Oka Yoshiko argues persuasively that the impetus to locate
the new kiln at Ninnaji may have originated with Swa, who had connections with gov-
ernment ofcials and aristocrats close to Ninnaji, a monzeki temple. For more on this
issue see Oka, Kanamori SwaOmuro kaiy izen o chshin ni, Geinshi Kenky
114 (July 1991):37 60. For more, generally, on tea and warrior patrons of the arts see
Oka, Kanei bunka no chanoyu, in Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko and Iwama Kaori,
eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku (Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1988), 163170.
28. Chino Kaori has formulated a binary structure of Japanese culture wherein the
male is associated with the attributes of public/unied/Kara (China, or a phantom
great foreign country) while the female is associated with the equally positive attributes
of private/diverse/Yamato (Japan). See Chino, Nihon bijutsu no jend, Bijutsushi 136
(1994):235 246. For an English version of this article see Chino, Gender in Japanese
Art, trans., Joshua S. Mostow, Aesthetics 7 (1996):4968.
29. Strange to say, those in power in premodern Japan generally did not think that
images from ancient Japan conveyed authority; instead, they saw images of Kara as au-
thoritative. It was only after the Meiji period that images from Japanese mythology
began to be painted and understood as symbols of national identity.
30. For more on this phase of construction and decoration of the imperial palace see
Fujioka Michio, Shinch: Kyto gosho (Tokyo: Ch Kron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1987),
178195.
31. Gyokush, Kaiji higen, in Nihon kaigaron taikei, 1:148. The sentence quoted here
is thought to have been added by Kimura Kenkad (1736 1802), who wrote the fore-
word and revised the text after Gyokushs death. For more on this question see Chap-
ter 1 in this volume, pages 3233.
Chapter Four
L a u r a W. A l l e n
Japanese Exemplars
for a New Age:
Genji Paintings from the
Seventeenth-Century
Tosa School
Is it correct to apply the terms classicism and classical revival to early Edo
art? My own position has changed since 1998, when I coorganized the sympo-
sium on which this volume is based. The routine employmentand apparent
acceptanceof such terms by most scholars of Japanese art and literature
notwithstanding, applying a system of Western aesthetic principles to the study
of Japanese culture is inherently problematic and using these terms in relation
to Japanese art may be seen as ideologically corrupt. Melanie Trede rightly sug-
gests in Chapter 1 that colonialist and nationalist agendas have forever tainted
the term classicism. In modifying my position, however, I do not mean to re-
ject altogether the project of investigating seventeenth-century uses of the past.
There are many indications, for example, that the early to mid-seventeenth cen-
tury was a time when patrons of the arts were especially willing, even eager, to
embrace literary works and artistic styles associated with the ancient imperial
court. I believe that these patrons, along with contemporary writers and artists,
viewed certain ancient works and styles as classics in the limited sense of serv-
ing as the established model or standard or having lasting signicance or
worth; enduring.1 Kamakura-period poetry anthologies like the One Hundred
Poems, One Poem Each (Hyakunin isshu; ca. 1230), discussed by Joshua Mos-
tow in Chapter 5 of this volume, and other works written by members of the
Heian court, such as Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari; tenth century) and The Tale
of Genji (ca. 1000), were seen in the seventeenth century as sources to be mined
for inspirationat least in part because they embodied the authority of the
past, specically that of the ancient imperial court. While seventeenth-century
views of the past were certainly not monolithic, there is a cohesive quality to
the presentation of court-based themes suggestive of a conscious revival.
Whether or not one agrees today with the designation of Genji or Ise as ob-
jects worthy of veneration, there are abundant signs that writers, artists, and pa-
trons of the early to mid-seventeenth century invested such court-based texts
with a special importance. My interest is not in arguing about canon building,
however, or in building one of my own, but in investigating the forces motivat-
ing seventeenth-century artists to take up and reformulate these ancient themes
and styles. Specically, this essay explores the network of social and economic
concerns underlying the presence and formal presentation of The Tale of Genji
theme in seventeenth-century art and design.2
Although pictures of The Tale of Genji (known as Genji-e) were created
throughout the medieval period, the late sixteenth and early seventeenth cen-
turies witnessed a dramatic rise in their production (Plates 47). Demand for
Genji-e seems to have risen concurrently with the dissemination of the text to
a new, wider readershipmade possible through the rapid development of
block-printing technology. With the spread of printed texts relating to Genji,
a host of Genji-e albums, handscrolls, hanging scrolls, and screens poured forth
from studios attached to every major school. Yet paintings and screens adorned
with pictures from the novel were only one part of a larger iconic circuit of
Genji-e, which included works in many other media. Craig Clunas, writing
about Ming-dynasty (13681644) pictorial art, denes iconic circuit as an econ-
omy of representations in which images of a certain kind circulated between
different media in which pictures were involved.3 In the case of seventeenth-
century Japan, we nd not only paintings but also lacquer tables and recepta-
cles, fans, painted shells and playing cards, cloth- and paper-covered boxes
among the objects decorated with motifs from Genji.
Scholarship on Genji-e has advanced greatly during the last twenty years
through the efforts of such eminent art historians as Akiyama Terukazu, Mi-
yeko Murase, and Taguchi Eiichi. Akiyamas early insights into the narrative
structure of the twelfth-century Genji handscrolls, rst published almost forty
years ago, are still unsurpassed today. In her 1983 book, Murase analyzed later
Genji paintings through the lens of iconography, comparing painted images
from the seventeenth century with a sixteenth-century painting manual. In the
late 1980s, Taguchi coauthored The Sumptuous World of Genji-e: The Tale of
Genji, a compendium of valuable information on Genji-e of the Muromachi
100 L a u r a W. A l l e n
(13921573), Momoyama (15731600), and Edo (16001868) periods. The work
of these and other scholars in Japan enables us to easily identify the subject mat-
ter of pictures based on Genji, to trace the lines of transmission from one work
to the next, and to understand changes in compositional strategies as artists
moved from one format to another. Particularly impressive and useful in this
regard is Taguchis book, which tracks and compares the iconography used in
almost forty different works on the theme.4
With this substantial foundation in place, we can begin assessing Genji-e
from perspectives that go beyond standard stylistic or iconographic analysis.
One area of investigation, reected in this chapter, is the reception of Genji
picturesin this case, the question of what such works meant to viewers in the
seventeenth century, some six hundred years after the novel was written. With-
out denying the critical function of iconographic analysis, I want to move be-
yond the storylines attached to different pictures from the Genji cycle to con-
sider the cultural, social, and economic implications of Genji-e as objects born
of a particular time and place. While acknowledging the crucial role of formal-
ist, or stylistic, analysis in placing Genji-e within linear developmental schema,
in this chapter my observations about artistic style are marshaled to the task of
understanding what made Genji-e successful in seventeenth-century terms.
My objective here is to explore the role Genji-e played in the lives of elite
women during the seventeenth century. Admittedly, there is scant documen-
tary evidence about how Genji-e were acquired and used by women in this pe-
riod. Although Genji-e must have functioned in a variety of circumstances, the
known sources refer primarily to Genji-e included among bridal trousseaux
and wedding gifts, or as the possessions of aristocratic nuns, offering little infor-
mation about how Genji-e were understood by women of different ages or so-
cial status. The dearth of documentary evidence is disheartening, perhaps, but
not altogether discouraging. As scholars begin to study in greater depth the ev-
idence about elite womens lives in the seventeenth century, new information
about the paintings and other objects will no doubt come to light.
While citing the documentary evidence in due course, I want to focus on
elucidating a connection between the proliferation of Genji-e in this period
and the burgeoning seventeenth-century discourse on proper female conduct,
morality, and education. During the second half of the century, in particular,
Japanese intellectualsinuenced by Neo-Confucian perspectives on proper
moral conductwere actively formulating new paradigms of ideal woman-
hood. I will argue that these paradigms, and the broader discourse on which
Japanese Exemplars for a New Age 101

they were based, had profound implications for the production of Genji-e.
They did so by stimulating demand, shaping artists decisions about how to
present Genji scenes, and ultimately affecting the reception of Genji-e by
seventeenth-century viewers, both male and female.
It should be noted at the outset that views of proper female behavior were
not, in any sense, elements of an ofcial Tokugawa ideology but part of the
clamor of competing voices that made up the mid-seventeenth-century dis-
course on gender. A major forum for this discourse was an array of printed books,
published in Kyoto from about 1640 on, known as the kanazshi jokun, or di-
dactic texts for women written in the Japanese syllabic script (kana). Aoyama
Tadakazu divides these texts into four categories that give some idea of their
thematic content and sources: texts centered on Buddhist thought, with a
Japanese-style Lady Murasaki as their ideal; works based on Confucian phi-
losophy, with Chinese-style eminent women as the model; books presenting
ideal virtuous women derived from a syncretic mix of Shinto, Buddhist, and
Confucian ideas; and works describing modern women corresponding to
contemporary reality.5
The didactic texts for women illuminate several aspects of the surge in
Genji-e production. Following Chinese models, the texts emphasize the im-
portance for elite women of studying ancient literary works, implicitly sanc-
tioning the study of Japanese classics as a prerequisite for ideal womanhood.
Some of the texts address Genji directly, offering characters from the novel,
and its author, Murasaki Shikibu, as role models for contemporary women. In
one case, a didactic text offers as an illustration of suitable female conduct a
picture of women playing the shell-matching game, which requires familiarity
with the Genji iconography. These observations, taken together with the pres-
ence of Genji-e among the bridal trousseaux of wealthy women, suggest a cli-
mate in which Genji was considered especially suitable for the eyes of young
womenand indicate that familiarity with both the Genji story and its picto-
rial iconography were deemed critical female attainments.
In examining how the discourse on ideal female conduct affected individual
works of art, I limit my discussion to a small group of Genji-e created during
the second half of the seventeenth century by Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691), who
served as edokoro azukari, or director of the imperial court painting bureau.
My analysis of these images reveals that contemporary attitudes about Genjis
value for elite women shaped the manner in which Mitsuoki rendered this
time-honored theme.
Background: The Tale of Genji and
Seventeenth-Century Readers
One factor governing the proliferation of Genji-e in seventeenth-century Japan

was increased access to the text itself. As early as the fteenth century, instruc-
tors used digests or synopses of The Tale of Genji, such as the Small Mirror of
Genji (Genji kokagami; ca. 1425), to spread knowledge of the novel to readers
ill equipped to decipher the lengthy classical text.6 Advances in printing tech-
nology led in the seventeenth century to vastly increased dissemination of both
the original text and the medieval digests. In the rst half of the century, the
Small Mirror of Genji was published in three movable-type editions; several
more block-type editions appeared in 1651.7 Many new editions of Genji were
published as well. Some, like The Tale of GenjiLake Moon Commentary
(Genji monogatari kogetsush; 1673) by Kitamura Kigin (16241705), were ren-
dered more accessible by annotation with furigana (kana readings for kanji
characters). Frequently illustrations accompanied the new editions: two such
examples include The Illustrated Tale of Genji (Eiri Genji monogatari), pub-
lished in 1650 with pictures by Yamamoto Shunsh (1610 1682),8 and Synop-
sis Books of The Tale of Genji (Jj Genji), published in 1661 by Nonoguchi
Ryho (15991669). The availability of printed editions meant that more peo-
ple were familiar with the story in the seventeenth century than ever before. In
general terms the texts popularity, and the availability of simple illustrations as
models, must have spurred the production of many new paintings as well as
utensils and accoutrements decorated with Genji scenes.
We know that interest in Genji was especially high around 1650, when a
wealthy patron commissioned a sumptuous set of one hundred or more Genji-e
handscrolls (Plate 3). Earlier handscrolls, like the twelfth-century Illustrated
Scrolls of The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari emaki), included no more than
two or three episodes from each chapter. But this setnow dispersedincluded
the complete text of the novel accompanied by several illustrations for each
chapter. The detailed paintings of the set go far beyond the conventional icon-
ography used in most Genji-e of the time, suggesting a patron with a deep
knowledge and appreciation of the text. Although traditionally attributed to
Tosa Mitsuoki, the scrolls appear to have been part of a collaborative effort in-
volving many different artists and high-ranking calligraphers.9
Even as interest in Genji spread, members of the imperial court remained
a key constituency among readers. The study of ancient Japanese literature

figure 4.1.
Four Pairs of Shells,
from a shell game,
third quarter of 17th
century, ink, color,
and gold on clam-
shells, each shell ap-
proximately 7 9 cm,
Donkein Monzeki,
Kyoto.
had always played a role in life at court, but in 1615 the rst Tokugawa shogun
Ieyasu (1542 1616; r. 1603 1605) turned the practice into ofcial policy in his
regulations for the nobility, the Kuge shohatto. Article One of the regulations
states:
The Emperor is to be engaged in the arts, the rst of which is scholarship. . . .

The composing of waka began with Emperor Kk (83087) and continues
to this day. Though it consists merely of beautiful expressions, it is our coun-
trys art; it should not be abandoned. As written in the Kinpish [the em-
perors] primary efforts should be directed to the arts.10
Thus the emperor was to dedicate himself to the study of ancient literary forms,
especially waka, the thirty-one-syllable poetic form, of which Genji was a pri-
mary source.11 Of the seventeenth-century emperors, Gomizunoo (15961680;
r. 16111629) was especially concerned with such scholarship, completing three
works of commentary on Genji as well as two volumes on the Tales of Ise, an
anonymous work of the late ninth to tenth centuries.12 Of Gomizunoos imme-
diate successors in the seventeenth century, Gokmy (1633 1654; r. 1643
1654) is said to have scorned Japanese literature in favor of Chinese learning,
but Gosai (16371685; r. 16541663) was an enthusiastic scholar of native texts.13
That aristocratic women of the seventeenth century were also interested in
Genji is clear from a variety of objects associated with imperial patronage. The
rst is a set of shells painted with small-scale Genji-e that was donated by Em-
peror Gosai to the Donkein, an imperial convent (monzeki) in Kyoto, whose
abbess was Gosais daughter (Figure 4.1). Second is a set of small boxes deco-
rated with motifs from Genji, property of Daishji monzeki, attributed by tem-
ple tradition to the hand of Empress Tfukumonin (1607 1678), wife of Go-
mizunoo. Using a combination of fabric appliqu and embroidery, the maker
decorated the boxes with gural scenes or motifs associated with one or more
chapters, and each bears a glyph of parallel lines used in the incense game
Genji k. The technique of constructing gures and other motifs from fabric is
one that Tfukumonin herself used in making oshie, or pictures fashioned
from paper and cloth; if not made directly by her, the Daishji boxes were
probably produced by women in her circle.14 In addition, the Keikin nun-
nery of Mie prefecture owns a painted Genji-e album that Tfukumonin pur-
portedly gave to the abbess, Shtei Shnin (dates unknown).15
Genji-e in Elite Womens Lives

The existence of such objects suggests that elite women were expected to be fa-
miliar with The Tale of Genji in the mid-seventeenth century and, moreover,
that knowledge of Genji was part of the normative behavior that made elite
women acceptable in domestic and social terms. Although women at court
certainly read Genji throughout the medieval period, in the seventeenth cen-
tury a newly vigorous discourse on womens proper conduct provided fresh im-
petus for high-ranking women, both at court and in wealthy warrior house-
holds, to read The Tale of Genji.16 During the seventeenth century, a variety of
printed didactic texts for women written in Japanese syllabic script dissemi-
nated guidelines for female conduct that were strongly inuenced by Chinese
Neo-Confucian sources.17 Like those sources, the Japanese didactic texts for
women voice the mandate that high-ranking women should spend time read-
ing, studying, and learning from the precepts set down by earlier writers. The

renewed emphasis on such study for elite women, and the dissemination of an
ideal of literate womanhood that is reected in the seventeenth-century didac-
tic texts, gave a gloss of moral worthiness to the activity of reading Genji.
The importance of womens cultural education had been acknowledged by
such leading Song Neo-Confucianists as Zhu Xi (1130 1200), who, for exam-
ple, heaped praise on literary women in several of the funerary inscriptions he
wrote.18 A womans familiarity with the classics was integral to her role as a
mother; as family educator, a woman had a duty to transmit cultural knowl-
edge to her children, both male and female.19 Before Zhu Xi, Sima Guang
(1019 1086) wrote in support of female education, citing as texts suitable for
girls the Analects (Luny), the Classic of Filial Piety (Xiao jing), the Biogra-
phies of Eminent Women (Lien zhuan), and Ban Zhaos (. rst century) Ad-
monitions for Women (N jie).20 The Womens Classic of Filial Piety (N xiao
jing), an inuential Confucian text of the Tang dynasty (618907), specically
directed high-ranking women (noble ladies) to study the words of the virtu-
ous by reading the classic Book of Odes (Shi jing) and Book of Historical Doc-
uments (Shu jing).21
Although Japanese publishers rst printed their own editions of the Chinese
didactic texts for women in the 1650s, it is likely that earlier, throughout the
rst half of the century, Chinese manuscript and printed texts were available to
interested Japanese writers.22 The ideal of female cultivation is expressed pic-
torially in the Four Books for Women (Onna shisho), one of the earliest Japa-
nese editions (1656), which includes four of the six classic Chinese texts for
women (Figure 4.2). In the Four Books for Women, the opening illustration for
the Admonitions for Women shows the author Ban Zhao seated before a table,
a book spread open before her, writing brush in hand.23 Basing their work on
the Chinese textsand their illustrationsby the late 1630s Japanese writers
were compiling their own didactic texts for women, written in Japanese and in-
corporating stories about Japanese women and their lives. Some of the new
books were direct Japanese equivalents of works like the Biographies of Emi-
nent Women. Others blend Confucian elementstales of lial piety patterned
after Chinese examples, for instancewith stories and exhortations for women
that draw upon Buddhist and Shinto philosophy. Collectively they provide im-
portant evidence of ways in which Japanese intellectuals sought to apply Con-
fucian models to the conduct of Japanese lifein particular the formulation of
new paradigms of ideal Japanese womanhood during the mid-seventeenth
century.
For high-ranking women these paradigms centered, as in the Chinese texts,
figure 4.2.
Illustration from the
Admonitions for
Women (N jie) vol-
ume from the Four
Books for Women
(Onna shisho), 1656,
block-printed book,
ink on paper, 25.6
16 cm, East Asian
Library Rare Book
Collection, Univer-
sity of California,
Berkeley.
on the ideal of moral learning acquired through reading and study. The view
that women should study the precepts is expressed in the oldest of the Japa-
nese didactic texts for women, the Selected Lessons for Women (Jokun sh), a
work printed in several editions, the earliest dated to 1637.24 In his preface the
author says that he is bequeathing these admonitions to his daughter, who was
born to him late in life, at age sixty. Accompanying the preface are two illustra-
tions. The rst shows the author at home seated before a writing table with his
wife, young daughter, and servants before him (Figure 4.3). The second illus-
tration features several women: one in courtly robes is shown reading a book
opposite a younger woman, who holds a volume open in her hands (Figure
4.4). This picture seems to depict the women of the household after the writer
has passed onand can be interpreted as an illustration of the wife and daugh-
ter living in seclusion after the authors death, studying the precepts he be-
queathed to them.
The Mirror of Japanese Women (Honch jokan), published in a printed edi-

figure 4.3.
First illustration
from Selected
Lessons for Women
(Jokun sh), vol. 1,
1658, block-printed
book, ink on paper,
26 16 cm, East
Asian Library Rare
Book Collection,
University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley.
tion in 1661, presents a related ideal; it valorizes women who are known for
their cultivation of literary skills and their mastery of the classics. The Mirror of
Japanese Women represents a direct Japanese equivalent of the Chinese Con-
fucian text Biographies of Eminent Women. Under chapter headings borrowed
from its Chinese prototype, the Mirror of Japanese Women offered Japanese
readers eighty-one biographies of famous Japanese women.25 Among them
were many women like Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shnagon (ca. 966 1017),
who were remembered for their ability as poets/writers steeped in the traditions
of Japanese literature. The illustrations emphasize the womens literary repu-
tations over other virtues. Murasaki Shikibu is shown writing in a villa at Lake
Biwa, inspired by the full moon to set down the rst chapters of Genji (Figure
4.5); Sei Shnagon is shown raising a bamboo blind in the famous Pillow Book
(Makura no sshi) episode where she correctly acknowledges a poetic quota-
tion by the empress.26
Just as the Mirror of Japanese Women was rst being published, painters of
figure 4.4.
Second illustration
from Selected
Lessons for Women
(Jokun sh), vol. 1,
1658, block-printed
book, ink on paper,
26 16 cm, East
Asian Library Rare
Book Collection,
University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley.
hanging scrolls began featuring with new frequency female writers of the
Heian period. In Kyoto, Tosa Mitsuoki and his Kano-trained contemporary, Ki-
yohara Yukinobu (1643 1682), each produced several hanging scrolls repre-
senting Murasaki Shikibu (Figure 4.6) and Sei Shnagon, in much the same
manner as the Mirror of Japanese Women.27 Other artists of the period, includ-
ing Kano Tany (16021674) and the Kyoto genre painter Nonoguchi Ryho,28
made similar imaginary portraits of Murasaki Shikibu. The prevalence of these
paintings after midcentury suggests that interest in the Genji author was espe-
cially high.
These images of exemplary literary women raise an important point. While
female cultivation of the sort represented by Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Sh-
nagon was clearly viewed in positive terms, there was some disagreement about
what books women should be encouragedeven allowedto read in the sev-
enteenth century. Such eminent Neo-Confucian writers as Yamaga Sok (1622
1685) condemned Japanese literature, citing as morally unsound the licentious

figure 4.5. behavior of characters in Genji and other tales and declaring such stories un-
Illustration from suitable for female readers.29 Nonetheless, such views did not prevail univer-
Mirror of Japanese
sallyas witnessed by the widespread dissemination of Genji and its presence
Women (Honch
jokan), vol. 9, 1661, even in convents, particularly those headed by nuns of royal birth (monzeki).
block-printed book, Indeed, at least two texts from the second half of the century defended Genji
ink on paper, 25.4 in Confucian terms. In a discussion of poems in the seventeen-syllable verse
16 cm, East Asian
form (haikai), Kitamura Kigin (16241705) once claimed that Murasaki Shik-
Library Rare Book
Collection, Univer- ibus original purpose was to make the [Genji monogatari] a vehicle to convey
sity of California, the ve cardinal articles of moralitya reference to the Confucian principles
Berkeley. governing human conduct.30 Kumazawa Banzan (1619 1691), a leading Neo-
Confucian thinker of the Wang Yangming school, also saw merit in Genji, es-
pecially for women. In his Discursive Commentary on Genji (Genji gaiden), a
defense of the novel written in 1673, Banzan argues that its detailed depiction
of human feelings (ninj) lends it moral authority, for when human feelings
are not understood, the harmony of the Five Human Relationships is lost.31
Moreover, the more syncretic didactic texts for women are inclined toward a
sympathetic view of traditional Japanese court culture, including female study
of literary classics. In an early example, the author of Selected Tales for Women
placed Chinese tales of lial behavior alongside passages praising Genji and
figure 4.6.
Tosa Mitsuoki, Murasaki
Shikibu Viewing the
Moon at Ishiyamadera,
ca. 16851691, hanging
scroll, ink and color on
silk, 122.3 55.6 cm,
Ishiyamadera, Shiga.
Ise; another section of the book is dedicated to a detailed discussion of the

waka tradition.32 Other jokun in which Buddhist, Confucian, and Shinto view-
points are merged exhibit a similarly receptive attitude toward the Japanese lit-
erary tradition.33
Despite what some orthodox Neo-Confucianists might have believed, many

figure 4.7.
Kami Nagashige,
Dowry Set with
Designs from First
Warbler (Hatsune,
chap. 23), ca. 1637
1639, gold maki-e on
black lacquer, vari-
ous sizes, Tokugawa
Art Museum.
writers must have felt that knowledge of Genjiand with it the waka tradition
was both morally and socially acceptable for women. The proliferation of
Genji images was due in some measure to the prevalence of this attitude in
upper-class families. New paradigms of ideal womanhood, centering on the
cultivation of literary skills, made Genji-e newly desirablefor both male and
female patrons. Viewed as appropriate possessions for women of high birth,
Genji-e held a special place in the trousseaux and gifts prepared for the brides
of warlords during this period.
There are many documented examples of Genji-e made for marriages dur-
ing the seventeenth century. Notable examples include the dowry set of lac-
quer boxes decorated with motifs from the First Warbler (Hatsune) chapter
of Genji, produced around 16371639 for the marriage of Tokugawa Iemitsus
(16041651; r. 16231651) eldest daughter to Tokugawa Mitsumoto (16251700)
(Figure 4.7), and a set of Genji-e shells said to have been among the objects
made for Katsuko, the daughter of Honda Tadatoki, upon the occasion of her
marriage to Ikeda Mitsumasa (1609 1682) in 1628.34 The magnicent pair of
Genji-e screens painted by Kano Tany in the Imperial Collection are thought
to have been a gift of the Tokugawa family in 1649, when Prince Toshitada
(1619 1662) married a Maeda daughter, Fhime (1621 1662), who had been
raised as the shoguns adopted daughter. There is speculation that the gift was
ordered by Empress Tfukumonin.35 According to Miyeko Murase, sets of il-
lustrated Genji books, contained in custom-t lacquered boxes, were often in-
cluded in the trousseaux of young brides during the eighteenth century.36 Al-
though it has been difcult to document this practice for the seventeenth
century, it seems fair to assume that Genji-e albumslike Genji-e screens, shells,
and boxeswere part of the household goods prepared for elite young brides
during the mid-1600s.
As part of the bridal trousseau, pictures of The Tale of Genji functioned both
symbolically and practically as possessions ensuring female success in marriage,
motherhood, and other domestic relationships. As one component of the rit-
ualized display attending high-prole marriages in the seventeenth century,
the Genji-e in their various forms were a literal embodiment of the cultural
capital that a woman brought to the unionsymbolizing the brides level of
cultivation, in other words, her presumed familiarity with the Japanese literary
tradition. Set side by side with the other components of the trousseausuch as
the various lacquered implements and boxes required for proper female
groomingthe Genji-e suggest that the bride was a woman combining beauty
with talent and virtue, someone not unlike Murasaki Shikibu herself. From
one perspective, the possession of a lavishly painted pair of Genji-e screens or a
Genji album was a mark of elite status signifying that the bride was a perfect
embodiment of Japanese womanhood from a respectable family. In cruder terms,
such an album spoke of the material wealth of the brides family and their
identication with courtly tastestill important for arriviste warlords and up-
and-coming commoners. The brides knowledge of ancient literature, embod-
ied in the Genji-e, was important in her eventual role as mother, as well, to be
transmitted to the couples children as part of their proper cultural education.

Mitsuokis Genji-e:
A Case of Artistic Decorum
The symbolic qualities just ascribed to Genji-e within the context of the bridal
trousseau also provide a useful structure for interpreting the visual attributes
most closely associated with these pictures. Just as reverence for tradition, re-
spect for precedent, and a desire to observe and model good conduct were in-
scribed in the act of reading Genji, tradition, precedent, and a kind of artistic
decorum were privileged in the production of Genji-e. A perfect case in point
may be found in the work of Tosa Mitsuoki, who was active in Kyoto through
most of the second half of the seventeenth century.
Mitsuoki was appointed edokoro azukari, or director of the imperial painting
bureau, in 1654, the year of Gosais ascendance to the throne, and he served
in that ofce until 1681. During his tenure as ofcial court painter, Mitsuoki
created a number of Genji-e, including an album dated 1658 (Plates 47) and
two pairs of folding screens (Figures 4.11 4.12 and Plate 8). Given Mitsuokis
ofcial status, members of court society probably commissioned these undoc-
umented paintings, although we cannot rule out other wealthy patrons of the
warrior or commoner class. Stylistically Mitsuokis Genji-e are deeply conser-
vative: they assert visually that orthodoxy and delity to tradition are positive
virtues and that decorum, artistic or otherwise, should at all times be rigorously
observed. In other words, in making his Genji-e, Mitsuoki made artistic choices
entirely appropriate for viewers who held decorum and exemplary conduct at
a premium.
Mitsuokis Genji-e proclaim respect for tradition and precedent in their for-
mal gural style and conventional iconography. His use of pictorial conven-
tions like line for an eye, hook for a nose (hikime kagibana) for faces and the
thickly layered, brilliantly colored robes refers back to the Heian period (Plate
4). In a more immediate way, these conventions also pay homage to paintings
by Mitsuokis ancestors, his father Mitsunori (15831638) and grandfather Mi-
tsuyoshi (15391615), both famous for Genji-e painted in a detailed, miniatur-
ist manner like that used by Mitsuoki (Figure 4.8). The artists iconographic
choices conform to earlier practice, as well: Taguchi Eiichi notes that fteen
of the pictures in Mitsuokis 1658 Genji album use the same compositions as
those in an album by Mitsunori today housed in the Tokugawa Museum,
while others closely resemble compositions painted by Mitsuyoshi.37
A kind of artistic decorum is observed throughout Mitsuokis paintings, as if
he were seeking to match in his own conduct the behavior expected of a young
figure 4.8.
Tosa Mitsunori, il-
lustration for
Channel Buoys
(Miotsukushi,
chap. 14), Tale of
Genji Album (Genji
monogatari gach),
album leaf, ink,
color, and gold on
paper, 15.3 14.1
cm, Tokugawa Art
Museum.
bride. Throughout his Genji-e he employs the technically demanding shintai

mode, in which each motif is meticulously dened in ink, painted with opaque
color, and then detailed with extreme delicacy. Mitsuoki depicted the archi-
tectural elements with precise ruling and detailing, enriched the surface with
solid gold clouds, and carefully rendered natural elements such as grasses, trees,
and owers.38 In making his pictures, he put a premium on order, discipline,
and attention to detail. And although his pictures share the same basic vocab-
ulary as those of his predecessors, Mitsuokis Genji-e are, overall, more austere;
they are cool and reserved where those by Mitsuyoshi and Mitsunori are lush
and complex.
The quality of decorum extends as well to Mitsuokis portrayal of human in-
tercourse. If, as Banzan suggested, Murasaki Shikibus novel should be valued
for its representation of human relations, then Mitsuoki does an admirable job

of making its characters appear well behaved. In his illustration for the Rack
of Clouds (Usugumo) chapter (Plate 5), as in many other examples, the fe-
male subject is swathed in clothing so all-encompassing as to prevent any
glimpse of the human form, and her face is masklike, unexpressive, perfectly
composed. Men and women encounter each other in this world, but always at
arms length, or separated by a screen, never entangled, rarely even touching.
Nowhere is there any hint of lewd, provocative, or explicit behaviornothing
inappropriate for a proper young womans gaze. Interaction between partners
is symbolized in the most genteel way through the presence of a writing box,
brush and paper, media for an exchange of poems (Plates 67). These symbols
of literary activity appear with greater frequency in Mitsuokis Genji-e than in
the work of his predecessorsas if in an attempt to further vitiate the erotic con-
tent of the novel by pointing toward the poems composed by a couple rather
than their sexual encounters.
The point here is to recognize that the qualities of propriety, restraint, disci-
pline, and orthodoxy, so apparent in Mitsuokis work, were a positive statement
of intent by the artist, a thoughtful response to his theme. Although they may
fail to excite the contemporary eye (lacking the allure of Edo-period genre
paintings), Mitsuokis Genji-e are extremely successful on their own terms.
They should be understood as a conscious response to patrons who prized lit-
erary accomplishments for womenpeople who saw in such paintings a visual
repository of behavioral models to be taken into marriage, studied, and passed
along to future generations.
Genji as a Locus of Social Activity

Although we can assume that most elite women were exposed to Genji in the
seventeenth century, how extensive was the knowledge expected of them? It is
difcult to gauge how sensitive these women were to nuances of textual inter-
pretation or whether they truly identied with the emotions of the characters
portrayed. Apart from any public symbolism Genji-e may have held within the
context of marriage rituals, it was primarily in the private domestic sphere that
items decorated with Genji-e would have been used.39 On a practical level,
Genji albums provided basic knowledge about the novel and Heian courtly
customs; in this sense, they were an instrument for furthering womens literary
and historical education. At the same time, the albums were themselves com-
pendia of information about the visual vocabulary of Genji. Typically lacking
a written text, the album pictures present a clear, easily deciphered iconogra-
phy. In their anonymity, the gures are seemingly interchangeable. Yet these
images contain all the clues necessary for knowledgeable viewers to identify a
given episode: buttery dancers and cherry blossoms for the Butteries (Ko-
ch) chapter, a couple in a skiff for the Boat upon the Waters (Ukifune)
chapter, and so on.
One should not underestimate the importance of this kind of knowledge,
which was a practical asset essential for success in the society of the womens
quarters in high-ranking aristocratic and wealthy warrior households. The mul-
tiplicity of small objects adorned with Genji motifsfrom shells to incense
boxes and playing cardswere not merely intended for decoration but were
often put to use in games and activities based on The Tale of Genji. The Mirror
of Japans Virtuous Women (Honch teijo kagami), a Genroku-era (16881703)
didactic text, includes a scene of women playing the shell-matching game,
among several illustrations (Figure 4.9); other pictures of polite social gather-
ing show women playing stringed instruments, koto and biwa, and an incense
party. From documented examples it would seem that women at the imperial
court played these games, as did women living in convents and women in
daimyo households. To play these games well, and to be successful in the so-
cial terms framed by such activities, one needed to memorize the visual vocab-
ulary of Genji-e motifs associated with each chapter. Presumably the knowl-
edge associated with each picture/motif included not only the chapter title but
character names, plotlines, and, more than likely, poems.
Although Genji-e might have been subject to deeper readings on the part of
viewers, their role in womens social educationfacilitating games and other
forms of playwas also signicant. The need for a stable visual vocabulary
a requirement of the Genji-e-based gameswas another excellent reason for
the iconographic orthodoxy of most seventeenth-century Genji-e. Mitsuokis
patrons would probably not have looked favorably on deviations from the most
familiar, easily recognizable congurations of characters and their attributes.
In other words: there was little incentive to be innovative and, conversely, a
powerful argument for employing familiar iconographic formulas. What cre-
ative avenues remained lay more in the realm of selecting the episodes to be
included in a set of Genji-ea process that the artists patrons may have di-
rectedand in making subtle adjustments to the arrangement of the gures
and natural motifs in a scene. It is interesting to note in this regard that Mi-
tsuoki seems quite deliberately to have simplied the elaborate compositions of
his forebears by streamlining each scene to its essential elements. In his fathers
paintings, to take one example, minor players, objects, and activities often com-

figure 4.9.
Illustration from
Mirror of Japans
Virtuous Women
(Honch teijo
kagami), vol. 1, ca.
16881703, block-
printed book, ink
on paper, 23 16
cm, East Asian Li-
brary Rare Book
Collection, Univer-
sity of California,
Berkeley.
plement or compete with the main action of a scene (Figure 4.8): ladies-in-
waiting crowd around, or eavesdrop behind screens, and lamps, oor mats,
and other bits of furniture are placed here and there between them. By con-
trast, Mitsuoki typically focuses on two or three characters who are absorbed in
an activity, more often than not the writing of a poem (Plate 7). The fact that
Mitsuoki strips down the iconography inherited from Mitsunori, eliminating
nonessential elements, may relate to the changing role of Genji-efor exam-
ple, the desire to link a picture explicitly to a particular poem.
Role Models in Genji

There is one further way in which the discourse on womens behavioral edu-
cation may have affected the production of Genji-e. In her discussion of seven-
teenth-century illustrations of the Great Woven Cap (Taishokkan), Melanie
Trede argues that the Taishokkans presentation of heroic female characters is
related to an effort to promote female role models in didactic works like the Se-
lected Lessons for Women (Jokun sh).40 Similarly, I believe that during the sec-
ond half of the seventeenth century Genji-e may have been made with the in-
tention of providing visual role models for womenand that the pictures
would have been understood in these terms by contemporary viewers.
Though not all of its characters are virtuous, Genji was still a ripe source for
writers and artists seeking exemplars of personal decorum, good taste, and
moral virtue. At least two sources dating to the second half of the century cite
Genji characters in such a context, encouraging women to emulate heroines
of the novel. In the preface to his Discursive Commentary on Genji (Genji
gaiden; 1673), mentioned earlier, Kumazawa Banzan argues that the novel was
a valued source of information about the manners and customs of the Heian
nobility, especially the music and literature of the period.41 Moreover, he as-
serts that the novel has merit, especially for women, because it depicts human
feeling and the vicissitudes of life in great detail. Banzan recommends that fe-
male readers should study the book with particular attention to its depiction of
jealousy, a moral failing amply revealed in relation to Genjis innumerable af-
fairs.42 Thus Banzan urges readers to use Genji as a source of information about
Heian customs, the native traditions of court society. This alone is an interest-
ing point of view, for it reinforces the idea that pictures of Genji had the poten-
tial to instruct viewers on elite cultural practices. He also implies that Genji
could be seen as a source of moral instruction for young women and that the
characters in the tale could serve as exemplars of conduct both good and bad.
In other words: it was not only the author, Murasaki Shikibu, who was a role
model for women, but her ctional creationsMurasaki, the Akashi Lady,
and all the otherswho could offer female readers behavioral instruction.
We can look to another of the didactic texts, the Genroku-era Mirror of Ja-
pans Virtuous Women, for further evidence about the designation of Genji
characters as role models. A work in twelve volumes, the Mirror of Japans Vir-
tuous Women includes stories devoted to the Confucian theme of proper lial
relations as well as a volume of practical instructions for womens handiwork
and domestic affairs. It also contains tales of exemplary female conduct ac-
companied by pictures of women dressed in contemporary (Genroku-era) cos-
tume and engaged in rened activities like the shell-matching game. Several
volumes are devoted to instructive tales about famous women of the past in the
manner of the Chinese biographies. Volume eight, titled Wise Women and Vir-
tuous Women (Kenjo teijo no han), takes its models from The Tale of Genji.
Four Genji characters are discussed: Murasaki, Akashi, Hanachirusato, and

figure 4.10. Suetsumuhana. Each is represented in an illustration that looks as if it were
Illustration from plucked out of a Tosa album (Figure 4.10). For the passage on Murasaki the
Mirror of Japans
text rst speaks of her initial sighting by Genji, who soon was moved to adopt
Virtuous Women
(Honch teijo her. A description follows: Her beauty was unmatched even by the owers of
kagami), vol. 8, ca. spring or the autumn leaves. Although from her face this would go without say-
16881703, block- ing, her demeanor was quiet and composed.43 The text emphasizes, at some
printed book, ink
length, the idea that Murasaki was able to master her emotions, behaving dec-
on paper, 20 13.6
cm, East Asian Li- orously even when Genji left to visit other women. Although she felt sad when
brary Rare Book separated from Genji, she appeared to be accustomed to it and conducted
Collection, Univer- herself properly. On the many occasions when he went off to secretly visit
sity of California,
other places, she smiled pleasantly to see him off.44 Whereas he hid his assig-
Berkeley.
nations from other noblewomen, including Aoi, Genji prized Murasakis for-
bearance: When he was about to go off to a secret place, he would rst take
leave of Lady Murasaki and receive her blessing.45
Leaving aside the question of who is best served by the circulation of such
role models, it is clear that the Mirror of Japans Virtuous Women offers Mura-
saki as a woman worthy of admiration. The purpose of the anecdote is to in-
form readers of the subjects virtues and encourage women to emulate her be-
havior. The illustration accompanying the passage provides a complementary
visual model (Figure 4.10). It shows Murasaki, occupying herself elegantly dur-
ing one of her many separations from Genji, seated before a writing table, put-
ting brush to paper, surrounded by her attendants. In the illustration Murasaki
exudes the same blend of talent, beauty, and virtue seen in other portraits of
historical Heian women, such as her eponymous creator. Seated alone in one
corner of the room, screened from view by a variety of devices (folding screen,
standing screen, hanging blinds), she is a model of decorous behavior, as are
her companions, whose tilted heads and lowered eyes nicely signal deference
rather than deance or coquetry. Both as a record of Heian-period manners and
as a portrayal of a Genji character as a virtuous woman, this image conforms
well with the views voiced by Banzan in his Discursive Commentary on Genji
regarding The Tale of Genjis value to female viewers.
The perception that Genji characters could serve as role models for women
had important consequences for both the production and the reception of
Genji-e. Particularly intriguing are the implications of this notion for the pres-
ence of Genji-e in bridal trousseaux and gifts to brides. Were young women
meant to emulate the characters pictured in Genji-e screens and albums in the
same way that paintings of the Virtuous Chinese Emperors (Teikan-zu) or ren-
derings of the Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety (Nijshik) offered visual
models, or at least reminders, of exemplary conduct for Sinophile males? Did
patrons commission screens and albums to reinforce approved female role
models? Is there an underlying code of meaning attached to the later Genji-e
of which we are still unaware? Above all, did this aspect of meaning affect what
patrons wanted their commissioned works to look like? Did it inuence the
way artists painted this subject?
Due to the difculty of determining authorial intent in the absence of doc-
umentary evidence, one can only address these questions in a tentative manner.
As noted earlier, throughout his career Mitsuoki explored the theme of female
exemplars in hanging scroll and album-leaf paintings of female waka poets. His
apparent interest in the portrayal of legendary women, and in portraying praise-
worthy female conduct in his Genji-e, strongly suggests that Mitsuokiand
his patronsalso viewed Genji as a source of specic role models for women.
This conclusion is most strongly supported by the two pairs of folding screens
(bybu) on Genji themes painted by Mitsuoki. In their subject matter and pres-
entation, Mitsuokis Genji-e screens offer viewers a consistent if multifaceted
image of the qualities constituting ideal womanhood. The rst pair of screens, in
the Tokyo National Museum, depicts episodes from two chapters: First War-
bler (Hatsune, chap. 23) and New Herbs I (Wakana-j, chap. 34). Although

the iconography used to depict each scene is conventional, inasmuch as it con-
forms to that of earlier Tosa school albums (Figures 4.11 and 4.12), the juxtapo-
sition of the two scenes in a pair of screens is highly unusual.46 Among the fac-
tors behind the pairing of the two episodes may be their seasonal character:
both scenes are set at the beginning of the year, so it is possible to hypothesize,
for instance, that the screens were made for occasional display during the New
Years season. But the scenes also share another thematic feature making them
ripe for pairing: each centers on an encounter between Genji and a woman
who is a paragon of decorum and taste. Moreover, as the text for each scene
makes clear, the two women in question boast another virtue in common: they
are mothers devoted to their offspring.
In the Hatsune episode, which takes place on New Years day, Genji is shown
to the right of center walking toward the Akashi Ladys quarters (Figure 4.11).47
A hanging curtain divides the space before him: on one side, a lacquered shelf
is set next to a white damask cushion and a koto, a writing set, and scattered pa-
pers lie abandoned nearby; on the other side are arrayed several ladies in court
robes. The text makes it clear that Lady Akashi has been interrupted at her
workshe is an accomplished musician, poet, and calligrapher:
figure 4.11.
Tosa Mitsuoki,
First Warbler
(Hatsune, chap.
23), left screen, Tale
of Genji Screens
(Genji monogatari-
zu bybu), ca. 1654
1681, pair of folding
screens, ink, color,
and gold on paper,
each 97 280 cm,
Tokyo National
Museum.
He was greeted by the perfume from within her blinds, a delicate mixture
that told of the most rened tastes. And where was the lady herself? He saw
notebooks and the like disposed around an inkstone. He took one up, and
another. A beautifully made koto lay against the elaborate fringe of a cush-
ion of white Loyang damask, and in a brazier of equally ne make she had
been burning courtly incenses, which mingled with the perfume burnt into
all the furnishings to most wonderful effect. Little practice notes lay scat-
tered about. The hand was a superior and most individual one, in an easy
cursive style that allowed no suggestion of pretense or imposture. Pleased at
having heard from her daughter, it would seem, she had been amusing her-
self with jotting from the anthologies.48
Akashi is one of the most talented women in Genjis harem. Her taste is evi-
dent from the character of her hand and the choice of objects with which she
surrounds herself. Her sense of propriety keeps her aloof even from Genji. In
Mitsuokis rendering of the scene, as in the text, far from rushing forward to
greet Genji, Akashi retreats behind the curtain as he approaches. Moreover,
though Murasaki may rival her in beauty and artistry, it is Akashi who has

borne him a child, the Akashi Princess, whose marriage to the reigning em-
peror made Genji regent. The painted scene conates all three elementsher
cultivated nature, her relationship to her daughter, and her dignied relations
with Genjiculminating in the image of an exemplary woman.
Illustrated on the second screen of the Tokyo National Museum pair is an
episode from the New Herbs I chapter, set on the day of the rat, the twenty-
third day of the rst month (Figure 4.12). Tamakazura pays a visit to Rokuj,
bringing Genji the new herbs (wakana) that promise long life. She also has in
her company the two young sons born to her after she had wed Higekuro. The
screen shows Genji and Tamakazura seated facing one another with the two
boys seated between them. A small wooden stand is placed before each gure.
The text makes it clear that Tamakazura is another model of rened taste:
Tamakazuras touch was apparent everywhere. She was a lady of renement

and sensibility, and when she exerted herself the results were certain to be
memorablethough she agreed with Genji that lavish display was in poor
taste. . . . She had brought her two sons with her, very pretty boys indeed. It
figure 4.12.
Tosa Mitsuoki,
New Herbs I
(Wakana-j, chap.
34), right screen,
Tale of Genji
Screens (Genji
monogatari-zu
bybu), ca. 1654
1681, pair of folding
screens, ink, color,
and gold on paper,
each 97 280 cm,
Tokyo National
Museum.
rather embarrassed her to have had two sons in such quick succession, but
Higekuro, her husband, had said that they must be introduced to Genji, and
that there was not likely to be a better occasion. . . . Tamakazura was very
much the matron, in an entirely pleasant way. Her congratulatory poem was
most matronly:
I come to pray that the rock may long endure
And I bring with me the seedling pines from the eld.
Genji went through the ceremony of sampling the new herbs, which were
arranged in four aloeswood boxes. He raised his cup.
Long shall be the life of the seedling pines
To add to the years of the herbs brought in from the elds?49
Like Akashi, Tamakazura exemplies cultivated, courteous behavior. She comes

to pay her lial respects to her foster father, a dutiful mother with her own per-
fectly turned out progeny in tow. The screen shows her at a decorous distance
from Genji, separated from him by the screen and her two sons. In this scene,
at least, Tamakazura is a paragon of all feminine virtue: she is beautiful, taste-

ful, talented, and maternal. Like Akashi, it is not only her personal cultivation
that makes her noteworthy but also the fact that she has fullled her duty by
producing offspring to perpetuate the family line and its class afliations.
A third screen by Mitsuoki, owned by the Fukuoka City Art Museum, illus-
trates an episode from the Lavender chapter (Wakamurasaki, chap. 5) (Plate
8).50 The Fukuoka screen shows Genji standing with a seated attendant, at cen-
ter, before the brushwood fence outside a mountain villa. At the right side, be-
yond the fence, a woman and girl stand on the veranda of the villa while inside
another girl approaches a seated woman, a nun leaning on an armrest. The
scene illustrates the moment from the story when Genji rst spies the ten-year-
old Murasaki, who is living in the company of her grandmother, now a nun.
When he rst sees Murasaki, she is upset: another child has set her caged spar-
rows free. As her nurse goes out to see if she can recapture them, the nun calls
Murasaki over to her side, admonishing her gently not to worry about insigni-
cant things. Genji is captivated by the child and soon spirits her off to his man-
sion in the capital.
The Wakamurasaki scene represents the rst encounter between the ideal
Japanese manthe Shining Princeand a girl qualied to be his eventual
mate. At ten Murasaki is innocent, virginal, and, it turns out, of surprisingly
good birthher father is actually a prince. From his hiding place, Genji picks
her out of the crowd of attractive female companions as the one superior being
destined to be his lifes companion. In his painting, Mitsuoki interprets the
scene in a way that emphasizes the exemplary nature of Genjis prospective
bride. Earlier Tosa-school album leaves typically show the nurse and the two
girls on the veranda; facing out, both girls watch the nurse as she tries to lure
the bird back to the villa. Mitsuoki modied this conventional iconography in
a subtle but signicant way: by placing the girl inside, next to the nun, he chose
to represent instead the next moment, when the nun calls Murasaki inside.
The new conguration shifts the emphasis from a display of beauty for the hid-
den observer to a moment of instruction as Murasaki, turned away from Genji,
is guided toward appropriate behavior. In visual terms, the relative positions of
Murasaki and the nun recall the lial piety scenes that ll the contemporary
didactic texts, such as the image from the Selected Lessons for Women of a
woman kneeling before her seated elder (Figure 4.13). In choosing to represent
the moment when Murasaki shows deference to the older womans authority,
Mitsuoki adds another layera mantle of virtueto his presentation of the
girl as an ideal bride. Genji is an astute observer: he looks past the obvious fe-
figure 4.13.
Illustration from Se-
lected Lessons for
Women (Jokun sh),
1658, block-printed
book, ink on paper,
26 16 cm, East
Asian Library Rare
Book Collection,
University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley.
male display on the veranda to choose Murasaki, who is not only beautiful but
also reserved and ready to submit to authority.
Conclusion
In this essay I have tried to extend the analysis of Genji-e beyond iconographic
and formalist approaches by seeking to discover why seventeenth-century
Genji-e were commissioned, what they meant to contemporary viewers, and
why they look as they do. First I raised the possibility that the proliferation of
Genji-e is related to the seventeenth-century valorization of the classics as a
component of moral and cultural education for elite women. This notion is
particularly important in relation to Genji-e that were made for bridal trous-
seaux and as gifts. Screens, albums, and other objects adorned with images
from Genji signied the brides cultural capital: her high level of cultivation,

her familys wealth, and a proper respect for precedent and moral authority. In
a more general sense, the seventeenth-century Genji-e also represent a passion
for complex visual vocabularies, the mastery of which enabled social success
among women and enhanced the pleasure of communal play.51
In addition, I have tried to draw a connection between the role Genji-e
played in womens lives and the choices made by artists in presenting this theme.
In the case of Mitsuoki, the decision to honor precedent, the orthodox use of
the shintai mode, the quiet elegance of his compositions, and the decorum
maintained by his guresall are especially apt for paintings associated with
reverence for tradition, exquisite courtly taste, and exemplary conduct. More-
over, the social function borne by the Genji-e necessitated a kind of icono-
graphic correctness, which may have been one factor behind the reductionist
tendency evident in Mitsuokis simplication of earlier iconographic models.
Finally, the notion that characters from Genji could serve as role models for
women has important implications for our understanding of seventeenth-
century Genji-e. Not only does it cast new light on the place of Genji-e in the
bridal trousseaux, but it suggests something about the way in which female
viewers might have read these pictures. Beyond their intrinsic interest in the
text itself, readers of the seventeenth century perceived the characters lives
through the lter of contemporary life and current ideals of human behavior.
By the same token, the designation of certain Genji characters as role models
may have affected editorial decisions governing artists making Genji-escene
selection and choice of iconography, for example, as well as the arrangement
of gures within a scene. Mitsuoki, at least, seems to have put images from the
story to work providing role models for women to emulatecomparable to the
way in which contemporary Kano school painters presented virtuous Chinese
emperors and sages. The paradigms of ideal Japanese womanhood represented
in Mitsuokis Genji-e are submissive: lial daughters and faithful wives. While
beautiful, their physical qualities are secondary to virtue: rened in manner
and exquisite in taste, their gestures and surroundings point toward cultural
pursuits as their proper sphere of activity.
Notes
1. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. (Boston: Houghton
Mifin, 2001). As Elizabeth Lillehoj points out in the Introduction, the ancient Chi-
nese term guadian, later adopted by the Japanese as koten, has similar implications.
Although I have avoided doing so, many scholars of Japanese culture routinely use the
term classical in the same sense. To cite but one recent example, writing about late-
eighteenth-century gardens, Timon Screech says: Plenty of gardens recreated famous
literary sites as a way of reafrming the resilience of the classical tradition over time.
See Screech, The Shoguns Painted Culture (London: Reaktion Books, 2000), 211.
2. The Tale of Genji was written by Murasaki Shikibu (ca. 978 1016), a lady-in-
waiting to Empress Shshi. There are now three major English translations of the
novel: Arthur Waley, trans., The Tale of Genji (London: Allen & Unwin, 1925 1933);
Edward G. Seidensticker, trans., The Tale of Genji (New York: Knopf, 1976); and Roy-
all Tyler, trans., The Tale of Genji (New York: Viking, 2001). Pictures of Genji, or Genji-
e, were made by artists at court as early as the twelfth century; over the centuries since
then a broad range of artists have created Genji-e in a multiplicity of styles. For informa-
tion on the oldest extant Genji-e, a twelfth-century illustrated handscroll, see Komatsu
Shigemi, Genji monogatari emaki, vol. 1 of Nihon emaki taisei (Tokyo: Ch Kronsha,
1977). See also note 3.
3. Clunas questions the modern priority given to paintings over other types of
picturesparticularly painted or otherwise decorated objects (books to luxury craft ob-
jects) that carry subject matter common to paintings. See Craig Clunas, Pictures and
Visuality in Early Modern China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 46.
4. Others scholars have done equally valuable work on the questions of style and con-
noisseurship. See, for example, Takeda Tsuneo, Tosa Mitsuyoshi to saiga: Kyto Koku-
ritsu Hakubutsukan Genji monogatari gach o megutte, Kokka 996 (1976):1140.
5. Aoyama Tadakazu, Kanazshi jokun bungei no kenky (Tokyo: fsha, 1982), 57.
Aoyamas work is a rich source of information on the subject of womens didactic liter-
ature. Comments on the topic in English can be found in Shigenobu kuma, Fifty
Years of New Japan (London: Dutton, 1909), 2:199203; R. P. Dore, Education in Toku-
gawa Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), 64 67; and Bettina L.
Knapp, Images of Japanese Women: A Westerners View (Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1992),
122 125. See also Fuyuhiko Yokotas discussion of the Greater Learning for Women
(Onna daigaku) in relation to womens work: Fuyuhiko Yokota, Imagining Working
Women in Early Modern Japan, in Hitomi Tonomura et al., eds., Women and Class
in Japanese History (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, 1999), 99 118. My re-
search on the jokun has beneted enormously from access to the Edo-period book col-
lection of the East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley. I am indebted
to the patient and resourceful EAL staff, especially Hisayuki Ishimatsu and Bruce
Williams, for guidance in using the collection.
6. The digests were particularly useful to linked-verse (renga) poets because they con-
tained information on the thirty-one-syllable court poems (waka) included in each
chapter of the novel. For a discussion of the reception of Genji by medieval readers see
Richard Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji (New York: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1988), 90 91. See also Ii Haruki, Genji monogatari chshakushi no kenky
(Tokyo: fsha, 1980), and Teramoto Naohiko, Genji monogatari jyshi ronk (Tokyo:
Kazama Shobo, 1983).
7. Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu, 92.
8. The illustrations of the Eiri Genji monogatari will be familiar to Western readers,
as they were used to illustrate Edward Seidenstickers translation of Genji.
9. Miyeko Murase speculates that the artists were members of the Kyoto Kano atelier.
Portions of the set are in the Burke Collection, New York (two segments), the Spencer
Collection of the New York Public Library (three scrolls), Ishiyamadera in Shiga (one

scroll), and other private collections. See Miyeko Murase, Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art
from the Burke Collection (Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1993), 146150.
10. Translated by Lee A. Butler, Tokugawa Ieyasus Regulations for the Court: A
Reappraisal, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 54(2) (1994):532533.
11. Waka poems and poetic exchanges punctuate the text of Genji at regular intervals.
For example, the Lavender (Wakamurasaki) chapter, in which Genji meets the
character Murasaki for the rst time, includes some twenty-ve poems. Although some
poems predate the text, most were original works created for the novel. The body of
poems found in Genji became an important source of allusion for later poets, especially
those working in the renga tradition.
12. The three manuscripts by Gomizunoo relating to Genji are the Genji monogatari
gokakiire (2 vols.), the Genji monogatari fuseya no chiri (1 vol.), and the Genji mono-
gatari mojikusari (1 vol.); cited in Kumakura Isao, Gomizunoo-in (Tokyo: Asahi Shin-
bunsha, 1982), 186187.
13. Elizabeth Lillehoj, Flowers of the Capital: Imperial Sponsorship of Art in 17th-
Century Kyoto, Orientations 27(8) (September 1996):68.
14. The shells and the boxes were both on display during a 1998 exhibit of art from
the imperial Buddhist convents (monzeki) held at Columbia University. See Maribeth
Graybill, Manabe Shunsh, and Sadako Ohki, Days of Discipline and Grace: Treasures
from the Imperial Buddhist Convents of Kyoto (New York: Institute for Medieval Japa-
nese Studies, 1998), cat. nos. 18, 20, 2325.
15. The album is now in the collection of the Jing Chokkan, Mie. See Kanagawa
Kenritsu Hakubutsukan, ed., Kanei no Gomizunootei to Tfukumonin Masako (Tokyo:
Kasumi Kaikan, 1996), 88.
16. For a discussion of Genji-e during the medieval period see Miyeko Murase, The
Iconography of the Tale of Genji (New York: Weatherhill, 1983), 1216. Wakita Haruko
ascribes the popularity of Genji as reading matter for medieval women to the growth of
N drama and renga poetry, both of which drew on materialcharacters, phrases, or
versesfrom Murasaki Shikibus story. Moreover, Wakita argues that the source of
Genjis appeal in the medieval period lay in its depiction of the ie, or family system,
which resonated with the contemporary practice of yometori marriage, in which new
wives were brought to live in their husbands homes. Female readers of the time would
have seen Genji as an ideal man, largely because of the unusual efforts he made to shel-
ter and care for his lovers. See Wakita Haruko, Women and the Creation of the Ie: An
Overview from the Medieval Period to the Present, trans. David P. Phillips, Nichibei
Josei Jaanaru 4 (April 1993):83105.
17. Confucian ideals of moral conduct had certainly made their way to Japan in var-
ious forms in earlier periods. The ascendance in the seventeenth century of Neo-
Confucian scholarship, however, especially the teachings of the Zhu Xi and Wang
Yangming schools, seems to have led writers to consider the question of proper conduct
both male and femalewith new intensity. For a perspective on the growth of Neo-
Confucian thought during the seventeenth century see Herman Ooms, Tokugawa Ide-
ology: Early Constructs, 15701680 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).
18. See Bettine Birge, Chu Hsi and Womens Education, in W. Theodore de Bary
and John W. Chaffee, eds., Neo-Confucian Education: The Formative Stage (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1989), 354355.
19. Ibid., 348.
20. Ibid., 353354.
21. See Mayumi Yoshida, The N hsiao-ching (A Womans Classic of Filial Piety)
(masters thesis, University of California, 1991).
22. The Lien zhuan (Biographies of eminent women) had been known in Japan
since the ninth century. Two Japanese editions of the Lien zhuan were published in
Japan in 1653: an eight-volume set titled Shinkoku ko retsujoden (Biographies of exem-
plary women, new edition) and the three-volume Shinzuku retsujoden (Biographies of
exemplary women, new series). See Shimomi Takao, Ryk retsujoden no kenky (To-
kyo: Tkai Daigaku Shuppankai, 1989), 39. See also Aoyama, Kanazshi jokun, 130203.
23. Of the other three books in the Onna shisho, book two of the N luny (Analects
for women) opens with a similar illustration.
24. Aoyama, Kanazshi jokun, 62.
25. For a transcription of the Honch jokan text see Kurokawa Shind, ed., Nihon
kyiku bunko (Tokyo: Dbunkan, 1910), 7:226227.
26. In the Honch jokan she responds to the emperora variation on the original
story set down in the Pillow Book.
27. For a painting of Murasaki Shikibu by Yukinobu see Patricia Fister, Japanese
Women Artists, 16001900 (Lawrence, Kans.: Spencer Museum of Art, 1988), cat. no. 7.
28. A painting of Murasaki Shikibu attributed to Tany is illustrated in Makoto
Ueda, Literary and Art Theories in Japan (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies,
1967), pl. 2. Ryho is the same artist mentioned earlier as illustrator of the Jj Genji.
His painting of Murasaki is dated in accordance with 1667. For an illustration see Leon
Zolbrod, Haiku Painting (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1982), pl. 1.
29. Dore, Education in Tokugawa Japan, 66.
30. The passage appears in reference to the love poems written by his teacher, Mat-
sunaga Teitoku (1571 1653); Haikai yi ftei, in Ogata Tsutomu, ed., Kigin hairon
sh, Koten bunko, 151:208209; cited in Peipei Qui, Adaptation and Transformation: A
Study of Taoist Inuence on Early Seventeenth-Century Haikai, in Amy Vladeck
Heinrich, ed., Currents in Japanese Culture: Translations and Transformations (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 189 and n. 14. Kigins comments are based on
medieval commentaries in which Genji was viewed as a kind of ggen, meaning, in this
case, a parable or tale infused with moral purpose. My thanks to Liz Lillehoj for bring-
ing Quis essay to my attention.
31. Translation by Thomas J. Harper, Motoori Norinagas Criticism of the Genji
monogatari: A Study of the Background and Critical Content of His Genji Monogatari
Tama no Ogushi (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1971), 87.
32. Aoyama, Kanazshi jokun, 11.
33. Ibid., 17.
34. For illustrations see Tokugawa Art Museum, ed., Meihin kansh Tokugawa Biju-
tsukan (Tokyo: Tokyo Shinbun Shuppankyoku, 1982), 219, cat. no. 174; and Akiyama et
al., Genji monogatari, pl. 10.
35. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Twelve Centuries of Japanese
Art from the Imperial Collections (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1997), 110111, cat.
no. 34.
36. Murase, Iconography, 16.
37. Taguchi Eichi and Akiyama Ken, eds., Gka Genji-e no sekaiGenji mono-
gatari (Tokyo: Gakush Kenkysha, 1988), 264.

38. For a discussion of the shintai mode in Mitsuokis work see Sanekata Yko, Tosa
Mitsuoki no iro to sumiSuma Akashi-zu bybu o chshin ni, Bijutsushi 143(1) (Oc-
tober 1997):4764.
39. This assumption is based on the idea that since the public lives of elite women in
this period were fairly circumscribed, most social or educational activity involving
Genji-e would have taken place in private. Again, future research on womens day-to-
day lives may cause us to modify this supposition.
40. Melanie Trede, Kerun Ty Bijutsukan shoz Taishokkan-e no juy bigakuteki
ksatsu, Bijutsushi 141(1) (October 1996):58.
41. Banzans collaborator in writing the Genji gaiden was the courtier and poet
Nakanoin Michishige (16311710), who held the post of Gondainagon until 1670. The
Genji gaiden was based in part on Michishiges own commentary, Notes on the Genji
(Genji kikigaki).
42. Quoted in Harper, Motoori Norinaga, 87.
43. Translation by Maiko R. Behr.
46. The screens are signed Tosa sakon shgen Mitsuoki, indicating that they were
painted during his years of service as edokoro azukari (1654 1681). They use the un-
usual device of showing an interior scene as if viewed through lowered sudare blinds.
As recently as 1988, the screens subject was identied as scenes from the Picture Con-
test (Eawase) chapter; see Akiyama Terukazu, Genji-e no keifu, in Akiyama Ken,
ed., Zusetsu Nihon no koten, 134. The 1986 catalog of Genji-e published by the Sakai
City Museum correctly identies these as scenes from the Hatsune and Wakana-jo
chapters, however, as does Taguchi and Akiyama, Gka Genji-e (the latter illustrates
only the Hatsune screen). See Sakai City Museum, Genji monogatari no kaiga (Sa-
kai: Sakai City Museum, 1986), cat. no. 66; Taguchi and Akiyama, Gka Genji-e, 121,
pl. 91.
47. Presumably this is the right screen of the pair, as the Hatsune chapter (chap. 23)
precedes Wakana-j (chap. 34) in the novel.
48. Seidensticker, Tale of Genji, 412.
49. Ibid., 551552.
50. The screen is the right half of a pair owned by the Fukuoka City Art Museum; the
left screen depicts an episode from the Suma chapter. Signed Tosa sakon eishgen
Mitsuoki hitsu, they date to the period of Mitsuokis service as edokoro azukari (1654
1681). See Sakai City Museum, Genji monogatari no kaiga, 52, cat. no. 54.
51. A comparable phenomenon is found in the obsession of todays young school-
children with the visual vocabulary and associated powers of over two hundred Pok-
mon characters.
Chapter Five
Joshua S. Mostow
A New Classical Theme:

The One Hundred Poets
from Elite to Popular Art
in the Early Edo Period
Although the One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each collection (Hyakunin is-
shu), edited by Fujiwara no Teika (11621241) in the 1230s, was esteemed as the
preeminent compilation of Japanese poetry by the fourteenth century, it did
not become a theme for visual art until the early seventeenth century. This fact
is surprising when we remember that the genre of imaginary portraits of fa-
mous poets (kasen-e) can be traced back to at least the thirteenth century,1 and
the genre of poem-pictures (uta-e) back to the tenth.2 What was it about the re-
cently inaugurated Tokugawa period (16001868) and the One Hundred Poets
that led to the creation of this new, yet very classical, theme? Visualizations
of the One Hundred Poets and similar works seem to have had a brief efores-
cence in the elite art of the Kano and Tosa schools in the latter half of the sev-
enteenth century. We shall see that a number of political factors led to the sud-
den production of these worksfactors that also have a bearing on the physical
format and compositional elements of these works. The popularity of the theme
in the elite arts was matched by its adoption in the plebeian genre of ukiyo-e
and printing. But it was precisely in these popular arts that pictures of the One
Hundred Poets were to prove the most durable, while they seem virtually to dis-
appear from elite art by the early eighteenth century.
At present there are known to be three important examples of One Hundred
Poets paintings from the seventeenth century. The best known of these is the
Date Family One Hundred Poets Picture Albums (Ky-Date-ke-bon hyakunin
isshu gaj), named after the powerful daimyo clan to which they once be-
longed (Figure 5.1).3 In these two large albums with detailed paintings on silk
figure 5.1.
Kano Tany, Date
Family One Hun-
dred Poets Picture
Album: Teika (Ky-
Date-ke-bon
hyakunin isshu gaj:
Teika), painted
album leaf, pig-
ments on silk, two
volumes, pictures
31.4 27.5 cm each,
private collection.
(hereafter referred to as the Date album set), each poet faces an inscription of
his or her poem written on decorated paper on the opposite page. The paintings
are by Kano Tany (16021674) and four members of his atelier: his younger
brother Yasunobu (16131685), his disciple Tsunenobu (16361713), his adopted
son/son-in-law Masunobu (1625 1694), and an unidentied fth painter. Ex-
cept for this unidentied one, the painters signed and sealed all of their respec-
tive paintings.
Clearly related to the Date album set is a work in the Tokyo National Mu-
seum, Portraits of the One Hundred Poets (Hyakunin isshu gaz), attributed to
Tany but believed to be a close copy of a work by him (Figures 5.2, 5.3, and
5.4). This copybook is one volume on paper with signs that it was originally a
scroll and later remounted in the album format.4 It has many gures in com-
mon with the Date album set, but three-quarters of the gures include land-
scape elements or other motifs related to the contents of their respective poems.
The third work is the One Hundred Poets Calligraphy Model Book (Hya-
kunin isshu te-kagami), attributed to Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691), in the collec-
tion of the Hayashibara Museum of Art in Okayama (Plate 9).5 Presumably
this work is the same as that mentioned by Mori Tru in his 1981 study of
134 Joshua S. Mostow

figure 5.2.
Kano Tany (at-
trib.), Portraits of the
One Hundred Poets:
Teika (Hyakunin
isshu gaz: Teika),
painted album leaf,
light colors on
paper, one volume,
30 20 cm, Tokyo
National Museum.
Hyakunin isshu-e. Mori claims to have seen the work but says he was unaware
of its location at the time of writing.6 It is a very unusual work. Its provenance
is reportedly from the Ikeda family, the daimyo of Okayama. The only basis for
its attribution to Tosa Mitsuoki is the inscription on its lacquered boxit is
otherwise unsigned and without either seals or authentication. All the paint-
ings are nished in a meticulous application of pigments on silk. Curiously,
however, there is not a single inscription to be found in the work: the open
double-page spread gives poets on either side, rather than having each poet ac-
companied by an inscription of his or her poem. The Mitsuoki album has no
poets names and no poemsa singular absence for a work called a te-kagami,
or calligraphy-practice model book. Nonetheless, the work appears to be very
close to the Tokyo National Museum copybook. The Mitsuoki album is in the
portrait-plus-landscape format as well. But while virtually identical to the To-
kyo National Museum copybook in terms of composition, its portrayals of in-
A New Classical Theme 135

figure 5.3. dividual poets and its landscape elements sometimes differ in subtle but mean-
Kano Tany (at- ingful ways.
trib.), Portraits of the
The relationship between these three works is presently unclear. The Date
One Hundred Poets:
The Handmaid Su album set can be dated with reasonable condence between 1662 and 1669,
and Retired Em- perhaps even as precisely as 16621664. No one has dated the Mitsuoki album;
peror Sanj (Hya- but, assuming of course that it is by Mitsuoki, it must date before his death in
kunin isshu gaz:
1691. Mori Tru suggests that the Tokyo National Museum copybook is at one
Su Naishi/Sanj
In), two painted or two removes from Tanys hand, so it must be the latest of the three works.
album leaves, light But what is it a copy of exactly? Is it a copy of a copy by Tany of Mitsuokis
colors on paper, one album? Or is it a copy of an original esquisse by Tany himself? Or is it a copy
volume, 30 20 cm,
of a copy by Tany of some sourcebook by an earlier artist of either the Kano
Tokyo National
Museum. or Tosa schools? And does the Date album set predate or postdate the iconog-
raphy that the Tany copybook and Mitsuoki album have in common? In
other words: is the Date album set a modication of an earlier design, or are
the other two works an elaboration of the Date iconography? Much more re-
search must be done before we can come close to answering these questions
with any certainty. In the meantime, let us explore what we do know about
the sudden appearance and disappearance of this theme in early Edo-period
art.

The One Hundred Poets Before
the Tokugawa Period
The original poems of the One Hundred Poets are believed to have been in-
scribed on squares of ornamental paper (shikishi) by their compiler, Fujiwara
no Teika, and pasted on the sliding doors of his villa at Mount Ogura. In fact,
some fty sheetspurportedly the very same shikishisurvive to the present
day.7 In 1555, the last year of his life, Takeno J (15021555) hung for the rst
time one of these One Hundred Poets shikishi in an alcove (tokonoma) for a tea
ceremony.8 According to the research of Mara Romn, Js innovation led to
the widespread use of Teikas One Hundred Poets shikishi in tea ceremony.
Romn suggests that use of Teikas shikishi declined under Sen no Riky
(1521 1591), who preferred calligraphy by Zen monks; however, their use was
revived by Furuta Oribe (1544 1615) and furthered by his student Kobori
Ensh (15791647). Extant copies of Hyakunin isshu manuscripts from earlier
in the Muromachi period (13331573) are mostly attributed to teachers of waka
(Japanese poetry) or renga (linked verse): Asukai Masachika (14161490), San-
jnishi Sanetaka (1455 1537; Js teacher), Botanka Shhaku (1443 1527),
and Satomura Jha (1527 1602).9 As Romn notes, the inclusion of the One
Hundred Poets in the tea ceremony was part of a general trend among tea mas-
ters of adopting the terminology and discourse of renga to elevate their own
figure 5.4.
Kano Tany (at-
trib.), Portraits of The
One Hundred Poets:
Sagami and Gyson
(Hyakunin isshu
gaz: Sagami/ Gy-
son), two painted
album leaves, light
colors on paper, one
vol., 30 20 cm,
Tokyo National
Museum.

art.10 However, the use of One Hundred Poets shikishi became most closely as-
sociated with the rened tea ceremony (kirei sabi) of Ensh,11 who was, like
his master Oribe, a daimyo.12 In any case, the display of One Hundred Poets
shikishi in tokonoma represents a signicant move from read text to visual dis-
play. No longer limited to books or scrolls, the poems were now hung out for
several people to see at one time and were valued as much (or more) for their
calligraphy as for their poetic sentiment.
The rst One Hundred Poets boom seems to have occurred in the Genna
era (1615 1623). In the years leading up to Genna, many calligraphers pro-
duced copies. Extant examples include works attributed to Honami Ketsu
(1558 1637), Shkad Shj (1584 1639), and Konoe Nobutada (1565 1614)
the Three Brushes of the Kanei Periodas well as Kobori Ensh. The
Genna period also saw the rst book edition of the One Hundred Poets in mov-
able type, but without illustrations. The Genna era was dominated by the dif-
fusion of versions of the One Hundred Poets attributed to Ketsu. These works
are both handwritten and printed, the latter including for the rst time imagi-
nary portraits of the poets (kasen-e). Sometime before his death in 1632, prob-
ably in the 1620s, Suminokura Soan (15711632) produced what is today known
as the Soan One Hundred Poets (Soan-bon hyakunin isshu), the oldest surviv-
ing example of kasen-e of the One Hundred Poets in a printed book format (Fig-
ures 5.5 and 5.6). The calligraphy is in the style of Ketsu, but the artist is un-
known. The images clearly derive from the Narikane version of the Thirty-Six
Poets, however, especially as transmitted through the kasen-e hengaku of the
Kano school. At the same time, this was the period in which Ketsu and Tawa-
raya Statsu (d. 1643?) collaborated on the exquisite One Hundred Poets Lotus
Scroll (Hasu shita-e hyakunin isshu wakakan), Ketsu contributing the callig-
raphy and Statsu the underpainting in gold and silver.13 Finally, the oldest
One Hundred Poets playing cards, or karuta, date from this period as well.14
Immediately following the Genna era, there appears to have been a decline
in the popularity of the One Hundred Poets theme, at least if we judge from the
number of extant works. Thirteen works survive from the nine-year Genna pe-
riod; in contrast, only thirteen works survive from the following twenty-year pe-
riod. The next big boom appears to have been in the Kanbun era (16611673),
from which over twenty works survive. Patronage started at the very top: in the
fth month of the rst year of Kanbun (1661), Emperor Gomizunoo (1596
1680; r. 1611 1629) conducted six lectures on the One Hundred Poets.15 Yet
even before this date, in the previous year (Manji 3/1660), a Kyoto publisher
produced the Ten Thousand Treasures Annotated One Hundred Poets, One

figure 5.5. (left)
Suminokura Soan
(attrib.), One Hun-
dred Poets: Teika
(Hyakunin isshu:
Teika), page from
printed book, ?1623,
one volume, 26.3
18.2 cm, Atomi Ju-
nior College Library.
figure 5.6. (right)

Suminokura Soan
(attrib.), One Hun-
dred Poets: Sagami
(Hyakunin isshu:
Sagami), page from
printed book, ?1623,
one volume, 26.3
18.2 cm, Atomi Ju-
nior College Library.
Poem Each Compilation (Manp kashira-gaki hyakunin isshu taisei), the old-
est extant edition with both kasen-e and commentary (the latter closely follow-
ing the Ysai sh). As the introductory pictures make clear (Figure 5.7)with
their scenes of young women practicing calligraphythis work was ostensibly
designed for a primarily female audience who would model their handwriting
on the large inscriptions of the poems. The Date album set can be dated to the
Kanbun era, as well, but before considering that project in detail I would like
to review its artistic antecedents.
Kasen-e
Originally Teikas shikishi may have been pasted above portraits of the poets,
with or without background painting, but these pictures seem to have been lost
early on. Nevertheless, the gures of Tanys One Hundred Poets are obviously
related to the Kano tradition of poetic immortals pictures (kasen-e) focusing on
the Thirty-Six Poets. Kasen-e themselves start in the late Heian period and are
known through the Satake and Agedatami versions, both of which are in the il-
lustrated handscroll (emaki) format. The dominant model for later kasen-e,
however, was a version called the Narikane-bon, dated on stylistic grounds to
the latter half of the thirteenth century.16 The great majority of surviving Kano

figure 5.7.
Anonymous, Ten
Thousand Treasures
Annotated One
Hundred Poets, One
Poem Each Compi-
lation (Manp
kashira-gaki hya-
kunin isshu taisei)
(Kyoto: Yamada Sa-
bur, Manji 3/1660;
postscript dated to
1653), page from
printed book, one
volume, 26.8 18.2
cm, Atomi Junior
College Library.
kasen-e produced before Tanys time is in the format of hengaku, or votive

plaques. Hengaku kasen-e, in turn, were developed from ema, or paintings of
horses, usually on a wooden board, made as offerings at shrines in lieu of real
horses. Some scholars assume that ema developed in the medieval period,17
but Iwai Hiromi traces their development back to at least the mid-Heian pe-
riod when shikishi ema (literally, painted horses on decorative paper) offered
to Kitano Tenjin Shrine are listed in a document dated to 1012 and ita ni kak-

itaru ema (ema painted on boards) are mentioned in the Konjaku monogatari
sh, a late-Heian-period collection of Buddhist didactic tales.18 Therefore it
was not, as one scholar writes, only a matter of time before their [emas] sub-
ject matter came to include kasen-e.19 In fact, this process took a great deal of
time. Conceptually it was something of a leap to go from offering painted horses
to offering painted aristocrat-poets at a shrine.
Kasen-e can be traced back to Pictures of the Poetry Contest of Thirty-Six
Poets of the Jish Era (Jish sanjrokunin uta-awase-e) of 1170. Around the same
time Shinto shrines apparently began holding poetry contests, as evidenced by
the Kamo Wake-Ikazuchi Shrine Poetry Contest (Kamo wake-ikazuchi no ya-
shiro no uta-awase) of 1178.20 With this we can see the genesis of offering at the
shrine what was, in essence, a picture of a poetry contest. Nonetheless, such
pictures represented a one-time event: the contest. It was a further step, then,
to imagine a Poetry Contest Between Different Eras (Jidai fud uta-awase), a
contest on paper designed by the exiled Emperor Gotoba (11801239) around
1236 and illustrated in a handscroll shortly thereafter. It takes yet another step
for such a scroll to be offered to a deityand a fairly large step to go from such
dedicated scrolls to the permanent display of thirty-six poets on wooden boards.
Here the deication of certain of the Thirty-Six Poets no doubt played a role:
not only had Kakinomoto no Hitomaro been made a god; Sugawara no Mi-
chizane (845 903) had been transformed into Kitano Tenjin long ago; Ari-
wara no Narihira (825 880) had been declared a manifestation of Bat Kan-
non in the Kamakura period (11851333); and tales of Ono no Takamuras (802
852) miraculous journeys to the underworld had appeared in the late-twelfth-
century Konjaku and Gdansh, the latter attributed to e no Masafusa (1041
1111).21 Nonetheless, the great majority of the Thirty-Six Poets had no religious
hagiography whatsoever.
Hengaku kasen-e, then, seem to be an innovation of the war-torn Muro-
machi period, and the oldest extant examples, dated to 1436, are found at Haku-
san Shrine. Although these early hengaku kasen-e are by a Tosa artist (his per-
sonal name is not recorded) and were commissioned by aristocrats,22 the Kano
school had adopted the form by the early sixteenth centuryas seen in the
hengaku kasen-e painted by Kano Motonobu (1476 1559) preserved at Itsu-
kushima, with inscriptions dated 1505 by Yamazaki Skan (d. ca. 1540), the
comic linked-verse (haikai no renga) master.23
The offering of kasen-e hengaku to shrines was obviously related to the gen-
eral belief in the magical efcacy of native poetry in pleasing and propitiating
the gods, as well as the perceived unity between the practice of poetry and

Buddhist practice. This latter belief is summed up in the statement by the fa-
mous renga master Shinkei (1406 1475) in his Whisperings (Sasamegoto) of
1463: Since the beginning, the way of poetry has been our countys magic
spell (dhran).24 No doubt the motives for the donation of hengaku varied
from donor to donor over the years. We get some idea of their broad efcacy in
the inscription written on the back of one plaque dedicated in 1503 (Bunki 3)
to the Komura Shrine, in the village of Kusaka, in Takaoka, Kchi province.
It prays for heaven and earth to stay at peace, and the people happy; for both
the law of the Buddhas and the law of the emperors to advance and prosper; for
abundant harvests of the ve grains, the elimination of res, thieves, and ill-
ness; long life of a thousand autumns and ten thousand years; and that our
house will meet with prosperity.25 A set extant at Taga Taisha in Shiga, by con-
trast, was donated by End Naotsune (d. 1570) in 1569, just months before the
battle of Anegawait seems likely that these hengaku were a prayer for victory
for himself and his lord, Asai Nagamasa (15451573).26
Another distinct use of hengaku seems to be among the Toyotomi and the
nobility in the fteen years between the death of Hideyoshi (1536 1598) and
the fall of Osaka Castle. Kasen-e hengaku by Kano Ssh (15511601), with cal-
ligraphy attributed to Emperor Goyzei (1570 1617; r. 1586 1611), are still ex-
tant at the Toyokuni (Hkoku) Shrine built for the deceased Hideyoshi in
1599.27 Hideyoshis young heir, Hideyori (15931615), dedicated another set to
the Kongji of Osaka with paintings by Kano Sanraku (15591635) and callig-
raphy by Dch (15441608), an uncle of Konoe Nobutada. Nobutada was re-
gent (kanpaku) at the time.28 Nobutada himself did the calligraphy for a set
painted by Tosa Mitsuyoshi (1539 1613) dedicated to the Eikand of Zenrinji
in Kyoto, as well as for a screen of the Thirty-Six Poets attributable to Kano
Takanobu (1571 1618) or his atelier.29 These projects may well have repre-
sented a banding together of the Toyotomi and the aristocracy against the per-
ceived threat of Tokugawa Ieyasu (15421616).
Keiko Nakamachi, however, sees Nobutadas Thirty-Six Poets screenas dis-
tinct from hengakuas part of a different trajectory. She believes that this was
one of a group of screens produced in the rst quarter of the seventeenth cen-
tury around Nobutada and his friends, deriving chiey from their classical
taste (koten shumi). For Nakamachi the screens are a signicant departure from
the hengaku format in that by seeming less portraitlike, and bringing the gures
closer, they created a sense of unity between viewer and depicted poet.30
Nakamachi dates the six-panel Thirty-Six Poets screen to the Keich era
(1596 1614). Although several of its elements call to mind sixteenth-century

works by the Tosa school, stylistically it shows the inuence of Chinese paint- figure 5.8.
ing (kanga), leading Nakamachi to conclude that it is probably a product of Kano Tany, Pic-
tures of Thirty-Six
Kano Takanobu or his atelier. In fact, a copy of a nearly identical work exists
Immortal Poets
among Tanys shukuzu (Figure 5.8). Tanys sketch presents the poets in (Sanjrokkasen-zu),
their traditional order, however, whereas the images in the screen are out of from Sketches by
order and do not always correspond to the calligraphed poems abovesuggest- Tany from the
kura Bunka
ing, as Nakamachi notes, that the screen was based on either a copybook (gen-
Zaidan (Tany
pon) or a preexisting work. Nakamachi argues that screens of the Thirty-Six shukuzu kura
Poets were in general use by the Genna era (1615 1623). She bases this claim Bunka Zaidan), ink
on the diary of Nakanoin Michimura (1588 1653), where, in an entry dated on paper (photo
from Nihon bybu-e
Genna 2 (1616), he notes that screens based on scrolls of shokunin uta-awase,
shsei, vol. 5).
an imaginary poetry contest between different occupations, were made by the
Kano workshop and offered to the shogunal family. Nakamachi suggests that
kasen-e bybu must have been relatively common for this innovative theme to
have been acceptable.31
Finally, a kind of Hundred Poets screen does exist (Plate 10).32 The Osaka
Castle Collection (sakaj Tenshukaku) owns a pair of eight-panel screens de-
picting sixteen poets, all of them from among those included in the Hyakunin
isshu, though only one of the poems inscribed on the screen is from that col-
lection. Nakamachi argues that the proportions of this work are closer to Kano
hengaku produced in the early seventeenth century, such as those by Ssh for
Toyokuni (1599), by Sanraku for Kongji, by Shigenobu for Atsuta (1621), and
by Shigenobu for Danzan (1621). Nakamachi dates this work to the Genna era.33
The poems for both the Thirty-Six Poets and the Osaka Castle screens are
written directly on the screens themselves, rather than on decorated poetry
squares (shikishi) and then pasted on. Both screens are in the Sanmyakuin
style of calligraphy, and both have been attributed to Nobutada.34 As a scholar
of Rimpa, Nakamachi is of course more interested in the six-panel screens, as
their less hieratic presentation of the poets is a clear precursor to Ogata Krins

(16581716) famous composition of the Thirty-Six Poets. Yet both sets of screens
present an interesting contrast. The focus of the Osaka Castle screens is clearly
the women, who are grouped together where the screens meet. Four of the ve
are contemporaries from the eleventh-century court of Emperor Ichij (r. 986
1011): Murasaki Shikibu (?970?1014); her daughter Daini no Sanmi (dates un-
certain); Sei Shnagon (?964?10241027); and Akazome Emon (dates uncer-
tain). With the exclusion of Izumi Shikibu (b. ca. 976 979), these women
were clearly the most famous female writers of their day.
Chronologically, the next grouping is Fujiwara no Mototoshi (1060 1142)
and Minamoto no Toshiyori (Shunrai; 10551129), the two leading poets of the
Insei period. These two poets are placed next to each other on the left screen,
with a slightly later poet, Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (11041177), following Mototo-
shi. Kiyosuke, like many of the other gures on the screens, is counted among
the Late Classical Thirty-Six Poets (Chko sanjrokunin) and was also the head
of the poetic Rokuj family in his day. The great majority of the poets, how-
ever, are from the Shinkokinsh period and the era of Emperor Gotoba. These
poets include Asukai no Masatsune (1170 1221), founder of the Asukai poetic
tradition; Saigy (11181190); Fujiwara no Yoshitsune (11691206); Fujiwara no
Ietaka (11581237); Imperial Princess Shokushi (d. 1201); Jakuren (d. 1202); Jien
(11551225); Shunzei (11141204); and, of course, his son Teika. In other words,
nine of the sixteen gures are associated in some way with Teika.
The distribution of the gures, too, is of interest. As mentioned earlier, the
women are clustered as if meeting in the center. They are also set slightly far-
ther back, as if in an interior space. Farthest back, of course, is Imperial Prin-
cess Shokushi, because of her rank, hidden mostly by her curtain of state. Also
placed farther back are Yoshitsune and Jien, again probably for reasons of rank:
Yoshitsune was regent (sessh) and chancellor (daij daijin), and Jien was chief
abbot of the important Mount Hiei temple complex. The remaining poets are
placed in a row closer to the viewer. While the male poets prior to the Shinko-
kinsh period are grouped together on the left screen, some formal symmetry
is provided by the ecclesiastical gures on both screens.
The Osaka Castle screens are in every sense more formal than the six-panel
Thirty-Six Poets screens: all the poets are equipped with court fans (chkei);
none wears hunting robes (kariginu). The Osaka Castle screens also include
some poems written in many-gana. The disposition of the writing, too, dif-
fers: the Thirty-Six Poets screens have the writing almost touching the gures,
even coming between them, while the eight-panel screens keep signicant space
between the poets and their poems. Finally, the Thirty-Six Poets screens are

more androcentric; the female gures are scattered in the background, ren-
dered marginal. Clearly these two sets of screens must have been made for very
different purposes: a kind of intimacy is implied by the Thirty-Six Poets screens
and a far more formal setting for the Osaka Castle screens.
Nobutadas Thirty-Six Poets screens may have suggested an easy camaraderie
between Nobutadas colleagues and the great poets of the past, and kasen-e hen-
gaku may have been an important part of the Toyotomis spiritual campaign
against the Tokugawa. But once the Tokugawa bakufu was victorious after the
fall of Osaka Castle, evidence strongly suggests that the new government ap-
propriated the conspicuous display of kasen-e. Certainly it was a signicant
genre for Tany, who made no fewer than four sets of kasen-e hengaku be-
tween 1633 and 1650.35 More research is needed to establish the context for
each of these setsto ascertain who commissioned them and whether the spe-
cic occasion can be determinedbut I think it is safe to assume that their
most common function was as prayers for, or thanks for, peace. Support for this
idea comes from a theatrical farce (kygen), titled Kasen, in which a daimyo of-
fers kasen no ema to Tamazushima Myjin in thanks for the country being at
peace.36 After all, one of the most famous lines from the Kana Preface to the
rst imperial anthology, the Kokinsh (ca. 905), states: It is poetry which,
without effort, moves heaven and earth, stirs the feelings of the invisible gods
and spirits, smooths the relations of men and women, and calms the hearts of
erce warriors.37 In fact, hengaku of the Thirty-Six Poets became a regular fea-
ture of shrines built for the deied Tokugawa Ieyasu (15421616), and examples
survive at the Tshg of Nikk (by Tany), that of Edo (Tokyo), and that of
Kawagoe (by Iwasa Matabei; 15781650).38
This is one context in which to consider the reference to screens of One
Hundred Poets paintings (Hyakunin isshu-zu bybu) by Tany, which is re-
corded in a governmental record, the Ryei hinami ki. The screens are men-
tioned in an entry dated Manji 2 (1659)the earliest record of a One Hundred
Poets painting project. This work must represent the acme of the practice of
displaying poet images, and its context in the shogunal records calls for further
analysis. In any event, due to this documentary evidence the scholar Yasumura
Toshinobu concludes that Tany must have created a sourcebook (genpon) of
images of the One Hundred Poets by 1659.39
Yet it is difcult to imagine what the One Hundred Poets screens by Tany
looked like. The Osaka Castle screens have one poet per panel, with two of their
poems inscribed above them. A complete rendering of the One Hundred Poets
would in this format require one hundred panelsan inconceivable number.

Nobutadas Thirty-Six Poets screens have from one to as many as four poets in
each panel, with most panels containing three. This format would still require
twenty-ve to thirty-three panels, though presumably this could be accom-
plished in a set of four to six screens. There are also examples from the period
of the Thirty-Six Poets clustered together and without either their names or
poems included. Nakamachi draws attention to a fan-shaped hengakudated
1625 and donated to Itsukushima Shrinewhere the poets are ranged four lay-
ers deep and presented from a rather high point of view. Nakamachi appears to
think, however, that with its absence of names and poems, and its massing to-
gether of the poets, this is an unusual example for such a public format as a
hengaku.40
Finally, there is a screen in the Matabei style, belonging to Enryji, which
Nakamachi dates to sometime from the latter half of the Kanei era (1624
1644). In this screen the poets are placed on tatami and at varying diagonals
from the picture plane, going all the way up the panel and resulting in six poets
per panel in a single screen of six panels.41 It is difcult, however, to imagine
such a jaunty composition in an ofcial bakufu context. Presumably Tanys
screens would have featured a group of one hundred shikishi pasted onto sev-
eral screens; portraits of the poets may have appeared on the shikishi as well.
Although there are examples from the period depicting the Thirty-Six Poets
without their poems,42 we could more easily imagine that, in typical hengaku
kasen-e fashion, Tany included on his screens the poem of each of the One
Hundred Poets inscribed in the space above the poets head. In this case there
would have been little room for landscape background. It seems unlikely that
the poems could have been written between the landscape background and
the portrait. Certainly there is no such example in the entire Tokyo National
Museum copybookall the poems are inscribed running down the side of the
image, an arrangement that is arguably practical rather than aesthetic. Al-
though a Kano sourcebook of the One Hundred Poets, perhaps created by
Tany, must have existed at this point, it seems unlikely, due to its inclusion of
landscape elements, that the Tokyo National Museum copybook reects it.
Albums and Copybooks

The three works under consideration, however, are neither screens nor votive
plaques but albums. Although surprising, it appears that paintings designed spe-
cically for albums were new; this format came into existence only in Tanys
time.43 Yasumura notes that there are no original painted albums surviving

from the Muromachi or Momoyama (15731600) periods, nor are there refer-
ences to any. He suggests that the roots of the format can be found in model
books (te-kagami) of calligraphy (kohitsu). According to Yasumura, it was in the
late Momoyama and early Edo periods that the specialty of appraising ancient
calligraphy came into being. In fact, Toyotomi Hidetsugu (15681595) gave the
surname Kohitsu (Ancient Brush) to Hirasawa Kshir (15721662), who as
Kohitsu Rysa became the founder of the house of calligraphy appraisers. Ya-
sumura speculates that appraisers consulted model books as they worked and
says that such references had an inuence on the world of paintings as well. In
fact, the appraisal of paintings bloomed around Tanys time concurrent with
the development of the album format.
Among other impetuses for the development of albums, Yasumura men-
tions kasen-e and cites as documentary evidence three entries from the True
Records of the Tokugawa (Tokugawa jikki; compiled in the early nineteenth
century) that refer to paintings:
1. An entry dated 1654 recording a gift of pictures of Chinese Warrior Poets

(T busen) in thirty-six leaves to Sakai Tadakatsu (15871662), governor of
Sanuki, daimyo of Obama (103,500 koku). Yasumura suggests that it would
be natural to imagine these leaves arranged in an album.
2. An entry dated 1660 noting an e-Hyakunin Isshu album by Kano-school
artist Katsuta Chiku (. mid-seventeenth century)the rst unequivo-
cal appearance of a kasen-e album and, in fact, of a One Hundred Poets
album.
3. An entry dated to 1705 mentioning a Thirty-Six Poets album, a One Hun-
dred Poets album, and an album of birds-and-owers of the twelve months.44
In any event, the oldest work that Yasumura judges, without a doubt, to have
been designed at its inception as an album is Tanys Picture Albums of the
New Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals (Shin sanjrokkasen zuj) (hereafter referred
to as Tanys New Thirty-Six Poets Albums). All the kasen-e were executed by
Tany, each signed Hin Tany-hitsu (Brush of Dharma Seal Tany), thus
indicating that they were executed after 1662. Thirty-six different calligraphers
inscribed the poems facing each poet. (See Appendix I at the end of this chap-
ter.) Based on the death date of one of the calligraphers, we know that the two
albums were made between 1662 and 1669. Matsubara Shigeru has suggested
that they may have been made as a trousseau object for the marriage between
Regent and Minister of the Left Takatsukasa Fusasukes daughter Nobuko
(1658 1709), then aged seven (later styled Midaidokoro), and the future sho-

gun Tsunayoshi (1646 1709; r. 1680 1709), then aged nineteen, which took
place on the eighteenth day of the ninth month of 1664.45
The Date One Hundred Poets album set is a comparable work. Nineteen
Kyoto aristocrats served as calligraphers for the one hundred poems in the set:
they included Fusasuke, who copied ve poems; Minister of the Right Kuj
Kaneharu (d. 1677), who copied ve poems; and Former Major Counselor
Karasumaru Sukeyoshi (1622 1669), who copied ten poems. (See Appendix
II.) Around the same time all three calligraphers also contributed to the New
Thirty-Six Poets. In other words, the Date album set is arguably every bit as
high-status a work as Tanys New Thirty-Six, if not indeed higher.
Interestingly, the names of the calligraphers appear on a list that presumably
accompanied the Date album set; at the time this list was composed, however,
apparently not all the poems had been assigned to specic calligraphers (or at
least received from them). The names of Hamuro Yoritaka, Niwata Shigeeda,
and Kazahaya Sanetane do not appear on the list but only on the specic pages
they contributed. Thus the album set may have been presented in an unn-
ished state or perhaps was delayed so long that it could not be presented where
and when intended. It is possible, for instance, that the set was originally com-
missioned for the wedding of Nobuko and Tsunayoshi in 1664 and, because it
was not nished in time, was replaced by Tanys New Thirty-Six Poets Al-
bums. In this case, the One Hundred Poets album set may have been presented
at a later Date wedding or given to the Date family, not necessarily as part of a
bridal trousseau. Although Matsubara considers it unlikely that the Date al-
bum set was also produced for Nobukos marriage,46 some of his arguments es-
tablishing the occasion for the production of the New Thirty-Six Poets albums
apply equally to the Date album set. In both cases Fusasuke and Kaneharu have
the honored positions, despite their youth, of rst calligrapher on the left and
right, respectively. According to Matsubara, the prominent placement of Fusa-
suke and Kaneharu among the calligraphers of the New Thirty-Six Poets owes
to the family connections between these two calligraphers and the bride. But
in this case, would not their position in the Date album set carry the same
meaning?
In any event, clearly the Date album set was designed for the very highest
levels of both aristocratic (kuge) and warrior (buke) society, and the contribu-
tion of calligraphy by such grandiose gures as the regent, the ministers of the
left and right, and a number of priestly imperial princes would have served as im-
pressive credentials for the bride. Considering the association between kasen-e
hengaku and prayers for peace in the countryas well as the use of women in

marriage for forging alliances between feuding groupsthe incorporation of
objects illustrating the Thirty-Six Poets and One Hundred Poets in high-level
trousseaux is quite tting. Albums, and to a lesser extent folding screens, seem
to have been an important medium between the old aristocracy and their new
warrior overlords: a means for the aristocrats literally to sign on to the new
regime while reinscribing their own authority in the cultural realm. This ex-
plains the frequency with which liaison ofcers between the imperial court
and the military government (buke tens) participated in these projectsfour
of the nineteen calligraphers in the Date album set were buke tens (see Ap-
pendix II). Moreover, four of the calligraphers were recipients of the treasured
Kokin denju, the secret poetic lore associated with the rst imperial anthology
of Japanese poetry, the Kokinsh, the transmission of which was restricted
along class lines. Clearly the aristocrats were displaying their considerable cul-
tural capital in these projects.
Nonetheless, as I have argued elsewhere,47 there are signicant differences
between the Tokyo National Museum album and the nished Date album set.
We have discovered that a One Hundred Poets screen set by Tany is docu-
mented in 1659, and an e-hyakunin isshu album by the Kano-school artist
Katsuta Chiku is documented in the following year. One possibility is that
Tanys 1659 screens are, in fact, faithfully represented by the Tokyo National
Museum copybook and did include the background landscape elements. In
this case, we would imagine that Chikus 1660 album represented a simple
transfer from one medium to another (from screen to album); that the Date
album set was a version in which the background elements had been removed
(and other changes made); and that the Mitsuoki album was a Tosa appropri-
ation of the Kano-school model. One problem with this scenario is that the
album format itself could have allowed for (or at least encouraged) the kind of
uta-e backgrounds we see in the Tokyo National Museum copybook. In other
words: perhaps it was only after they had removed the inscription above the
poets portrait that the artists realized the possibility of putting something else
there. This consideration suggests that Tany had not yet come up with the in-
novation when he painted the One Hundred Poets screens recorded in the
Ryei hinami ki.
The Date album set, I have argued, represents a simplication and modi-
cation of an earlier version represented by the Tokyo National Museum copy-
book. This conclusion is suggested by the few cases in which the inclusion of
the background elements helps explain the poses of some of the poets in the
Date album set. The clearest example is the Tokyo National Museum version

of Teika, who is shown gazing out at the Bay of Matsuho (Figure 5.2). The
Date album set (Figure 5.1) has Teika in the same pose but without the back-
ground elementsand thus the reason for his pose is unclear, especially since
artists typically showed poets in kasen-e as if they were in a poetry match, that
is, facing their opponent sitting to the right or left of them. The direction that
Teika faces in these two worksthe Tokyo National Museum copybook and the
Date album setis also entirely different than in the Soan-bon (Figure 5.5).
I have argued, too, that one can discern gender differences in the execution
of the two versions: the Tokyo National Museum copybook exhibits a more
sinied and political orientation to suit a male audience; in the Date album
set, several gures are prettied and made bland to be more appropriate for a
female audience. Evidence for such an interpretation is reinforced by features
in the Mitsuoki album. In his representations of Gyson and the Handmaid
Su (Plate 9), it is clear that Mitsuoki based his Su on the same model fol-
lowed by the artist of the Tokyo National Museum album (Figure 5.3). Yet
there are two signicant differences. First, the face of Mitsuokis gure is
younger and cuter whereas the Tokyo National Museum version is clearly de-
rived from a model closer to that of the Soan-bon rendering of Sagami (Figure
5.6)both depict an older woman with a prominent nose. Second, Mitsuoki
seems to have borrowed the moon that hovers over Retired Emperor Sanj in
the Tokyo National Museum version and put it above Su; Sus poem has no
reference to the moon, however, and Sanj Ins doesmaking its inclusion
with Su seem strange. Yet Mitsuoki clearly conceived the double-page spread
as a continuous landscape, the moon shining on Gysons, as well as on Sus,
hills. Most startling, however, is Mitsuokis rendering of female poets in the lat-
ter quarter of the collection, where several of them, such as Princess Shokushi
and the Steward of Kkamonin, are rendered as decidedly middle-aged. This
modication presumably responded to some need of the original patron or re-
cipient of the album.
Further differences in the Mitsuoki album become apparent if we compare
Mitsuokis Gyson leaf with the Gyson leaf in the Tokyo National Museum
album (Plate 9 and Figure 5.4). Although the two gures are virtually identi-
cal, Mitsuokis mountains are steeper and more sinied while the Tokyo Na-
tional Museum copybook leaf exhibits the rounded hills of Yamato, ironically
enough for a Kano-school rather than Tosa-school product. Based on this dif-
ference, some might argue against the idea that the Tokyo National Museum
version represents a Kano copy of an earlier Tosa modelfor in this case we

would expect Mitsuoki to have preserved the hills in their yamato-e style. In
fact, there is another explanation for this difference.
Uta-e
Gysons poem reads:
mototomo ni Let us think of each

ahare to omohe other fondly,
yama-zakura O mountain cherries!
hana yori hoka ni for, outside of your blossoms,
shiru hito mo nashi theres no one who knows my feelings.
The headnote to this poem, as given in the Kinysh, reads: Composed when
he [Gyson] saw cherry blossoms unexpectedly at mine.48 Literary scholars
are divided over the meaning of unexpectedly (omohi-kakezu) here. Although
the poem is classied simply in the Miscellaneous category in the Kinysh,
commentators had long assumed that the poem is set in early summer and that
the poet was surprised to see cherry trees, which blossom in early spring, still
blooming in the mountains. In his Kaikan sh of 1688, however, the early na-
tional-learning (kokugaku) scholar Keich (1640 1701) argued that the poet
was surprised to see cherry blossoms amid the evergreens of mine.49 Mitsuoki
bases his image on the latter interpretation, as evergreens rise conspicuously
around the cherry blossoms. While this observation strongly suggests that Mi-
tsuokis work postdates the appearance of Keichs Kaikan sh of 1688, it also re-
veals that differences between Mitsuokis rendition and that of the Tokyo Na-
tional Museum copybook are due to interpretive, rather than simply stylistic,
choiceswhich in turn leaves the chronological priority of the two versions in
doubt.
Let us turn our attention, then, to these background elements. As we have
seen, the background elements in the Tokyo National Museum and Mitsuoki
versions are not limited simply to famous places (meisho) such as Mount Fuji
but also attempt to relate meaningfully to the content of the poem. The back-
ground to Sanj Ins poem, too, can be understood to indicate a specically po-
litical interpretation of his poem with the palace roof alluding to his abdication
in 1016.50 Clearly there was some sort of interest in uta-e among the aristocracy
and high-ranking warriors in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth cen-
turies. Yasumura claims that the popularity of such motifs and the Eight Views

of Xiao and Xiang (J: Shsh hakkei) may have contributed to the popularity of
the album format. Of course, it was not only Xiao and Xiang but also their
Japanese versions, such as the Eight Views of mi (mi hakkei) and views of
Fuji, that were popular. All these were inscribed landscapes, that is, landscapes
associated with specic poems.
Another motif that makes its appearance in the early Edo period is Teikas
Birds and Flowers of the Twelve Months; a number of paintings illustrating this
theme survive from the second half of the seventeenth century.51 But interest
in this theme was part of a larger interest in uta-e generally. Comparing paint-
ings of Teikas Birds and Flowers by Mitsuoki and Tany, Takeno Megumi
nds the painting by Mitsuokian emaki in the Tokyo National Museum
dated between 1651 and 1681distinctive in its inclusion of human gures and
their seasonal activities. Takeno characterizes Tosa renderings of the theme as
being faithful to the content of the poems. Quite different is a set of two screens
attributed to Tany, now in the University of Michigan Museum of Art, which
Takeno dates between 1662 and 1675. Here all human activity has been elimi-
nated and there is an extreme simplication of design in keeping with tradi-
tional Kano bird-and-ower painting. The poems, too, have been eliminated.52
It is not difcult to imagine these images functioning equally well in an album
format. In fact, there is a screen, dated between 1690 and 1692, featuring shiki-
shi with the poems. This screen, in the Yale University Collection, is by the Kano
artist Yamamoto Soken (. 1683 1706), who may have studied with Tany.53
(See Appendix III.)
The contrast in Tosa and Kano styles noted here is evident too in the treat-
ment of another poetic theme: Teikas Ten Styles. This theme is based on a col-
lection of 285 poems by Teika, generally called Teikas Ten Styles [of Poetry]
(Teika jittei), which includes at least ten poems in each of the ten categories.54
One painted version is by Mitsuoki: the Illustrated Scroll of Ten Styles of Japa-
nese Poetry (Jittei waka emaki), dated between 1654 and 1681, now in the Asian
Art Museum of San Francisco (Figure 5.9).55 It presents a variety of vistas, both
near and far, with some human habitation, in a continuous composition, the
poems inscribed by ten aristocrats directly on the landscape. In contrast, there
is Tsunenobus Picture Album of the Ten Styles of Japanese Poetry (Waka jittei
gaj), in which each scene is isolated in its album format and the poems are in-
scribed separately on the facing page (Plate 11).
Yet the stylistic differences between Tosa and Kano uta-e are more apparent
than real. Comparing the different products of the two schools, we nd that
Mitsuokis Waka jittei emaki is not entirely dissimilar from Tanys Pictures of

figure 5.9.
Tosa Mitsuoki,
The Style of Deep
Feeling (ushin) (de-
tail), from a painted
handscroll, pigment
on silk, one scroll,
32.1 25.5 cm, Asian
Art Museum of San
Francisco.
Ten Famous Poetic Place-Names (Meisho jikkei-zu) of 1667, now in the Kyoto
National Museum. Closer yet is the pair of Illustrated Scrolls of Retired Em-
peror Juntokus Twenty Japanese Poems on Famous Places (Juntoku-in gyosei mei-
sho waka nijisshu emaki) by Kano Tanshin (16531710), produced between Gen-
roku 14 and 16 (17011703).56
Indeed, several motifs in Mitsuokis and Tsunenobus renditions of Teikas
Ten Styles are very similar even though they have only two out of ten poems in
common.57 One example is Mitsuokis rendition of the ushin style (the style of
deep feeling; Figure 5.9),58 for an anonymous poem from the Senzaish:
yama-dera no Every time

iri-ahi no kane no the voice of the evening bell
kowe no goto ni of the mountain temple
kefu mo kurenu to announces that today too has passed
kiku zo kanashiki59 its hearing it that makes me sad.

Both the poem and its visual counterpart are similar to Tsunenobus visualiza-
tion of the ygen style (the style of mystery and depth) based on the following
Shinkokinsh poem by Nin Hshi (Plate 11):
yama-dera no When I come and look upon

haru no yufu-gure the spring twilight
kite mireba of the mountain temple
iri-ahi no kane ni I see the blossoms scattering
hana zo chirikeru60 to the sound of the evening bell.
Interestingly, the inscription of the poem starts with the phrase yama-dera
(mountain temple), although the Shinkokinsh and Waka jittei have it as yama-
zato (mountain village), thus bringing the two poems and their visualizations
even closer together. Both poems also include the phrase iri-ahi no kane (the
bell of evening), and both paintings show a main grouping of two roofs plus a
separate bell tower above and to the side. Trees surround the buildings, above
which the artists have rendered low mountainsalthough the two poems rep-
resent antithetical seasons (Nins poem is spring, and the Senzaish poem is
presumably autumn), the artists compositions are basically the same.
Such similarities make the close resemblance between Mitsuokis and Tanys
versions of the One Hundred Poets less surprising. One scholar describes Mi-
itsuokis depiction of the landscapes in the upper register as detailed, gorgeous,
and in its vivid appearance typical of the Tosa-school painting. He notes, how-
ever, that this style was actually born out of Mitsuokis appropriation of Chi-
nese and Kano painting styles.61 Referring to Tanys New Thirty-Six Poetic Im-
mortals Album, by contrast, Yasumura writes: Here Tany has completely
taken and assimilated into his own technique the detailed manner of depiction
that is the strong point of the Tosa school. . . . Having assimilated the tech-
niques of yamato-e, [a patrons] need to commission yamato-e works exclu-
sively from the Tosa school of Kyoto disappears.62 Thus there is a convergence
of the Tosa and Kano schools, particularly in the genres of kasen-e and uta-e.
This convergence can be considered a kind of classicismthat is, a widely ac-
cepted orthodoxy that transcends or severely constrains stylistic diversity.
Copies of Tanys One Hundred Poets model book with background paint-
ings became extremely widespread throughout the Edo period. Indeed copies
can still be found for sale in Jinboch secondhand bookshops and in museum
collections as far from Japan as Stuttgart, stocked by the buying sprees of nine-
teenth-century European travelers (Figure 5.10). Clearly this model book be-
came part of the Kano-school curriculum. Yet curiously the Date album set

figure 5.10.
Kano school, The
Handmaid KoShi-
kibu (KoShikibu no
Naishi), 19th cen-
tury, painting with
light colors and ink
on paper, Baelz
Collection, Linden
Museum, Stuttgart.
and Mitsuokis album are the only known apparently nished albums still ex-
tant. Moreover, the very format of kasen-eplus(uta-e) background seems to
have all but disappeared very rapidly. To my knowledge, the only other extant
work to use this format is a Shin rokkasen gaj by Kano Masunobu in the To-
kyo National Museum (Figure 5.11). The work is signed simply Tun-hitsu,
suggesting it predates his elevation to hgen in 1691. This album also appears
to have been a trousseau object, as the cover has the crests of the Tokugawa
and Wakisaka clans.63 Not only is there a landscape in the background of the
portraits, but the same landscape is reproduced as an underdrawing design for
the facing text page (Figure 5.12).64 Perhaps this detail was meant to compen-
sate for the relatively few number of paintings in the album. In the same way, the
inscription of all six poems seems to be by the same hand.65 Analogously, the
Clark Collection holds a Genji screen by Mitsuoki featuring inscriptions by
aristocratic calligraphers, but here it was not all fty-four chapters that were
chosen but only twelve, one for each of the twelve months. Clearly this would
seem to be a decrescendo from a work like the Date album set.
Although the format of kasen-e with background seems to have died out

figure 5.11.
Kano Masunobu,
Album of New
Thirty-Six Immortal
Poets: Yoshitsune
(Shin rokkasen gaj:
Yoshitsune), painted
album leaf, pigment
on silk, one volume,
44.2 27.4 cm,
Tokyo National
Museum.
fairly quickly in elite art, it was to ourish in ukiyo-e. The appearance of a par-
ody testies to the diffusion of Tanys One Hundred Poets model; the parody
by Hishikawa Moronobu (d. 1694)was published as early as 1695 (issued
posthumously by his son). Figure 5.13 shows Moronobus rendition of Gysons
poem. Its background hills with cherry blossoms are reminiscent of Tanys
model (Figure 5.4), as is the mountain ascetic (yamabushi) garb of the poet.
But Moronobu has the poet confronted by an attractive youth (yamabushi
were reputed to have a particular weakness for young men) in a parody of the
famous scene from the N play The Subscription List (Kanjinch). Actually, it
was the common format of printed bookswith multiple registers or zones
that proved congenial to the inclusion of both poet-portrait and uta-e, as seen
in Moronobus Commentary on the One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, with

figure 5.12.
Kano Masunobu,
Album of New
Thirty-Six Immortal
Poets: Yoshitsune
(poem) (Shin
rokkasen gaj:
Yoshitsune), with
underpainting,
album leaf with cal-
ligraphy, colors and
ink on decorated
paper, one volume,
44.2 27.4 cm,
Tokyo National
Museum.
Portraits and Inscriptions (Hyakunin isshu zsansh) of 1678, but also in his
Warrior Hyakunin isshu (Buke hyakunin isshu) of 1672. In fact, we can recog-
nize as the ultimate descendants of this lineage some poetic images of beauti-
ful women (bijinga), such as the Twelve Views of Beautiful Women of Today
(Imay bijin jnikei), a series by Keisai Eisen (1790 1848) that is dated be-
tween 1825 and 1826) (Figure 5.14).
Conclusion
The newly conceived classical theme of the One Hundred Poets nds itself,
then, at a nexus of a fascinating variety of concerns and developments. It seems
related to a visual program of the military government, which was bent on pre-

figure 5.13.
Hishikawa Mo-
ronobu, Images of
Elegant Figures of
One Hundred Poets:
Gyson (Fry
sugata-e hyakunin
isshu: Gyson), page
from printed book,
one volume, 22.6
15.8 cm, Atomi Ju-
nior College
Library.
serving the peace of the country. This theme makes its appearance just as a
new format for painting emergedthe album formatwhich was to become
strongly associated with the authority of the Kano school vis--vis the appraisal
of the art of others and the transmission of the schools style through learning
by rote copying (funpon-shugi). Through their inscription of court poetry onto
albums and screens designed for the new military rulers, the old aristocracy
afxed its signature to the new social contractone largely in line with the
role of the aristocracy dictated by Ieyasu in his regulations for the court.66 Fi-
nally, the One Hundred Poets theme stands very near the beginning of a gen-
eral explosion in uta-e and growing interest in the pictorial representation of
poetry. This interest cuts across class lines and is apparent in both elite culture,
such as the sphere serviced by Tany and Mitsuoki, and more popular levels
supplied by ukiyo-e artists.
And it may have been this last factor that led to, or at least contributed to,
the disappearance in elite art of uta-e generally and the kasen-eplusuta-e in
particular. Certainly the format seems to have been tailor-made for parody.
And it could be that as parody pictures (mitate-e) developed their popularity in
the ukiyo-e genre, such compositional methods were seen to be less and less
appropriate to the upper echelons of a social system increasingly invested in
the maintenance of rigid stratication between the classes. Poet-portraits re-

figure 5.14.
Keisai Eisen, Twelve
Views of Beautiful
Women of Today
(Imay bijin jni-
kei): The Untamable
and Benten Shrine
near Susaki in Fu-
kagawa (Otenbas
Fukagawa Suzaki
Benzaiten), color
woodblock print,
ca. 18251826, Rijks-
museum voor Vol-
kenkunde, Leiden.
turn to the kasen-e formatone virtually identical to the mode of portraying

important personages as in the portrait of the shogun Yoshimune (16771751)
(Figure 5.15) by an unknown Kano artistimposing in their isolation but not
daring to risk being caught in either limiting physical contexts or entangled by
words whose slippery signication could not be controlled.
Classicism, then, can mean a number of things. For there to be classicism,
of course, it is necessary to have established the classics. It seems clear that
the One Hundred Poets collection was widely regarded to embody values asso-
ciated with the court and with Japanese poetry. Japanese poetry, in turn, was
believed to have a unique relationship with the gods. Since the Kamakura pe-
riod, emerging classes had attempted to appropriate court cultureand with
it political legitimacy. In this sense, a return to the classics was always a po-
litical move, even among the aristocracy itself. The One Hundred Poets collec-

figure 5.15.
Anonymous Kano
school artist, Por-
trait of Shogun
Tokugawa Yoshi-
mune (photo from
Shiraezaru goy eshi
no sekai, Asahi
Shinbun-sa, 1998).
tion became eminently suited to the classicizing tendencies of both the new
military governing class and the emerging bourgeoisie while at the same time
allowing a certain freedom due to the fact that it was not, in reality, a tradi-
tional visual subject. Its classical nature, then, allowed for both the attempt at
rigid orthodoxizing and an inherently challenging appropriation.
Appendix I: Calligraphers of Tanys

New Thirty-Six Poets Albums 67
1. Takatsukasa Kampaku Sadaijin Fusasuke
2. Kajii no Miya Nihon Jiin Hshinn

3. Myhin Gynen Nyd Shinn
4. Manshuin no Miya Nihon Rysh Hshinn
5. Konoe Naidaijin Motohiro
6. imikado Sadaijin Tsunetaka
7. Koga Saki no Udaijin Hiromichi
8. Aburankji Dainagon Takasada
9. Kazanin Dainagon Sadanobu
10. Asukai Saki no Dainagon Masaaki
11. Chikusa Dainagon Ariyoshi
12. Tokudaiji Sadaijin Kinnobu
13. Higashizono Dainagon Motokata
14. Sono Jun-Daijin Motoyoshi
15. Jimyin Dainagon Mototoki
16. Hino Saki no Dainagon Hirosuke
17. Atago Dainagon Michitomi
18. Shkin no Miya Nihon Dk Hshinn
19. Kuj Udaijin Kaneharu
20. Myhin no Miya Muhon Gyjo
21. Imadegawa Udaijin Kinnari
22. Marinokji Dainagon Masafusa
23. Hiramatsu Sangi Tokikazu
24. Sanj Kintomi
25. imikado Tsunemitsu
26. Nakanoin Dainagon Michishige
27. Karasumaru Saki no Dainagon Sukeyoshi
28. Hino Chnagon Sukemochi
29. Karasuma Dainagon Mitsuo
30. Seikanji Dainagon Hirofusa
31. Yanagihara Dainagon Sukeyuki
32. Shirakawa Nii Masataka
33. Kageyunokji Saish Suketada
34. Nanba Chnagon Munekazu
35. Nonomiya Chnagon Sadabuchi
36. Higuchi Chnagon Nobuyasu

Appendix II: Calligraphers of
the Date Album Set 68
1. Takatsukasa Fusasuke (16371700).* Regent; minister of the left.
2. Shkin Miya Hshinn Dk.* Son of Goyzei, chief abbot of Shk-
in; recipient of Ise and Kokin denju; also skilled in painting.
3. Asukai Masaaki (d. 1679).* Former major counselor; poet; court liaison
ofcer (buke tens); received Kokin denju from Gomizunoo; skilled
calligrapher; several waka texts extant.
4. Nakanoin Michishige (d. 1710).* Major counselor; waka student of his
father and of Gomizunoo; recipient of Kokin denju; nikki and shikash
extant.
5. Kuj Kaneharu (d. 1677).* Minister of the right.
6. Myhin no Miya Hshinn Gyjo (d. 1695). Son of Gomizunoo; 181st
Tendai chief abbot.
7. Koga Hiromichi (d. 1674).* Former minister of the right.
8. Shgoin no Miya Hshinn Dkan (d. 1676). Son of Gomizunoo, chief
abbot of Shk-in.
9. Kazanin Sadanobu (d. 1692).* Major counselor; court liaison ofcer.
10. Shrenin no Miya Hshinn Sonsh (d. 1694). Son of Gomizunoo;
founder of calligraphic style.
11. Konoe Naidaijin Motohiro (d. 1722).* Chancellor; grandson of Gomi-
zunoo, with whom he studied waka; involved in renga and painting;
received Kokin denju; nikki extant.
12. gimachi Sanetoyo (d. 1703). Former major counselor.
13. Manshuin no Miya Hshinn Rysh (16221693).* Studied painting
with Kano Naonobu, specializing in suibokuga; calligrapher; Chinese;
ower arranging; tea.
14. Hino Hirosuke (d. 1687).* Former major counselor; poetry family; court
liaison ofcer.
15. Karasumaru Sukeyoshi (16221669).* Former major counselor; poet.
16. Hiramatsu Tokikazu (d. 1697).* Counselor.
17. Hamuro Yoritaka. Nikki extant.
18. Niwata Shigeeda.* Former major counselor; court liaison ofcer.
19. Kazahaya Dainagon Sanetane. Major counselor; chad-ka.
*Also in New Thirty-Six Poets Albums.

Appendix III: Calligraphers
of the Soken Screen 69
1. Takatsukasa Kanehiro. Minister of the left; son of Fusasuke.
2. Koga Michitomo. Major counselor; son of Hiromichi.
3. Daigo Fuyumoto. Major counselor.
4. Imadegawa Koresue. Former major counselor.
5. Kazanin Mochishige. Middle counselor; son of Sadanobu.
6. Nakanoin Michimi. Son of Michishige.
7. Arisugawa no Miya Yukihito. Imperial prince.
8. Kuj Sukezane. Son of Sukeharu.
9. Shimizudani Sanenari. Major counselor.
10. Jimyin Mototoki. Former middle counselor.
11. Niwata Shigeeda. Former middle counselor.
12. Asukai Masatoyo. Third rank; son of Masaaki.
Notes
I would like to thank Yoko Woodson, Matsubara Shigeru, Ron Toby, Sakamoto Kurara,
Doris Croissant, Maiko Behr, Christina Lafn, and Akemi Takizawa for their help in
this study. Any errors remain my sole responsibility.
1. See Maribeth Graybill, Kasen-e: An Investigation into the Origins of the Tradition
of Poet Pictures in Japan (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1983).
2. See Joshua S. Mostow, Uta-e and Interrelations Between Poetry and Painting in
the Heian Era (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1988).
3. Currently privately owned, approximately one-quarter of the set has been repro-
duced in (Bessatsu) Taiy 1(Winter 1972).
4. Mori Tru, Kasen-e, Hyakunin isshu-e (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1981), 78.
5. Dimensions given as 41.7 26.9 cm in one volume; see Saitama Prefectural Mu-
seum, Kasen-e no sekai (1992), 57. Mori gives the dimensions of the Date albums as 31.4
27.5 cm, but these are for the pictures alone; the albums themselves are closer to the
Mitsuoki album in size. The Tokyo National Museum copybook measures 30 20 cm.
6. Mori, Kasen-e, Hyakunin isshu-e, 7980. Mori also mentions works by Ikoma Tju
(. ca. 1688 1703) and cites two in the possession of the Shimonaka family and an
anonymous collector. He provides one illustration of this last work and suggests that it
derives stylistically from the Soan-bon. Both it and the Shimonaka family work are now
preserved as screens, but Mori conjectures that they were originally albums. The
whereabouts of the Tju album, listed as an important artistic property (jy biju-
tsuhin), are unknown.
7. For a listing of the extant shikishi from this set, their history (especially in tea), and
present whereabouts, as well as an assessment of their authenticity, see Watanabe Ki-
yoshi, Ogura shikishi no seiritsu to sono bi, in Sumi supesharu 02 Hyakunin isshu
(Tokyo: Geijutsu Shinbunsha, 1990), 153159.

8. Sen Sshitsu, ed., Chad koten zensh (Kyoto: Tanksha, 1956), 10:6. The poem was
Nakamaros. Some of my information on the use of Teikas shikishi in tea comes from an
unpublished seminar paper by a former student, Mara Romn, of Heidelberg University.
9. Yoshikai Naoto, Hyakunin isshu nenpy, Nihon shoshigaku taikei 75 (Musashi-
mura: Seishd, 1997), 5 6. Several of these objects are in the collection of Atomi
Womens Junior College; see Atomi Gakuen Tanki Daigaku Toshokan, ed., (Atomi
Gakuen Tanki Daigaku Toshokan-z) Hyakunin isshu kankei shiry mokuroku (Tokyo:
Karinsha, 1995).
10. See also Toda Katsuhisa, Chanoyu to renga, in his Takeno J kenky (Tokyo:
Ch Kron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1969), 83124.
11. Ibid., 108; cited by Romn.
12. See Kumakura Isao, Kanei Culture and Chanoyu, in Paul Varley and Ku-
makura Isao, eds., Tea in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu (Honolulu: Univer-
sity of Hawaii Press, 1989), 135160.
13. See Felice Fischer, The Arts of Honami Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master
(Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000).
14. Dsh hshinn-hitsu hyakunin isshu karuta. From the same period come the
Kat-ke kyz hyakunin isshu karuta. See Yoshikai, Hyakunin isshu nenpy, 1011.
15. Ibid., 13.
16. Graybill, Kasen-e, 157161.
17. Ibid., 176.
18. Iwai Hiromi, Ema (Tokyo: Hsei Daigaku Shuppankai), 2323.
19. Graybill, Kasen-e, 176.
20. Ibid., 5758.
21. See Ishihara Shhei et al., Takamura monogatari shink (Tokyo: Musashino
Shoin, 1977).
22. Graybill, Kasen-e, 189; Mori Tru, Uta-awase-e no kenky: Kasen-e (Tokyo:
Kadokawa Shoten, 1970), 127.
23. Iwai, Ema, 42.
24. Moto yori kad ha waga kuni no darani nari; quoted by Kond Yoshihiro, San-
jrokkasen hengaku no imi to sono genry, Bijutsu Kenky 3(148) (1948):124.
25. Quoted by Kond, Sanjrokkasen, 121 122. See also Mori, Kasen-e, Hyakunin
isshu-e, 160.
26. Lee Bruschke-Johnson, The Calligrapher Konoe Nobutada: Reassessing the
Inuence of Aristocrats on the Art and Politics of Early Seventeenth-Century Japan
(Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden University, 2002), 108109.
27. Two examples are illustrated in Takeda Tsuneo, Kan Eitoku, Japanese Arts Li-
brary, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Kodansha International and Shibund, 1977), pls. 56 and 60.
28. See H. Minamoto, Kan Sanraku no Sanjrokkasen-e, Bukky Bijutsu 19 (Oc-
tober 1933):112121; cited by Bruschke-Johnson, Nobutada, 109.
29. Bruschke-Johnson, Nobutada, 109112.
30. Nakamachi Keiko, Kasen-e bybu ni tsuite, in Takeda Tsuneo, Yamane Yz,
and Yoshizawa Ch, eds., Nihon bybu-e shsei 5 Jinbutsu-gaYamato-e-kei jinbutsu
(Tokyo: Kodansha, 1982). The screens, in a private collection, are reproduced as pls.
6566.
31. Ibid., 148.
32. Reproduced in color as pls. 6263 in Nihon bybu-e shsei. A black-and-white re-

production is included in Kasen-e no sekai (g. 82) along with complete transcriptions
of the poems.
33. Nakamachi, Kasen-e bybu, 147.
34. See Bruscke-Johnson, Nobutada, 107114 and 208214.
35. Yasumura Toshinobu, ed., Edo meisaku gaj zensh 4 Kan-haTany, Mori-
kage, Itch (Tokyo: Shinshind, 1994), 30.
36. Iwai, Ema, 43. The play is collected in Nonomura Kaiz and And Tsunejir,
eds., Kygen shsei (Tokyo: Shunyd, 1931), 8891.
37. Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenins, trans., Kokinsh: A Col-
lection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 35.
38. On Matabei in English see Sandy Kita, The Last Tosa: Iwasa Katsumochi Ma-
tabei, Bridge to Ukiyo-e (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999).
39. Yasumura, Tany, Morikage, Itch, 170. For more information on the use of copy-
books in the Kano school see Brenda G. Jordan and Victoria Weston, eds., Copying the
Master and Stealing His Secrets: Talent and Training in Japanese Painting (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2003).
40. Nakamachi, Kasen-e bybu, g. 7.
41. Ibid., g. 8; see also Kasen-e no sekai, g. 53.
42. See, for example, a screen attributed to Matabei in the possession of Enryji,
Fukui; photo in Kasen-e no sekai.
43. See Kan-ha to Gaj, in Yasumura, Tany, Morikage, Itch, 166173. In fact, as
noted, the Tokyo National Museum work appears to have originally been a scroll and
was only subsequently mounted as an album. Nonetheless, I believe the original work
was conceived of as an album.
44. Literally, sanjrokkasen te-kagami, hyakunin isshu te-kagami, jnigatsu kach
te-kagami.
45. Matsubara Shigeru, Kano Tany hitsu Shin Sanjrokkasen zuj no seisaku jij,
Mizuguki 2 (1987):47. The Tokugawa shoke keifu indicates that Nobuko may have been
Takafusas younger sister; see Saiki Kazuma and Iwasawa Yoshihiko, eds., Tokugawa
shoke keifu (Tokyo: Zoku-Gunsho Ruij Kansei-kai, 1970), 1:50. Donald Shively, in a
major article on Tsunayoshi in English, writes that Nobuko was the daughter of a for-
mer minister of the left, Takatsukasa Norihira, and younger sister of Fusasuke; see Don-
ald Shively, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the Genroku Shogun, in Albert M. Craig and
Donald H. Shively, eds., Personality in Japanese History (Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1970), 91. Those who refer to Papinot concerning Tsunayoshi will be
alarmed to discover that Nobuko is credited there with having assassinated the shogun
and then committing suicide. Shively writes that this story was circulated as early as the
Sann gaiki (Unofcial history of three rulers), an account of Tsunayoshi and his two
successors attributed to Dazai Shundai (16801747). But Shively (p. 101) notes: There
is no reliable evidence for these accounts. See E. Papinot, Historical and Geographi-
cal Dictionary of Japan (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1972); originally published in 1910.
46. Pers. comm.
47. Joshua S. Mostow, Picturing Love Among the One Hundred Poets, in Love in
Asian Art and Culture (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian In-
stitution, 1998), 3047.
48. Kinysh 9 (Misc. 1):880; in Yamagishi Tokuhei, ed., Hachidai zench (Tokyo:
Yseid, 1960).

49. Joshua S. Mostow, Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996), 337.
50. For more on this point see Mostow, Pictures of the Heart, 343345.
51. Again, much work has already been done on this topic and need not be repeated
here. See Carolyn Wheelwright, ed., Word in Flower: The Visualization of Classical Lit-
erature in Seventeenth-Century Japan (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1989).
Kendall Brown writes that among the roughly twenty known paintings of Teikas Poems
[on the Birds and Flowers of the Twelve Months], nearly three-quarters were produced
between 1650 and 1710. See Kendall Brown, Re-Presenting Teikas Flowers and Birds,
in Wheelwright, Word in Flower, 33.
52. Takeno Megumi, Kinsei ni okeru Teikaei Tsukinami Kach Utae no tenkai:
Yoshimura Kkei sakuhin o chshin ni, Museum 414 (September 1985):417. This ar-
ticle includes a complete reproduction of the screens. Two panels are included in
Wheelwright, Word in Flower, g. 13.
53. Reproduced in Wheelwright, Word in Flower, g. 16. Of some interest here is the
identity of the various calligraphers (Appendix III): oneShigeedahad participated,
apparently belatedly, in the Date album set as well and fully six of the other participants
in the Sken screen were relatives of calligraphers for the Date album set.
54. Contained in Sasaki Nobutsuna, ed., Nihon kagaku taikei (Tokyo: Kazama
Shob, 1962), 4:362379.
55. The work is signed at the end Tosa Ukon no Jgen Mitsuoki hitsu, indicating
that it was produced between 1654, when Mitsuoki received the post of ukone no sh-
gen (vice-general of the Inner Palace Guards, Right Division), and 1681 when he was el-
evated to hokky (Bridge of the Law). Although a certicate of attribution for the callig-
raphy has been added, it lists the rst calligrapher as Myhin no Miya Gyen Shinn
(16761718), who in 1681 (the last possible date for the work) would have been only ve
years old. While not reliable, it is interesting to note that this certicate attributes some
of the hands to names we also see in the Soken screen: Niwata Shigeeda, Nakanoin
Michimi, and Asukai Masatoyo.
56. Both these works are included in Izumi-shi Kubos Kinen Bijutsukan, ed., Uta-e
(1995).
57. Both use the same poems to illustrate the kotoshikarubeki style (the style of appro-
priate statement) and the omoshiroki style (the style of clever treatment), although the
poems appear in a different order. Surprisingly, given the difference between a hand-
scroll and an album, it is Mitsuoki who follows the standard order and Tsunenobu
whose order is nonstandard.
58. Translations of style names are from Robert H. Brower, Teikas Maigetsush,
Monumenta Nipponica 40(4) (Winter 1985):399425.
59. Bk. 20, Grief, 1329; in Yamagishi, Hachidai zench.
60. Bk. 2, Spring, 116; in Yamagishi, Hachidai zench.
61. Hayashibara Museum of Art, ed., Hayashibara bijutsukan meihin-sen (Okayama:
Hayashibara Museum of Art, 1996), 202.
62. Yasumura Toshinobu, Kan Tany, Shinch Nihon bijutsu bunko 7 (Tokyo:
Shinchsha, 1998).
63. The Wakisaka crest is the two interlocking rings of the wa-chigai pattern. In
Kanbun 12 (1672) the clan was transferred to the Takino ef (53,000 koku in size) of
Harima province; in Tenna 3 (1683) the clan moved from the status of tozama daimy

to gan-fudai daimy. Perhaps this move was cemented through marriage and the album
was produced for it. See Chikano Shigeru, ed. Nihon kamon skan (Tokyo: Kadokawa
Shoten, 1993), 1188; Higuchi Hiyoyuki and Niwa Motoji, eds., Kamon daizukan (Tokyo:
Akita Shoten, 1971), 628; Kokushi daijiten (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1993), 14:876.
64. Interestingly, however, the New Six Poetic Immortals are all men: Yoshitsune,
Jien, Shunzei, Saigy, Teika, and Ietaka.
65. A certicate in the box by Kohitsu Ryetsu, a Meiji-period descendant and
twelfth head of the Kohitsu school, attributes the calligraphy to Sono Dainagon Mo-
toka (reading uncertain).
66. See Lee Butler, Tokugawa Ieyasus Regulations for the Court: A Reappraisal,
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 54(2) (December 1994):509551.
67. From Matsubara, Kano Tany hitsu.
68. From Mori, Kasen-e, Hyakunin isshu-e, 7677. Biographical information is from
the Kokushi daijiten.
69. From Brown, Re-Presenting Teikas Flowers and Birds, 33.

Chapter Six
Karen M. Gerhart
Classical Imagery and

Tokugawa Patronage:
A Redenition in the
Seventeenth Century
Classical is an adjective that has multiple and often superimposed meanings.

In art, however, classical most commonly refers to a work of the highest rank
or importance that becomes a model. For at least ve centuries, Western art
history has located such a model in the perfected human image and pure forms
of Greek art and architecture.1 But in Japanese painting, themes and styles
were not consistently revived from a single time period, nor did they comprise
a single aesthetic canon. In fact, prudently selected pasts were employed by
various groups to reafrm or refute the present. In seventeenth-century Japan,
the Tokugawa shoguns commissioned paintings that reected their military
and Chinese-derived past and altered subjects once associated with the golden
age of the court to suit their unique needs. This chapter examines paintings in
the emperors Visitation Palace and the Ninomaru Palace of Nij Castle and
looks at how the Tokugawa referenced antiquity at this site in portraying them-
selves vis--vis the emperor.
The process of reusing the past is a tradition with deep roots in Asia. The art
historian Martin J. Powers places the rst classical revival in China around
the fall of the Early (Western) Han dynasty (206 b.c.a.d. 8) when rst Wang
Mang (r. 9 23) and then Guangwu (r. 25 58) tried to cast themselves in the
roles of sage-kings, relying mainly on the imagery and learning of classical
(Confucian) painting and literature.2 In the early Han, therefore, the past was
used as an antidote for what was perceived as the decadence of the present.
But this was not its only use. Different pasts were recalled time and time
again for varying purposes in China. Centuries after the Han, the Southern
Song emperor Gaozong (r. 1127 1162) commissioned paintings that used the
past to comment on or inuence the present as a means of resuscitating his dy-
nasty.3 Likewise, during the Yuan dynasty (12791368) members of the literati
contrived a revival of archaic painting styles as both a visual rejection of late
Song landscape painting and a subtle criticism of effete Song politics that had
led to the Mongol invasion.4 Notably, the past that was revived in China was
not always the same time period, nor the same subject, nor was it even repre-
sented in the same style. The Han rulers sought to envision the golden age of
the Zhou-period (1027 256 b.c.) sage-kings in their art. Gaozong employed
stories from the Zhou, but he also made political reference to poetry of the
Northern Song (960 1127) and to events in his own life. The Yuan painter
Zhao Mengfu looked to the styles of the Tang period (618 907) and to land-
scape painters such as Dong Yuan (d. ca. 960) to refute the inuence of Song
political agendas. It is apparent, then, that in China dynastic leaders favored
images of the specic ideals, beliefs, and actions of the past that could best le-
gitimate the type of power to which they currently aspired.
The same process of looking to the past to create or support a political pres-
ent was a component of artistic practice in Japan as well. As early as the Heian
period (7941185), court literature functioned as a form of protest, often utiliz-
ing select characteristics of its own or Chinas past for these purposes. Michele
Marra has recontextualized a number of Heian-period manuscripts to demon-
strate that literature such as Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori monogatari),
generally viewed as a native folktale, was a sophisticated construction based on
Chinese Daoist stories, interpreted from a Buddhist perspective, and presented
to mock the political center in Japan. Likewise Marra claims that the paragon
of Heian culture, Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari), was compiled to express pro-
found dissatisfaction with the dictatorial government of the Fujiwara.5 Just as
the authors and compilers of these volumes created their own ideological dis-
courses by drawing upon ancient and current sources to denounce or support
the centers of political production, many artists and patrons in the seventeenth
century reinterpreted ancient painting themes in an effort to maintain politi-
cal power or challenge the dominant ideology.
The Class in Classical

In any discussion of artistic revivals, personal forces largely determine what
themes or styles are regenerated, as well as the reasons behind their resurrec-
tion. As with classical and specically Greco-Roman revivals in West Euro-
170 Karen M. Gerhart

pean art, renewed interest in ancient painting subjects and styles in seventeenth-
century Japan was class-specic: each group responded to its own interests and
purposes, and each utilized different sources to reect its special needs.
The artistic and political requirements of the warrior class in seventeenth-
century Japan were distinct from those of the court or wealthy merchants. After
its initial inuence on the Japanese court in the ninth through eleventh cen-
turies, ancient Chinese learning appeared most conspicuously in the arts of
the warrior class, which throughout its history preferred continental culture
over the traditional arts that attracted the court. Because history really only
began for warriors as a distinct social class around the twelfth century,6 the
golden age of the samurai developed later than that of the court. The classical
period for warriors paralleled a rise in their status and political power that de-
veloped in the fourteenth century with the founding of the Muromachi mili-
tary government.
Chinese learning was pursued vigorously throughout the two centuries of
the Muromachi period (1333 1573), and its inuence permeated literature as
well as painting. Since the Kamakura period (11851333), the warrior class had
closely afliated itself with Zen, a sect of Buddhism adopted from China, ab-
sorbing through its study the cultural values and intellectual concerns of Chinas
educated elite. A long-standing afnity of Japans warrior class for Chinese-
style painting can also be perceived. A perusal of the painting section of the ex-
hibition catalog Japan: The Shaping of Daimyo Culture: 11851868 reveals more
than twice as many works of Chinese themes and styles as those associated
solely with Japan.7 As the title suggests, this catalog represents seven centuries
of daimyo culture. Even allowing for personal bias in the choice of objects for
this exhibition, the catalog displays a clear warrior-class predilection for and at-
tachment to Chinese culturedemonstrating that a strong fascination with
China was part of warrior culture well before the Tokugawa shoguns appeared
on the scene in the seventeenth century. Therefore, we may conclude that
both familiarity and tradition were signicant underlying factors in the Toku-
gawa shoguns afnity for ancient Chinese paintings. In effect, Chinese themes
represented the classical past for the warrior class in Japan.
Accordingly, the term classical revival in reference to seventeenth-century
painting is viewed here as a development that resurrected different pasts in
support of dissimilar political agendas for distinct social groups. In the early
decades of the 1600s, Chinese ideas were revisited, revitalized, and reconsti-
tuted by the Tokugawa government to play integral roles in many aspects of
Japanese culture. Chinese learning was valued by the warrior elite because it
C l a s s i c a l I m a g e r y a n d To k u g a w a P a t r o n a g e 171
helped establish a justication for power and an ideology of domination; it also
represented this elite as learned and lent a mark of cultural distinction. The
Tokugawa were in need of a legitimating rhetoric that was both learned and re-
spectable yet removed from associations with the Japanese court. For numer-
ous reasons, Chinese learning t the bill. While familiar to both warriors and
courtiers, post-Heian Chinese studies became most closely associated with the
former. In particular, Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism) as one main thrust
of Chinese learning became an important source drawn upon by those who
fashioned the early Tokugawa political and economic order. Not surprisingly,
the general education of samurai in the seventeenth century consisted of read-
ing from copybooks of the Chinese classics and commentaries.8 Thus even the
choice of reading material was inuenced by a conscious determination on the
part of the early shoguns to frame Chinese culture as unique and superior to
cultural elements native to Japan. In other words: the shoguns prescribed Chi-
nese culture, long identied with military culture, as qualitatively equal (in
some cases even superior) to the culture of the Japanese aristocracy.9
The public art commissioned by the Tokugawa shogunate in the early dec-
ades of the seventeenth century consisted of monumental structures decorated
with symbolic and complex images, many of them Chinese. Although the fa-
cades of such monuments, in cases like castles, were visible to everyone, it was
the elite of the seventeenth centurythe courtiers and powerful daimyo
who were meant to be impressed by the decorated interiors. Indeed, the Toku-
gawa placed paramount importance on edifying those very individuals who
still possessed vestiges of power and were capable of disrupting or challenging
Tokugawa authority. While many architectural projects demonstrate the cul-
tural authority of the Tokugawa,10 this essay focuses on the paintings in two
specic compounds at Nij Castlethe Visitation Palace constructed for the
emperors visit and the Ninomaru Palace that housed the Tokugawa shogun
when he was in Kyoto. The special nature of these structures demanded a
unique interstice, between court and warrior elite, functioning as a space for
the Tokugawa to broadcast specic messages to the emperor and his court
through art.
Different Subjects for Different Audiences

Still a landmark in Kyoto today, Nij Castle underwent major renovations be-
tween 1624 and 1626 when its Ninomaru Palace was totally reconstructed and
its interiors were repainted under the orders of retired shogun Hidetada and

figure 6.1.
Instructions Regard-
ing the Paintings of
the Emperors Visi-
tation Palace of Nij
Castle (Nij oshiro
gyk no goten on-e
tsuke osashi-zu),
Kyto Daigaku Fu-
zoku Toshokan.
newly appointed shogun Iemitsu.11 Moreover, a separate compound was con-

structed within the castles walls to house reigning Emperor Gomizunoo, the
empress, and their entourage for a rare and brief ve-day visit to this castle-
residence in the ninth month of 1626.12 These magnicent buildings for the
emperors use were dismantled after the visit and moved to the grounds of
other imperial residences around 1628, but ultimately all were lost in res.13
Nonetheless, we know a good deal about the iconography of the paintings in
these special buildings from a contemporary record, Instructions Regarding the
Paintings of the Emperors Visitation Palace of Nij Castle (Nij oshiro gyk
no goten on-e tsuke osashi-zu; Kyto Daigaku Fuzoku Toshokan; Figure 6.1),
which documents the subjects of the paintings and the artists who worked in
each room.
The Emperors Suite
The 1626 compound for the emperors visit comprised three main buildings
connected by wooden corridors to Iemitsus Ninomaru Palace: Gyk Goten,
a large suite of rooms for Emperor Gomizunoo and his attendants; Chg
Goten, a smaller adjoining suite for Empress Masako,14 her young daughter
Ichinomiya Okiko,15 and their attendants; and Nyin Goten, a separate suite to
house the emperors mother, Chkamonin. Additional rooms served as waiting
rooms (gokysoku no ma) and bathing and relaxing areas (oyudono).16 (See Fig-
ure 6.2.) Although the entire complex of buildings is sometimes referred to as
the Gyk Goten, the appellation properly designates only the emperors quar-
ters. Because this suite was designed explicitly for the emperor, one might ex-
pect it to be decorated with classical Japanese subjects. All of the paintings in
the eleven rooms of the emperors suite represent Chinese subjects, however.
Table 6.1, based on Instructions Regarding the Paintings of the Emperors Vis-
itation Palace of Nij Castle, relays information about the artists and types of
paintings in each room of the emperors quarters. Four rooms contained
scenes from the Mirror for Instructing the Emperor (J: Teikan zusetsu; C: Dijian
tushuo), a text rst written and published in China as an illustrated woodblock
book in 1573. Two other rooms had paintings of dattanjin, or Mongols (alter-
figure 6.2.
Diagram of Nino-
maru Palace and
the Visitation Pal-
ace (after g. 113 in
Nishi Kazuo, Hime-
jij to Nijj; Tokyo:
Shogakkan, 1991).
Ninomaru Palace: 93 Tozamurai, 90 Shikidai, 100 Ohiroma, 98 Kuroshoin, 105 Shiroshoin

Visitation Palace: 209 Gyk Goten, 195 Chg Goten, 128 Nyin Goten

table 6.1. Artists and Paintings in the Visitation Palace
Room Name Artist Subject
Southern upper chamber Uneme (Tany) Teikan (Chinese exemplars)
Middle upper chamber Kyhaku (Naganobu) Teikan (Chinese exemplars)
Northern upper chamber Jinnoj (Shinsetsu) Dattanjin (Mongols)
Southern second chamber Shume (Naonobu) Teikan (Chinese exemplars)
Chdai bedchamber Genshir (Yasunobu) Teikan (Chinese exemplars)
Northern second chamber Shinemon Dattanjin (Mongols)
Middle third chamber Sahei Illegible
Northern third chamber Hayato (Genshun) Kinkishoga (four accomplishments)
Southern waiting room Sanraku T Enmei (Tao Yuanming)
Middle waiting room Ki Illegible

Northern fourth chamber Nobumasa (Geki) Illegible
natively identied as Tatars), on their walls and sliding doors, and one room
was decorated with scenes of kinkishoga, the four accomplishments of music,
chess, calligraphy, and painting traditionally practiced by cultured Chinese
gentlemen-scholars. A nal room contained renditions of Tao Yuanming (Tao
Qian; J: T Enmei; 365427), a famous recluse poet of China. Notations on the
diagram for the remaining three rooms are illegible.
There are good reasons why Chinese rather than Japanese themes were ap-
propriate for the emperors residence at Nij Castle. Throughout Japanese his-
tory, both were used in the imperial palace, with Chinese themes favored for
public and ceremonial halls and Japanese for private living areas. As early as
the ninth century, images of thirty-two Chinese Confucian sages (kenj no sji)
were painted on silk-covered panels and placed behind the emperors throne
in the Ceremonial Hall (Shishinden) for state ceremonies. The subject was
believed to set the correct tone for imperial rule in the ninth century by creat-
ing the illusion that the Japanese emperor, as he sat on his throne surrounded
by virtuous Confucian men, was an active participant in the historical progres-
sion of venerable sages.17 Confucian sages still anked the imperial throne in
the early seventeenth century, now accompanied by other Chinese gures:
Tang-period Emperor Xuanzong and his consort Yang Guifei18 and Chinese
immortals (Sennin) in the upper chamber (jdan no ma).19 Because it was tra-
ditional for public audience halls at the imperial palace to be decorated with
ancient Chinese themes, it was likewise appropriate for rooms with this same
function in the emperors Visitation Palace at Nij Castle.20
Indeed, that all of the identiable subjects for the emperors suite at Nij
Castle were Chinese underlines the public and ceremonial nature of Gomi-
zunoos short visit. The paintings at Nij, however, were unlike any in the Cer-
emonial Hall of the imperial palace. Some, particularly those based on the
Teikan zusetsu, which had been introduced into Japan only a few years earlier,
lacked a venerable pedigree. Others, like the themes of Mongols, four accom-
plishments, and Tao Yuanming, had enjoyed a long history in Japan, having
been introduced as art themes during the Muromachi period. But their spe-
cic associations were with warrior-class patronage; they did not comprise part
of the emperors cultural heritage.
The paintings of Mongols playing polo or hunting likely had their roots in
late-thirteenth-century Yuan-dynasty models of similar subjects such as Liu
Guandaos (. 1270 1300) painting Khubilai Khan Hunting (dated 1280). Ex-
tant examples of this genre in Japan date to the late fteenth century and later.
Most, such as one attributed to Kano Motonobu (14761559), are the products
of Kano workshops for members of the warrior elite (Plate 12).21 It is unlikely
that paintings of Mongols ever decorated the Kyoto imperial palace.
The message intended at Nij Castle is unclear. The main problem centers
on whether the paintings depict Mongols or Tatars. Japans primary contacts
with the Mongols were two attempted invasionsone in 1274 and the other in
1281whereas there seems to have been virtually no contact with Tatars. Painted
handscrolls of the Mongol invasion, Mko shrai ekotoba, commemorate the
successful Japanese defense against the Mongol attacks in the late thirteenth
century.22 The title recognizes Mongols as mko. The Nij archive, however,
denotes the paintings in the emperors suite as renditions of dattanjin. (Dat-
tanjin is written in hiragana on the document.) Do the words mko and
dattanjin refer to the same peopleand who are they?
Modern historians and art historians seem to use the two terms almost inter-
changeably. The Chinese characters for dattan (C: dada), however, refer spe-
cically to Tatars. Today the two are regarded as separate ethnic groups: the
Tatars living in Xinjiang and speaking Turkic and the Mongols living in Inner
Mongolia and speaking Mongolian.23 In the twelfth century, however, the two
tribes apparently lived in closer proximity, located on opposite sides of the Ke-
rulen River, and their names became conated in histories.24 To confuse mat-
ters further, Engelbert Kaempfer (1651 1716), who lived in parts of Asia (in-
cluding Japan between 1683 and 1693), offers yet another interpretation. In his

History of Japan (1727), Kaempfer refers to the Manchus as Tartars (that is,
Tatars) and the general area of Manchuria as Datsu or Tartary.25 So per-
haps the Tatars at Nij refer to the Manchus, who by the 1590s had already
begun to encroach upon the Ming-held southern portion of Manchuria. Jap-
anese scholars writing on this topic, however, often use dattanjin with Mon-
gol appended in katakana to clarify their meaning. None of the sources I have
examined suggest that the Japanese interpret dattanjin as Manchus.
Thus the identity of the dattanjin gures at Nij Castle must remain am-
biguous because none of the interpretations appear viable. The Japanese al-
ready had a word for Mongols, so they would not have needed to create a new
one, and it is unlikely that either the Tokugawa or their artists had enough
knowledge of Chinese Tatars in Xinjiang to make them a popular painting
subject. They probably never saw any images of real Tatars, because none in
China purport to depict them, although from the mid-seventeenth century
and later there are countless images of the Manchus who came to rule China
during the Qing period (1644 1912). It is equally doubtful that the gures in
the emperors suite at Nij represent the Manchus, because that group was still
on the cusp of becoming an international power in 1626. It is more reasonable
to assume that this nomenclature resulted from a need to avoid any stigma at-
tached to the Mongols (mko), who had at one time threatened the Japanese na-
tion, and that the term dattanjin in the early seventeenth century very broadly
referenced powerful horseback-riding nomads living north of Chinas Great
Wall. Using the term dattanjin would have enabled warrior patrons to me-
morialize and admire a certain militaristic lifestyle without admitting to admi-
ration for any specic ethnic group.
It is likely, then, that the paintings in the emperors suite at Nij Castle
served simply as generalized celebrations of warrior spirit. The image of the
Mongols as usurpers was blurred, and the memory of a disciplined, horseback-
riding clan was reinforced and even romanticized.26 Indeed, in most extant
paintings of this genre, the erce horseback-riding nomads are depicted play-
ing polo or hunting, not ghting battles, as if that aspect of their history had
been purged from memory. Nonetheless, although clearly a Chinese theme,
this visual celebration of horseback riding and hunting at Nij was different
from anything the emperor would have seen in his own Kyoto palace.
The four accomplishmentspainting, calligraphy, music, and Chinese
chessreect Northern Song literati ideals regarding the proper pastimes of
Confucian scholars. The earliest examples in Japan of paintings of this theme
date to the mid-fteenth century, and at least two of these early works are at-
tributed to Josetsu (. 1386? 1428?),27 a Zen priest and ink painter known to
have produced art for shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi (13861428; r. 13941423).28
Later in the sixteenth century, painters in Kano Motonobus studio popular-
ized the theme, probably for warrior patrons who wanted to emphasize their
cultural sophistication, and it continued to be fashionable for such patrons in
the seventeenth century.29 This subject, therefore, was another one appropri-
ated from China and appreciated from its inception by the warrior class.
Paintings of the Chinese poet-recluse Tao Yuanming became popular in
Japan around the same time as the other subjects, that is, in the mid-fteenth
century. The earliest extant renditions were produced by ink painters such as
Bunsei (. mid-fteenth century) and Tshun (. early sixteenth century), who
worked with Sessh. Later, Kano artists such as Tany (1602 1674) painted
images of Tao Yuanming for important temples. The popularity of paintings of
Tao Yuanming, like those of Mongols/Tatars and the four accomplishments,
emerged from a political context. In China, Tao Yuanming dutifully became a
government ofcialonly to tire of ofcial life after eighty-three days. He re-
tired to write poetry in poverty and live on his farm rather than subjugate his
spirit for pay. Thus Tao Yuanming was a subject with reference to eremitism
and government protest. Carolyn Wheelwright has suggested one reason why
Chinese images such as Tao Yuanming were so eagerly appropriated by the
military class in the late fteenth and sixteenth centuries:
Ancient Chinese stories were becoming more and more popular among the
military class of Japan. As the generals of war-torn provinces strove to extend
their control over a unied Japan, they increasingly attempted to equate
their actions with those of virtuous gures in Chinas past. Thus, they com-
missioned pictorializations of politically approved stories as visual support
from ancient Chinese tradition.30
By far the most numerous scenes in the emperors suite at Nij Castle, how-
ever, are based on the Mirror for Instructing the Emperor (Teikan zusetsu), a
new subject introduced from China in the waning years of the sixteenth cen-
tury (Figure 6.3).31 The walls and sliding doors of four rooms were illustrated
from that text. This subject seems to have become the exclusive property of the
Tokugawa shogunate and was produced by the Kano workshop throughout the
rst two decades of the seventeenth century.32 The historically based tales in-
clude stories of exemplary conduct of eighty-one Chinese emperors, as well as
thirty-six passages in which ofcials display a singular lack of virtue in their
governing with disastrous consequencesall in keeping with basic Confucian

figure 6.3.
Scene from wood-
block print of Mir-
ror for Instructing
the Emperor (Tei-
kan zusetsu), Tky
Daigaku Bijutsushi
Kenkyshitsu.
precepts.33 The tales were intended as moral lessons to guide the young Ming
emperor Wanli (r. 15731620) toward virtuous rule.34 In China, this emphasis
on expounding both desirable and unacceptable qualities of government had
long fullled a remonstrative function that addressed problems of political le-
gitimacy and transference of authority.35
Although we cannot know which stories from the text were represented in
the emperors suiteand therefore cannot speculate on the specic messages
that may have been intendedthere is little doubt that the stories had a polit-
ical purpose.36 Their depiction in the Visitation Palace signies the special im-
portance the Tokugawa attached to them and, on the surface, they were in-
tended there to edify Emperor Gomizunoo just as the original illustrations had
guided the emperor in China.
The stories may also suggest something more. The paintings selected from
the Teikan zusetsu, as well as those of Mongols/Tatars, four accomplishments,
and Tao Yuanming, gave the appearance that the Tokugawa were honoring the
emperor and imperial tradition through a painted display of august Chinese
subjects. Yet closer examination of the iconography shows that these subjects
were not traditionally associated with the emperor, nor did they represent him
at the imperial palace. Rather, all were themes long connected with warrior-
class patronage and all had been imported to Japan during eras of military
dominance. Thus while the Tokugawa appropriately chose Chinese-based im-
ages for the Visitation Palace, these particular images venerated a classical era
of military glory.
Renovation of Ninomaru Palace: 1624 1626

What of the Tokugawa themselves? In decorating their own quarters, what did
the Tokugawa borrow from the past to create or reect their image? The paint-
ings in the Ninomaru Palace at Nij Castle suggest that the Tokugawa were
equally adept at appropriating and manipulating the classical past of the court
and adapting its forms for their own purposes.37
The buildings that comprise the Ninomaru Palace served as the residence
of the third shogun Iemitsu when he was in Kyoto and as a reminder of shogu-
nal presence in the city when he was away.38 The buildings remain largely in-
tact today, and the paintings are currently in situ (Plate 13). Here we will exam-
ine only those in the rooms of the Grand Audience Hall (hiroma). As the site
of public audiences and ceremonies, the Grand Audience Hall represents the
shoguns locus of powerfunctioning, in a sense, as the shogunal equivalent
of the emperors Ceremonial Hall at the imperial palace. Furthermore, the
Grand Audience Hall was where the shogun entertained the emperor and his
entourage during their Nij visit, so the emperor would have seen these rooms.
Indeed, it was because of this portentous event, the emperors visit, that the
rooms received their special decorations. As evidenced from the original paint-
ings still in place and as further veried from a contemporary diagram, Instruc-
tions on Nij Castle (Nij oshiro osashizu; Kyto Daigaku Fuzoku Toshokan,
Kyoto),39 paintings of pine trees and birds cover the walls and sliding doors
throughout all four rooms of the Grand Audience Hall.40 Table 6.2 claries the
layout of the rooms, the subjects of the paintings, and the artist.
What messages did the Tokugawa intend through the ubiquitous pine-tree
motif? Obviously they were attempting to impress the emperorand what bet-
ter way to do this than by using an image borrowed from court tradition that
had personal meaning for him? Although the most conventional symbolism of
the pine tree, longevity, is of Chinese origin, native layers were added soon
after it was imported to Japan. Early in Japans prehistory, trees of all types were
viewed as abodes of deities (kami) and pine trees came to be associated with sa-
cred sites and protective powers; later, classical poetic allusions to pine trees in
Japan describe them as emblems of timelessness and symbols of imperial glory.41
Many of the meanings were transmitted from literature to painting, and
early illustrated handscroll fragments suggest that pine trees were popular mo-

table 6.2. Artists and Paintings in Ninomaru Palace
Building/Room Name Artist Subject
Grand Audience Hall (hiroma):
Upper chamber (Jdan-no-ma) Kano Tany Pines and golden pheasants
Lower chamber (Gedan-no-ma) Kano Tany Pines and peacocks
Third chamber (San-no-ma) Kano Tany Pines and peacocks
Fourth chamber (Yon-no-ma) Kano Tany Pines and eagles
Bedchamber (Chdai-no-ma) Kano Tany (Not Kanei period)
Unnamed room Kano Tany Undecorated
tifs for large-scale paintings on folding screens and walls at imperial residences
during the Heian period. Thus the pine tree was an image replete with classic
associations for the court. In decorating the Grand Audience Hall with pine
trees, the Tokugawa were illustrating their own cultural sophistication, their ex-
tensive knowledge of traditional court culture, and, most important, their right
to access that culturea right authoritatively afrmed by the marriage of Iemi-
tsus sister Masako to the emperor himself. It might also be said that Tokugawa
intentions were not so one-dimensional, however, nor so benign. For all their
varied associations with a courtly classical past, the pine trees in the Ninomaru
Palace are an anomaly depicted in a style that denies their noble heritage with
every ber of the brush: these pine trees are enormous in size and clearly not
rendered in the typical classical yamato-e style. Rather, as Takeda Tsuneo
has afrmed, all the pine-tree paintings in the Grand Audience Hall are drawn
in a Chinese style (kangateki).42 The trees are massive with powerful assertive
limbs and textured bark (although the latter is difcult to determine with the
excessive repainting that has been done at Nij).
Attendant to the Chinese style of painting are the deep Confucian overtones
that have long been attributed to the pine in major Chinese painting treatises.
An early tenth-century text, Note on the Art of the Brush (Bifaji) by Jing Hao (ca.
870930), for example, describes the true nature of the pine tree as expressing
lofty Confucian values, with the horizontal layers of its branches appearing
like the breeze of the virtuous [which passes over the bowed heads of the
humbly respectful]. Later, Han Zhuo (. 1095 1125) equated pine trees with
Confucian virtue: Their reception of inferiors with reverence is like the virtue
of the gentleman.43 Thus while the pine trees painted in the Ninomaru Pal-
ace had close associations with the courts classical past in Japan, their style was
Chinese, evoking lofty values and Confucian virtuequalities the Tokugawa
government desired to emphasize in its program to gain political acceptance.
Conclusion
The traditional denition of classical in Japanese art history must be altered
signicantly in reference to seventeenth-century Japanese painting. Indeed it
should be expanded to reect not one time period but a number of bygone eras
that served different patrons. For the Nij Castle project, the Tokugawa not
only employed themes from their own pasta distinctly military and Chinese-
derived pastbut also borrowed and altered subjects from the courts past. It is
intriguing that pine trees, with their strong traditional associations with the
court in Japan, were painted in buildings inhabited by the Tokugawa while
Chinese subjects associated with past military eras decorated the emperors res-
idence at Nij. What does this conscious reversal of traditions signify?
Classical court culture clearly held few charms for the Tokugawa, as such
culture was only tangential to their own history. When the Tokugawa did ap-
propriate images associated with court culture, like the pine trees in the Nino-
maru Palace, they made certain that the meaning was altered through stylistic
changes, thereby broadening the symbolism to suit current requirements. At
Nij, therefore, the powerful yet venerable old pines in the Grand Audience
Hall carried simultaneous good wishes for the emperors visit, strong messages
of Confucian propriety afrming the right of the Tokugawa to govern, and fer-
vent yet subtle hopes for the longevity of the union between the Tokugawa and
the imperial family. The pine trees in this hall also conveyed the message that
the Tokugawa were able to access and manipulate traditional imperial symbols.
For the emperors Visitation Palace, however, the Tokugawa used Chinese
visual symbols associated with warrior-class taste to display their heritage to the
emperor-in-residence and to elevate their own history. The paintings were de-
signed to follow the proper formChinese subjects for the public function of
the emperors visitbut not the proper intent, which should have been to re-
call for the emperor his venerable past and ancient traditions. Indeed the cre-
ation of a new visual history at Nij Castle closely parallels concurrent Toku-
gawa efforts to write new dynastic histories that were likewise steeped in Chinese
traditions. It is signicant that while wealthy merchants in the seventeenth
century depended almost exclusively on the resurrection of courtly taste to in-

crease their cultural cachet, the Tokugawa more often sought to heighten their
own status by drawing upon the cultural past of China and their warrior her-
itage. Tokugawa classicismif it can be termed thuswas fashioned as a
wholly different, Chinese-based set of artistic ideals distinct from the delicate,
rareed atmosphere of courtly tradition. Steeped in Chinese learning, digni-
ed, and sophisticated, the art of the Tokugawa was its own grand classical tra-
dition, a tradition which had come to rival that of the emperor and the court.
This point was made crystal clear in the decoration of the emperors Visitation
Palace at Nij.
Notes
1. Intellectual development in Germany in the mid-eighteenth century contributed
greatly to the notion of a pure, classical Greece. See Walter Burkert, The Orientalizing
Revolution: Near Eastern Inuence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, trans.
Margaret E. Pinder and Walter Burkert (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1992), 12.
2. An issue of Art Journal, 47(1) (Spring 1988), was dedicated to The Problems of
Classicism. In this issue, Chinese art-history specialists discussed the special problems
of using classical and classic in relation to Chinese art. See also Martin J. Powers,
Art and Political Expression in Early China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991),
156160.
3. See Julia K. Murray, Sung Kao-Tsung as Artist and Patron: The Theme of Dynas-
tic Revival, in Chu-tsing Li, ed., Artists and Patrons: Some Social and Economic As-
pects of Chinese Painting (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989), 2733.
4. See Chu-tsing Li, The Autumn Colors on the Chiao and Hua Mountains: A
Landscape by Chao Meng-fu, Artibus Asiae Supplementum 21 (1965).
5. Michele Marra, The Aesthetics of Discontent: Politics and Reclusion in Medieval
Japanese Literature (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991), 1434 and 3569.
6. Eiko Ikegama, The Taming of the Samurai: Honoric Individualism and the Mak-
ing of Modern Japan (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), 72.
7. Yoshiaki Shimizu, ed., Japan: The Shaping of Daimyo Culture: 11851868 (Wash-
ington, D.C.: National Gallery, 1988).
8. For background on education under the Tokugawa shoguns see R. P. Dore, Edu-
cation in Tokugawa Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), and Richard
Rubinger, Private Academies of Tokugawa Japan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1982), 4148.
9. See Donald H. Shively, Popular Culture, in John Whitney Hall, ed., The Cam-
bridge History of Japan, vol. 4: Early Modern Japan (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1991), 717.
10. The 1624 1626 renovated Nij Castle and the 1636 shoguns visitation palace
(Jrakuden) of Nagoya Castle still exist today, as does Nikk Tshg, the shrine-
mausoleum constructed for Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1617. The monument was totally refur-
bished in 1636 and was of great signicance to the Tokugawa. Moreover, there are rec-
ords of the types of paintings that once existed at three additional Tokugawa-sponsored
sites: Nyg Gosho (1619), Osaka Castle (1620 1629), and Nij Castles Visitation
Palace (Gyk Goten; 1626). Furthermore, the paintings for Edo Castles Honmaru,
Nishinomaru, Ninomaru, and Sannomaru were completed in the 1640s but then de-
stroyed in the Meireki re of 1657. The buildings were reconstructed and repainted in
1659 and survived for over 180 years. The Record of Tokugawa Ceremonies (Tokugawa rei-
tenroku) mentions the room names, painting subjects, and artists names. However,
they were painted after 1650. The document is reproduced in Tokugawa Art Museum,
ed., Shgun no goten: Edoj shhekiga no shita-e (Nagoya: Tokugawa Bijutsukan, 1988),
126128.
11. Among the many surviving documents on these renovations are Nij oshiro
osakuji shosho ozaimoku takaharai ch (Kyto Furitsu Sg Shirykan); Nijj gykki
and Nij no shiro no gyk no den no sashi-zu (Ymei Bunko); Nij oshiro gyk no
goten on-e tsuke osashi-zu (Kyto Daigaku Fuzoku Toshokan); Meiji 18 20 Nijriky
shzenkji roku (Kunaich Shorybu); and Edo Nij oshiro goten (held by descendants
of the Nakai family of carpenters who worked on the project).
12. The visit began on the sixth day of the ninth month of Kanei 3 (1626) and is de-
scribed in ofcial Tokugawa records. See Tokugawa jikki, comp. Narushima Motonao,
vols. 38 52 of Shintei zho kokushi taikei, ed. Kuroita Katsumi (Tokyo: Yoshikawa
Kbunkan, 19641966), 39:377391.
13. The Gyk Goten (emperors Visitation Palace) was moved to Gomizunoos
Sent Gosho, which the bakufu began building in 1627 in anticipation of his retire-
ment. The Chg Goten (empress Visitation Palace) was transferred to the Onna San-
nomiya Iwakura Gosho. See Nij riky riyaku ki in Nishi Kazuo, Himejij to Nij
(Shinpen meih Nihon no bijutsu 19) (Tokyo: Shgakkan, 1991), 129130.
14. In 1619 (Genna 5), shogun Hidetadas daughter Masako (alternately Kazuko; T-
fukumonin; 16071678) entered the court as the wife of Emperor Gomizunoo (1596
1680; r. 1611 1629). Masako was made empress (chg) in 1624, the year following the
birth of her rst child.
15. Okiko (a.k.a. Onna Ichinomiya, later Empress Meish) was born in 1623. After Go-
mizunoos abdication, she received special investiture ceremonies and was pronounced
empress in the eleventh month of 1629.
16. The oyudono was traditionally a room in the Seiryden of the Kyoto imperial
palace where water was heated for bathing. A small building of this same name at
Nagoya Castles Jrakuden included a Turkish steam bath and resting areas for the
shogun. See Kno Motoaki, Tany to Nagoyaj Kaneid zei goten, in Bijutsushi
Rons 6 (1990):105.
17. Kendall H. Brown, The Politics of Reclusion: Painting and Power in Momoyama
Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 75.
18. This subject was based on vignettes from the Song of Enduring Remorse (J:
Chgonka; C: Changhenge; a Tang-period epic poem by Bo Juyi [772846]). Paintings
of Xuanzong were popular in Japan throughout the Heian period. See Takeda Tsuneo,
Gens ktei, Kokka 1049 (1982):13 25, and Suzuki Hiroyuki, Chgonka bybu,
Kokka 1052 (1982):2329.
19. In the middle chamber (chdan no ma) were gures (ningy), probably Japanese
genre scenes, and in the lower chamber (gedan no ma) were owers-and-birds (kach).
This information refers to the rst palace reconstruction undertaken by the Tokugawa

in the early seventeenth century, a project overseen by Tanys father, Kano Takanobu
(15711618). See Fujioka Michio, Keichdo gozei no dairi, in Shinch: Kyto gosho
(Tokyo: Ch Kron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1987), 7988.
20. For a detailed discussion of the arrangement of public and private rooms and
buildings and the program for determining how to paint them, see Karen M. Gerhart,
Honch Gashi and Painting Programs: Case Studies of Nij Castles Ninomaru Palace
and Nagoya Castles Honmaru Palace, Ars Orientalis 28 (1999):6797.
21. For a discussion of this genre see Suzuki Hiroyuki, Kisha to kari: Dattanjin kari
shury-zu o megutte, Kokka 1077 (1984):1330.
22. These handscrolls were created at the request of one of the generals, Takezaki
Suenaga, who fought against the Mongols. Today the two scrolls are preserved in the
Imperial Collection, Tokyo.
23. Today Xinjiang is the largest and northwesternmost autonomous region in China.
The region was conquered by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, however, and by
the Manchus in the seventeenth century.
24. Charles Hucker has suggested that both names [Tartars/Tatars and Mongols]
were eventually generalized to encompass all the Mongolian speakers and other north-
erners as well. See Charles Hucker, Chinas Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese
History and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), 283.
25. Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey, ed., Kaempfers Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), 4245.
26. Yoshiko Kakudo has suggested that Tatars hunting and playing polo are part of a
general subject headingNorthern Barbarians (hokuteki)that was as popular for
paintings in Japan as Southern Barbarians (nanban). See Yoshiko Kakudo, The Tar-
tar Screens and Kan Ssh, Archives of Asian Art 25 (19711972):8890.
27. Some scholars attribute these paintings to Minch (13521431). See Brown, Poli-
tics of Reclusion, 89.
28. One of the paintings is in a private collection. It is reproduced as entry 12 in
Watanabe Akiyoshi, Kanazawa Hiroshi, and Paul Varley, Of Water and Ink: Muromachi
Period Paintings from Japan 13921568 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986).
The other belongs to Rykin of Daitokuji and is reproduced as entry 133 in Kyto
Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, ed. and comp., Daitokuji no meih (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai
Shinbunsha, 1985).
29. Famous paintings of the four accomplishments include the sliding doors at
Reiunin, Myshinji; a pair of six-paneled screens by Motonobu in the New York Met-
ropolitan Museum; Kano Eitokus fusuma at Jukin dated to 1566; and four fusuma
panels by Kano Takanobu (15711618) in the Seattle Art Museum.
30. Carolyn Wheelwright, Kano Shoei (Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University,
1980), 127128.
31. For reproductions of the 1573 Chinese version see Kinsei Nihon kaiga to gafu:
Edehon ten (Tokyo: Machida Shiritsu Kokusai Hanga Bijutsukan, 1990), 2:3544.
32. It is believed that this illustrated text was brought to Japan in the late sixteenth
century by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536 1598) during his Korean campaigns of 1592
1598 and then passed on to his son and heir, Hideyori (15931615). Japanese carvers cut
new blocks and the books were republished in 1606. Soon after this date, paintings
based on the printed illustrations in the text became popular for decorating imperial
and shogunal residences.
33. For further examination of this genre in Japan see Karen M. Gerhart, Tokugawa
Authority and Chinese Exemplars: The Teikan Zusetsu Murals of Nagoya Castle, Mon-
umenta Nipponica 52(1) (Spring 1997):134; Karen M. Gerhart, The Eyes of Power: Art
and Early Tokugawa Authority (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999); and
Kobayashi Hiromitsu, Kyraku-zu bybu ni miru Teikan zusetsu no tensei, Kokka 1131
(1990):11 31. Julia K. Murray discusses the text, its contents, and divergent paths in
China and Japan in From Textbook to Testimonial: The Emperors Mirror, an Illus-
trated Discussion (Dijian tushuo/Teikan zusetsu) in China and Japan, Ars Orientalis 31
(2001):65101.
34. Although Zhang Juzheng (1525 1582) is generally listed as author, the text was
jointly produced with L Tiaoyang (15161580). See L. Carrington Goodrich and Chao-
ying Fan, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography (New York: Columbia University Press,
1976), 1:60.
35. In early-seventeenth-century Japan, similar problems of political legitimacy arose,
and between 1640 and 1720 the Japanese began to compile histories based on the tradi-
tion of Chinese historiography. See Kate Wildman Nakai, Tokugawa Confucian His-
toriography: The Hayashi, Early Mito School, and Arai Hakuseki, in Peter Nosco, ed.,
Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984),
6291.
36. See Gerhart, Tokugawa Authority and Chinese Exemplars.
37. See Gerhart, The Eyes of Power, 133.
38. In the seventeenth century, Nij Castle included a castle keep, was surrounded
by walls and moats, and even housed a military garrison early on. Its primary purpose,
however, was not military fortication. Rather, after the 1626 renovation the buildings
of the Ninomaru Palace became exclusively residential and administrative.
39. The diagram, believed to have been created at the time of the Ninomaru Palaces
renovation, is one of the oldest extant sources on the paintings and the artists who
worked at the palace. It is photographically reproduced in Sahashima Eitar and Yoshi-
naga Yoshinobu, Nijj (Kenchiku shinsho 4) (Tokyo: Sb Shobo, 1942), pls. 12 and 20.
40. This area should have been decorated with gures (jinbutsu) according to estab-
lished traditions for shogunal residences. For more on these traditions and how they de-
veloped see Gerhart, Honch Gashi.
41. For an extensive treatment of the symbolic meaning of pine trees at the Nino-
maru Palace see Gerhart, The Eyes of Power, 2531.
42. Takeda Tsuneo in Kawakami Mitsugu, ed., Moto riky Nijj (Tokyo:
Shogakkan, 1974), 354.
43. Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, eds., Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), 147 and 149.

Chapter Seven
Elizabeth Lillehoj
Uses of the Past:

Gion Float Paintings as
Instruments of Classicism
A close study of one set of artworksthe Gion Festival Floats (Gion sairei
boko), door paintings once installed in palace halls of Empress Tfukumonin
(16071678)offers a unique perspective on the imperial family and its role in
the so-called classical revival in art of the early Edo period (16001868).1 (See
Plates 1415.) Born into the ruling Tokugawa clan seven years after their deci-
sive victory over the Toyotomi and their allies in the Battle of Sekigahara, Tfu-
kumonin was to become an important person in seventeenth-century Japan.
In 1620, the fourteen-year-old Tfukumonin followed an escort to Kyoto, where
she was married to Emperor Gomizunoo (1596 1680; r. 1611 1629). Over the
next six decades, she proved herself a signicant supporter of the arts and a
leading gure in the cultural matrix of Kyoto, ancient capital and home of the
imperial court. She sponsored architectural projects, collected artworks, and
engaged in other patronage practices.2
Many of the paintings owned by Tfukumonin follow a traditional Japanese
style of painting (yamato-e), portraying themes from narratives and verse of the
Heian period (7941185). These works t the received denition of classical re-
vivalism as described in the Introduction to this volume. Gion Floats is clearly
different. Even though we might categorize the work stylistically as a type of
late yamato-e, its theme is a contemporary commoner celebration managed by
Kyoto merchant guilds, not a tale from Heian courtly literature. Nevertheless,
in its content Gion Floats responds to the same social and political conicts
that produced other examples of early Edo classical painting. Classicism is an
ambiguous, mutable, and ideologically loaded concept, and classical art
broadly dened here as art belonging to a modern canon and referring to a
golden age of the pastis an analytic category that embraces a wide range of
iconographic and stylistic choices. Gion Floats exemplies a historically spe-
cic, strategic, populist classicism that reinforced imperial prestige in the sev-
enteenth century. By questioning and expanding the standard classical canon,
I am arguing here for new ways of thinking about Edo art as an expression of
authorityas opposed to the aestheticizing, dehistoricizing tendency that pre-
vails in discussions of classical art. Thus even though Gion Floats has not pre-
viously been identied as a work of classical artin fact, if discussed at all in
histories of Japanese art, it has been described as a conventional genre paint-
ingit relates to a little-studied aspect of classicism: its utilization by the impe-
rial family to promote a social and cultural agenda.3
The Gion Floats and Classicism

By the early Edo period, the centuries-old Gion Festival had come to symbol-
ize the ancient imperial capital, and two constituencies in Kyoto claimed an
interest in its current manifestation: courtiers and townspeople. On the one
hand, it was an emperor who centuries earlier had initiated the Gion Festival;
on the other hand, it was merchants and artisans who controlled the festivities
in the seventeenth century. While the festival may have expressed the vitality
of Kyoto commoners, this vitality was said to depend on imperial sustenance.
Gion Float paintings allude to these two constituencies but completely ignore
the role of military overlordsespecially the Tokugawa, who were currently
preoccupied with establishing political dominance in the landand thus the
paintings deliberately point toward a social order closer to that of the past, when
the imperial family held preeminent authority and governed with little inter-
ference from warrior interlopers.
By displaying paintings of the Gion Festival in one of her palace halls, Tfu-
kumonin could indicate her approval and even her benevolent guidance of
commoner culture like an empress of old, supposedly ensuring that the pros-
perity of a halcyon, bygone era would continue into the future. Gion Floats
tells us a great deal about the social circumstances of early Edo Japan and
about Tfukumonins sponsorship of art as it relates to issues of class, status,
and politics. Furthermore, these scenes indicate that the referential and allu-
sionistic strategies central to classicism could be extended to incorporate a
greater range of content than has been acknowledged and that these strategies
could instrumentalize art for aristocratic interests.
Admittedly, Tfukumonins Gion Floats is not markedly different in appear-
ance from paintings of the same festivities owned by other individuals, includ-

ing warriors. Yet, following the methodology of reception theory, we can argue
that individuals of different class, status, and political afliation will receive or
interpret two works differentlyeven if they feature exactly the same imagery.4
Reception becomes particularly valuable when we are able to consider a spe-
cic site for display and a specic audience for a work. The decorator who se-
lected Gion Floats for Tfukumonins hall, possibly under her supervision,
certainly understood that this subject had political implications linking T-
fukumonin with commoners as a benevolent benefactor. Those with access to
her palace halls in the 1670shigh-ranking individuals who held some stake
in imperial/commoner relationswould have recognized the recently installed
Gion Floats as portrayals of a public celebration of town culture that formerly
was patronized by the imperial family. They also would have known of the cur-
rent circumstances faced by these Kyoto commonersthe nonruling, nonwar-
rior, urban classeswho were increasingly hurt by restrictions on trade and
the imposition of social stratication by the Tokugawa.
The presence of the Gion Float paintings in Tfukumonins quarters not
only suggests her interest in the Kyoto populace but also indicates her sense of
being positioned in the middle of a triangle between her natal Tokugawa fam-
ily, the imperial court, and the Kyoto townspeople. In many respects, this was
a privileged position; depending on her needs at the moment, she could call
either on the Tokugawa, the emperor, or commoner supporters. Having been
born into one type of restricted space, the shogunal household, and having
moved into another, the imperial court, Tfukumonin probably knew little
about the daily lives of commoners. Her interest in commoners, then, was es-
sentially a trope. Yet she and others at court had specic, sometimes political,
reasons for employing such a trope. In its classicizing content and strategy of
display, therefore, Gion Floats refers obliquely to imperial efforts to maintain
links with commoners and, simultaneously, asserts the courts superiority over
commoners and ultimately over Japan itself.
Gion Float Paintings in

Tfukumonins Palace
Gion Floats appears on two sliding cedar partitions with painting on the front
and back sides. In stylistic terms, Gion Floats follows the manner of current
genre painting, which itself was based in part on traditional yamato-e, so cen-
tral to later denitions of artistic classicism.5 Earlier, in the sixteenth century,
genre painting had received an impetus from the new folding-screen composi-
U s e s o f t h e Pa s t 189
tions of Scenes In and Around Kyoto (rakuch rakugai-zu), which depict city
streets in minute detail arranged in a panoramic, maplike composition.6 Some
of the earliest known illustrations of Gion Festival oats appear as tiny vi-
gnettes within sixteenth-century rakuch rakugai-zu screens; screens featuring
larger views of oats parading past shops and row houses in downtown Kyoto
appeared by the early seventeenth century. An early pair of screens that high-
lights the Gion procession, dated between 1596 and 1615, is found today in the
Idemitsu Museum of Arts (Plate 16). The Gion Float doors under considera-
tion here present the oats as primary elements, enlarged and isolated against
a neutral ground, thus following a general trend in seventeenth-century paint-
ing of setting a few motifs prominently in the foreground against a nonrepre-
sentational background eld.
Certain artists presumably intended their Gion Festival scenes for provincial
warrior lords as mementos of the ancient capital.7 Other artists targeted a
moneyed commoner clientele as the audience for genre painting shifted to
newly afuent townspeople. The Suminokura, for instance, a wealthy Kyoto
merchant family, are said to have owned a Gion Festival screen painted by
Gembei Katsushige (d. 1673), son of Iwasa Matabei (15781650).8 But Tfuku-
monins Gion Float doors were seen by a very different audience that was cen-
tered on the famous former empress.
Large-scale genre sceneslike Gion Floatswere apparently not common
in the early-seventeenth-century palace; however, they became more numer-
ous later in the century, when they were often painted alongside Heian court
tales. At the beginning of the century, there were a few paintings in womens
quarters at the palace that featured historical or legendary women; in 1601, for
example, artists were commissioned to paint genre scenes depicting Chinese
court ladies and children in the rooms of Shinjtmonin, the grandmother of
Emperor Gomizunoo.9 Two decades later, Kano artists painted a rare scene of
New Years festivities in Japan in quarters for the empress attendants (Otsu-
bone).10 But in palace buildings reconstructed between 1662 and 1709, we see
a new abundance of genre and literary painting. According to Fujioka Michio,
this tendency owes to a classical revival in Japanese literature.11 In the refur-
bished palace of the 1670s, artists painted scenes of Gion Festival oats (no
longer extant) on sliding doors and panels (fusuma) installed in the residence
of the wife of Emperor Reigen (16541732; r. 16631687), son of Gomizunoo.
Thus Tfukumonins Gion Float doors follow a trend.12
The Gion Floats from Tfukumonins palace may have belonged to a larger
group of cedar door paintings. Supporting such a possibility is another set of

cedar doors with Gion Festival oats found in a building that has long served
as the Shinden (imperial apartments) of the Kyoto temple of Shrenin.13 Orig-
inally this building was constructed as a Tsunegoten (ordinary living quarters)
for Tfukumonins retirement palace. A third group of four cedar doors with
Gion Float paintings are found in the British Museum (Figures 7.17.3).14 In-
scriptions under the frames of the British Museum doors indicate that they
came from the retirement palace of Tfukumonin.15 Although these three
groups of painted doors are located in separate collections today and have not
been published as a set, they share many similarities in format, materials, and
style. A cursory examination suggests that they may have been painted at the
same time, for the same compound, by the same unknown artist. Two cen-
turies after Tfukumonins time, Sumiyoshi Hirotsura (17931863), who served
as an ofcial artist for the Tokugawa, saw the Gion Floats at Shugakuin and
asked if an artist from the atelier of Kano Tany (1602 1674) had painted
them, indicating that people had lost track of who had decorated the doors.16
Although scholars have cited Kano Hidenobu (15881672) and Sumiyoshi Gu-
kei (16311705) as possibilities, the most likely artist is Kano Atsunobu (1640
1718).17
At Shugakuin, the Gion Float paintings were displayed along a veranda in
a building that was constructed around 1676 and decorated around 1677; this
building originally stood in the Nyin Gosho, the empress retirement com-
pound, located next to the Sent Gosho of Gomizunoo. The structure was
moved to its present site at Shugakuin in the hills of northeastern Kyoto a few
years after Tfukumonins death (Figure 7.4).18 Most art historians identify
this as Tfukumonins former Inner Reception Hall (Okutaimensho), a for-
mal public space, but some refer to it as her dressing chambers (okeshden), an
informal private space. Designated simply the Shugakuin Reception Hall in
this chapter, the building has several decorated chambers. The largest and
most frequently illustrated chamber is the First Room, which is twelve mats in
size (Figure 7.5). Several smaller chambersincluding the Second Room, or
Room of the Four Seasons; the Third Room; and the Altar Roomare orna-
mented, but not as gorgeously as the First Room.
An assortment of themes and styles appears in the decoration of the Shu-
gakuin Reception Hall with its harmonious intermingling of traditional and
contemporary forms. Certain aspects of the decorative scheme indicate that
the building was designed specically for Tfukumonin: most noticeably, n-
ger pulls on doors and panels bear the Tokugawa trefoil crest; some pulls also
incorporate the imperial symbol of the chrysanthemum. References to recent
figure 7.1. (Top left)
Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Chrysanthemum Dew
Float (Kikusuihoko) from the Gion Festival
Floats (Gion sairei boko), 17th century, paint-
ing in ink, polychrome, and gold on cedar
doors, each approximately 173.5 94.5 cm,
British Museum, London (#1958.10-11-020-023).
figure 7.2. (Top right)

Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Prince Shtoku Float
(Taishiyama) from the Gion Festival Floats
(Gion sairei boko), 17th century, painting in
ink, polychrome, and gold on cedar doors,
each approximately 173.5 94.5 cm, British
Museum, London (#1958.10-11-020-023).
figure 7.3. (Bottom right)

Kano Atsunobu (attrib.), Decorated Parasol
Float (Aya-gasahoko) from the Gion Festival
Floats (Gion sairei boko), 17th century, paint-
ing in ink, polychrome, and gold on cedar
doors, each approximately 173.5 94.5 cm,
British Museum, London (#1958.10-11-020-023).
figure 7.4.
Shugakuin Recep-
tion Hall in middle
garden of the
Shugakuin Imperial
Villa, Kyoto, 17th
century.
currents in Kyoto can also be found here. In the First Room, for example,
painted on short sliding panels under shelves next to the alcove is a landscape
scene with expanses of uncut textiles hanging out to dry, stretched between
a pine tree and poles, and the designs on these textiles are characteristic of
seventeenth-century Kyoto dyers. If this space did, in fact, function as Tfuku-
monins dressing chambers, scenes of drying textiles would have been quite
appropriate for the setting. Moreover, there are colorful paintings on two pairs
of doors positioned at opposite sides of the First Room, along the veranda lead-
ing to adjoining rooms. The doors at the southeastern corner feature Carp in
Golden Nets; those at the northwestern corner bear the Gion Floats.
The Gion Festival, Politics, and Class

In the Shugakuin Gion Floats, we see three peak-roofed Shinto oats (hoko)
that festival participants carried or pulled in a parade through the downtown
streets of Kyoto. Atop one oat is a long pole or halberdan elaboration on
the halberds carried in the rst festival. Emperor Seiwa (850880; r. 858876)
ordered the rst procession, during which sixty-six men carried halberds from
Gion Shrine (known today as the Yasaka Shrine) to the Shinsenen imperial
gardens. This procession was meant to placate Gozu Tenn (Skt: Gavagriva;
king of the devas), a deity of Indian origin who served as patron of the Jetavana
figure 7.5.
Floor plan, Shuga-
kuin Reception
Hall.
monastery (J: Gion Shja).19 In Kyoto, Gozu Tenn was worshiped at Gion
Shrine; later, when he came to be identied with the Japanese deity Susanoo
no Mikoto, Gion Shrine was seen as a source of protection for warriors. Within
a century of its founding, the Gion Festival had become an annual event; as
the festival grew increasingly complex and its sponsorship changed, the polit-
ical messages invested in and conveyed by the procession transformed.
In the early Muromachi period (1333 1573), representatives of the shogu-
nate took responsibility for overseeing the festival, each year ordering towns-
people to make the necessary preparations. The rst Muromachi-period sho-
gun, Ashikaga Takauji (13051358), appeared in public to watch the oat parade
in 1355, and his successors frequently attended the event over the next few
decades. In the fteenth century, shoguns usually watched the parade from a
reviewing stand erected by a retainer.20 Apparently the Ashikaga shoguns rec-
ognized that an elaborate Gion procession in downtown Kyoto, amid the thriv-

ing merchant and artisan establishments, conveyed strategic messages. It sig-
naled that divine forces of Gion Shrine protected the Ashikaga as military pe-
titioners and suggested that the social order sustained by the Ashikaga regime
ensured townspeoples prosperity. Around this time, parade organizers began
to drape the oats with multicolored tapestries imported from Persia, Belgium,
and other countries, indicating that Kyoto was a ourishing trade center. Yet
this trade, like the Gion Festival itself, depended on military sanction. Ashi-
kaga lords were interested in the Gion Festival as a public relations event; in-
deed, symbols on several oats of the Muromachi period referred to warrior
mightor, more precisely, to the power of the Ashikaga shoguns.
At the end of the fteenth century, the Muromachi shogunate canceled the
Gion procession for more than thirty years when social upheaval overwhelmed
Kyoto. The festival was later reinstated by Ashikaga decree, but difculties in
organizing the activities led to conicts between military overlords and com-
moner citizens. As Mary Elizabeth Berry explains, the Gion oat parade of the
early sixteenth century provoked commoner protest as well as rowdyism against
(even the murder of) ofcial participants.21 This was the very time in which
the oldest extant illustrations of the oat parade were painted, and scholars
have noted political commentary embedded in these early images. The earli-
est known pair of screens of Scenes In and Around Kyoto, the Sanj/Machida
screens in the National Museum of Japanese History, contains a scene of the
Gion procession (Figure 7.6). Matthew McKelway dates these screens to the
second quarter of the sixteenth century, and he interprets the Gion vignette as
an intended visual signal of the political and economic strength of the Ashik-
aga shoguns who had reestablished and sanctioned the festival.22 Similarly,
Kamei Wakana posits that the Screens of the Hie Sann and Gion Festivals in
the Suntory Museum of Art were meant to celebrate Ashikaga strength in the
mid-sixteenth century, even though internal strife threatened the shogunates
survival at this time.23 Kamei speculates that Tosa Mitsumochi (. ca. 1520
1560) painted the screens for Ashikaga Yoshiharu (15111550), the twelfth Muro-
machi shogun, while Yoshiharu was living in refuge at Kuwanomidera in mi
province (present-day Shiga prefecture).24
Eventually, probably in the second half of the sixteenth century, the mer-
chant and artisan community of central Kyoto took control of festival sponsor-
ship, with each block (machi) hosting its own oat. Some sources say that the
warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534 1582) revived the oat parade after he invaded
Kyoto in 1568 and then established his supremacy over the last Ashikaga sho-
gun; however, the cultural historian Hayashiya Tatsusabur says that wealthy
figure 7.6.
Anonymous, Scenes
In and Around
Kyoto Screens
(Rakuch rakugai-
zu bybu) (detail),
16th century, paint-
ing in ink and poly-
chrome on a pair
of sixfold screens,
183.2 342.8 cm,
National Museum
of Japanese History.
townspeople claimed ownership of the Gion Festival from 1500 on.25 Mer-
chants and artisans, many of whom experienced economic success in the six-
teenth century, invested considerable money and labor in the oats, seeing them
not only as a means to placate divine forces but also as a form of commoner en-
tertainment as blocks competed with each other in sponsoring the most sump-
tuous displays. In the Edo period, each block associationcomposed of the
residents of a two-sided block (rygawa ch)levied an assessment on its mem-
bers to fund a oat display, an arrangement known as contributing blocks
(yorimachi).26 Block residents prepared their oat, transported it in the Gion pa-
rade, and safeguarded it until the next summer. With a transition from warrior
to commoner sponsorship, messages conveyed by Gion oat parades changed;
nevertheless, these messages were potentially just as political as in earlier years.
The Shugakuin Gion Floats illustrates three large mountain-shaped oats
(yamaboko), each with its own political implications. On one side of the doors
is a ship oat (funeboko; Plate 14); on the other side is a showering down oat
(hkaboko; Plate 15, right) and a mountain grotto oat (iwatoyama; Plate 15,
left).27 The ship oat takes the form of a boat with textiles bearing wave designs

draped across the lower third of the hull. The rst ship oat debuted in 1422,
and a second type made its appearance laterboth dedicated to Empress Jing,
a legendary heroine of the second to third century. (See the glossary.) One of
these oats shows Jing departing for battle and was presented by residents of
Shijmachi, a block along Shinmachi street between Shij and Ayakji streets;
the other, which shows her return, was presented by residents of Funeboko-
machi in the next block south on Shinmachi street between Ayakji and Buk-
kji streets. The oat seen on the Shugakuin doors, referred to specically as
the oat of the ship in triumphant return (gaisen funeboko), represents the
vessel that supposedly transported Jing home from her victory over the Korean
kingdom of Silla (J: Shiragi). Jing and her purported sonEmperor jin (270
310), whose spirit is enshrined as Hachiman, the god of archery and warfare
were worshiped as protective deities by warriors. Members of the Ashikaga clan
had paid respects to Jing and Hachiman, and the ship oat was originally cre-
ated as an expression of Ashikaga power.28
The showering down oat is tallest of the many types of oats; its soaring
halberd points to the heavens and indicates the light of celestial bodiessun,
moon, and starsshining down into the netherworld. The mountain grotto
oat is dedicated to three divine beings: the god of the grotto, Tajikarao no Mi-
koto, who is enshrined inside a moundlike structure atop the oat; the sun
goddess, Amaterasu mikami, who is beside Tajikarao; and the god Izanagi no
Mikoto, who stands on a roof above them.
People living near the Shij-Karasuma intersectionresidents of three
blocks situated close to each other along Shinmachidri, a north-south street
sponsored the three oats featured in Gion Floats. Tfukumonin was cer-
tainly familiar with shops on Shinmachidri, home to a great variety of mer-
chant enterprises including shops selling furniture (kaguya), paulownia boxes
(kirinohakoya), folding screens (bybu), noodles (smenya), kitchenwares (ara-
monoya), jewelry (kazariya), and paper lanterns (chchinya). The founder of
the prominent Chaya merchant house, which conducted foreign trade and sup-
plied ne textiles to the wealthy, settled in Mukadeyamachi, a block on Shin-
machidri whose residents also sponsored a oat in the Gion Festival.29
The oat of the ship in triumphant return was managed by residents of
Shijmachi, a block on Shinmachidri between Shij and Ayakji streets. Here
many members of Gion shrine guilds produced ancient ceremonial robes (hi-
tatare) and a cotton fabric. It is intriguing to consider whether the painting of
the oat of the ship in triumphant returnan image of townspeople celebrat-
ing Empress Jings victorious return from Koreawas chosen specically be-
cause it provided a striking historic parallel to Tfukumonin. Like Jing,
Tfukumonin was an empress; furthermore, her natal family had established
as one of its prerogatives the sole right to conduct foreign diplomacy, and in
the early Edo period this consisted mainly of diplomacy with Korea. On an-
other level, this oat resembles a trading ship and may convey the pride of
Kyoto townspeople in the commercial ventures that had fueled the citys pros-
perity. Some of the beams used to construct ship oats were actually recycled
masts from boats conducting foreign trade. Such a message of civic pride would
have had a bittersweet, even critical, edge, however, because by the middle of
the seventeenth century the Tokugawa had radically restricted foreign trade,
limiting it mainly to Nagasaki.
Many merchant families of Kyoto suffered as a result of Tokugawa regula-
tions. The Suminokura, for example, found the termination of foreign trade
devastating to their business; by the end of the eighteenth century the family
had lost its fortune. Chaya enterprises were hard hit, too, especially when the
Tokugawa began buying fabric goods from Edo shops instead of the Chaya es-
tablishment in Kyoto. Tfukumonin supported several mercantile concerns
in Kyoto, as mentioned earlier, and her contacts with wealthy merchants are
documented in surviving artifacts and written records. Although her most ex-
tensive purchases appear to have been from a dry-goods shop, the Kariganeya,
run by the Ogata family, she also maintained contacts with other merchant
families.30 A pair of screens of Poetry Slips Attached to Cherry and Maple Trees
by Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691), either painted for the retired empress or given to
her later, testies to contacts between Tfukumonin and the Chayaone of
many cases of art being used to promote alliances and exchanges between var-
ious groups in early Edo Japan.31
The various regulations imposed by military overlordsToyotomi Hideyoshi
(1537 1598) in the late sixteenth century and then the Tokugawa shoguns in
the seventeenth centurymust have caused Kyoto townspeople to bristle. As
Mizuo Hiroshi explains, for prominent commoner families this was a time of
inexorable delivery into the hands of a repressive government during which
these townspeople undertook a silent clash with authority on an artistic bat-
tleeld with which the opponent was scarcely acquainted.32 That is to say,
wealthy citizens found opportunities to resist governmental incursions by means
of cultural practices. Commoners could break through class barriers by partic-
ipating in pilgrimages and festivals, where they might mingle with individuals
from a variety of backgrounds, or by forming poetic, artistic, and musical asso-
ciations in imitation of courtiers.

In the early Edo period, courtiers played an important role in disseminating
classical culture in the form of elegant pastimes (ygei) such as poetry compo-
sition, dance performance, and incense identication. Many courtiers taught
secret arts to cultural aspirants, both commoners and warriors, and while mem-
bers of the imperial family did not go so far as to pawn off the sacred rituals that
supposedly sustained the land, they were often swept up in this heady cross-
class cultural mix. Even the emperor fraternized with lowly commoners. A
number of records tell of Gomizunoo hosting parties at the palace attended by
people from various classes and backgrounds, especially in the early decades of
the seventeenth century.33 It is possible that Gomizunoo was trying to build
bridges by encouraging the participation of commoners in palace events
conceivably in order to resist Tokugawa restrictionswhich would lend polit-
ical implications to these social interactions.
Relations between the court and the shogunate were fraught with difcul-
ties. During the course of the early seventeenth century, the imperial house-
hold lost political ground until it was hamstrung and forced to play a periph-
eral role in state affairs. Although members of the court belonged to one of
several contingents left out of the four-class system imposed by the Tokugawa
regimewarriors (shi), peasants (n), artisans (k), and merchants (sh)they
were still understood to hold a privileged place in society. The court may not
have exerted as much practical political power as the shogunate, but in one
key way it was crucial: the emperor was the only person who could bestow the
exalted title of shogun upon the heir who assumed leadership of the Tokugawa
clan. Moreover, people across the land still apparently believed that an em-
peror alone could ministrate to divine imperial ancestors in seeking benecial
results for the nation. Even under a nonimperial government, the emperor pos-
sessed an age-old authority and the court held a sacred ritual continuity as a
kind of state church.34
Although Gomizunoo and Tfukumonin were by no means the rst em-
peror and empress stymied by warrior governments, they managed to operate
within a politically difcult environment and establish themselves as leaders of
Kyoto culture. Presumably it was no easy thing for Gomizunoo and Tfuku-
monin to cooperate with one another, especially in the early years of their
marriage. Not only was Gomizunoos reign marked by a series of frustrations as
the Edo overlords limited his functions, but Tfukumonins position at court
was precarious and many considered her a Tokugawa spy. Once she gave birth
to Princess Okiko (later Empress Meish; 1623 1696; r. 1629 1643), Tfuku-
monins lot apparently improved, and in 1624 she rose to the rank of chg.
Soon her status was to change again, however, when Gomizunoo abdicated
with bitter feelings in 1629.
After this, Tfukumonin repositioned herself as retired empress (ktaig).
She came to act less as a bridge between the Kyoto court and Edo regime and
more as a representative of the imperial family, although she still received gifts
from the Tokugawa and they still saw her as their woman at court. Tfuku-
moninwho gave birth to eight of the thirty-some children fathered by Gomi-
zunoodevoted much of the sizable endowment she had received from her
natal family to sustaining the imperial family, using the money to bolster court
prestige, to promote Kyoto culture, and to make a safe haven for herself in the
palace. As a major consumer of art and ne wares, Tfukumonin helped en-
sure the nancial success of many artisan and merchant enterprises in the an-
cient capital. Moreover, her backing of temple and shrine reconstruction proj-
ects in the 1630s and 1640s contributed to the revival of Kyoto as a religious
center. Tfukumonin thus played a key role in preserving Kyotos vitality and
sustaining traditional culture in the ancient capital. For their part, the Toku-
gawa too contributed to Kyotos prosperity as a cultural and religious center; for
instance, they undertook construction at Nij Castle, the shoguns administra-
tive seat in Kyoto, and Chionin, designated ancestral temple of Ieyasu in 1603.
A number of scholars have heralded commoner/courtier ties as a catalyst for
seventeenth-century classicism, but contacts between aristocrats and common-
ers were not entirely new. For more than a century, members of the artisan,
merchant, and aristocratic communities in Kyoto had formed alliances. In the
end, however, aristocrats were the elite and tended to retain this status. This
leaves us wondering how Tfukumonin herself conceived of classicism. Al-
though there is little documentary evidence to inform us of her thoughts, we
know that Tfukumonin was an inuential woman operating in a dynamic so-
cial environment. Certainly patronage of art was one of many tools she might
use to her advantage in struggles for authority and prestige.35 For an empress,
art that referred to a classical past would be particularly attractive because it
promoted a historical image of the imperial family as sovereign authorities.
Furthermore, artworks like Gion Floats that showed a vital, prospering popu-
lace and were displayed in an important palace setting conveyed the notion of
an imperial presence serving the common good.
Although the seventeenth-century court was not directly involved in spon-
soring the Gion oat parade, members of the court were clearly interested in
the colorful spectacle. A number of aristocrats regularly attended the Gion pa-
rade, as we learn from diary entries of the day, and they certainly remembered

that an emperor had long ago initiated the festival to protect the health of
Kyotos populace.36 More broadly, the festival aided cultural cohesion and re-
newed social order by making the old continuous with the new. As Herbert
Plutschow explains: As much as it merges present and past, the festival [in
Japan] is a timeless event. Reality, as we ordinarily experience it, dissolves. Peo-
ple come face to face with their gods; natural and supernatural merge into a di-
vine totality. Then communal life returns to its original source and vigor.37
For the imperial circle around Tfukumonin, scenes of Gion Floats spoke of
a timeless moment under an ideal social order: a classical moment. Because
Japanese artistic classicism is today dened in such narrow termsin fact, it
still generally adheres to the denition set a century ago as part of a modern
polemic in support of native Japanese artthe scenes have not previously been
described as classical. Yet Gion Floats does serve a classicizing function.
Conclusion
Despite challenges to their dominance, the Tokugawa managed to establish
their legitimacy as rulers through the course of the seventeenth century. While
this situation left the imperial household with little practical power, the court
did retain cultural capital. In 1677, when the doors of Gion Floats were in-
stalled in the newly decorated building that we know today as the Shugakuin
Reception Hall, Tfukumonin was seventy years old. By this point, just a year
before her death, she had seen three men from the Tokugawa family named
shogun. She had experienced numerous intrigues at court and ongoing vicissi-
tudes in her own position. From her childhood years as the daughter of the
shogun, she had advanced into adulthood as the wife of the emperor, then as
retired empress and cultural arbiter. Tfukumonin and Gomizunoo must have
realized that the imperial family could not regain the authority it had enjoyed
earlier in the century. Yet they could cherish the prestige that had long adhered
to them as designated protectors of classical culture and honorary promoters of
the common people. Thus even though memory of opposition to Tokugawa
hegemony was fading across the land, the retired empress had access to mark-
ers of distinctionindicating that authority was not maintained simply through
military or governmental regulation but also through access to age-old systems
of prestige concentrated at the court.
Once we consider the tensions that animated court/shogunate relations in
the seventeenth century and once we admit that Gion Float paintings could
serve functions beyond the decorative, we begin to recognize broad social im-
plications in these scenes. In fact, if we treat the Gion Float paintings solely as
conventionalized genre scenes, we miss both their inherent political content
and their classicizing function. Thus it is important to ask why modern schol-
ars did not bring these paintings into the canon of classical art. Modern schol-
ars who invented the concept of Heian classicism intended to shape an ideal-
ized notion of a timeless treasury of Japanese art, following Western notions of
canon formation, and to that end they ignored or erased the historically con-
tingent meanings in premodern art. In their estimation, only art that transcends
the political and social context in which it was created can serve a useful agenda
that is, only such forms can prove that Japanese artistic heritage is as rich
and valuable as that of the West. Now, however, Western art historians have
deated the modern myth of the canon, freeing Japanese art historians to ac-
knowledge the many and varied operations of classicism in Japanese art. By
recognizing the classical elements in Gion Floats and bringing works of this
sort into the discourse on seventeenth-century classicism, we can afrm the
historically and political contingent nature of imagery from Japans past.
Notes
My thanks to Laura Allen, Douglas Howland, Paul Jaskot, and Melanie Trede for read-
ing this chapter and offering valuable suggestions.
1. Tfukumonin was the daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada (15791632; r. 16051623),

second shogun of the Edo military regime, and Asai Tokuko (Ok, Sgenin; 1571
[1573?] 1626). At the time of her marriage, Tfukumonin was known by the name
Masako, also read Kazuko. To avoid confusion, I refer to her throughout this chapter
as Tfukumonin, the name she took when her husband retired from the throne.
2. For more on Tfukumonin see Takeda Tsuneo, Nihon o tsukutta hitobito 17 Tfu-
kumonin (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1980), and Kanagawa Kenritsu Hakubutsukan (KKH),
ed., Kanei no hana: Gomizunootei to Tfukumonin Masako (Tokyo: Kasumi Kaikan,
1996). In English see my Tfukumonin: Empress, Patron, and Artist, Womans Art
Journal 17(1) (Spring/Summer 1996):2834.
3. The Gion Float paintings are mentioned in a number of publications, but only in
a cursory fashion. See, for example, Kyoto Bunka Hakubutsukan, ed., Miyako no
miyabi: Kinsei no kytei bunkaten (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1988), gs. 1718.
4. According to reception theory, which emerged from literary studies, the readers
aesthetic response is as important as the authors intentand, because meaning is cre-
ated by the reader, it is specic to each act of reading. For more on reception theory and
art history see Wolfgang Kemp, The Work of Art and Its Beholder: The Methodology
and Aesthetics of Reception, in Mark A. Cheetham, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith
Moxey, eds., The Subjects of Art History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999), 180196. I thank Paul Jaskot for this reference.

5. See, for example, Takeda Tsuneo, Kinsei shoki fzokuga 12 Nihon no bijutsu (To-
kyo: Shibund), 2021.
6. For more see Matthew McKelway, Capitalscapes: Painting and Politics in 16
17th Century Japan (Ph.D. dissertation: Columbia University, 1999), 5987.
7. For more see Berry, The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto (Berkeley: University of Cal-
ifornia Press, 1994), 302 and 345, n. 8.
8. For more see Sandy Kita, The Last Tosa: Iwasa Katsumochi Matabei, Bridge to
Ukiyo-e (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), 175.
9. See Chino Kaori, Tenn-no-haha no tame no kaigaNanzenji hj no sh-
hekiga o megutte, in Chino Kaori, Suzuki Tokiko, and Mabuchi Akiko, eds., Biijutsu
to jendHitaish no shisen (Tokyo: Bruecke, 1997), 85128.
10. Some of these scenes supposedly were incorporated into the palace of Empress
Meish, who later donated them to the Emmanin of Onjji in Shiga. See Kyoto Na-
tional Museum, ed., Masterpieces of Kyoto National Museum (Kyoto: Kyoto Kokuritsu
Hakubutuskan, 1990), 79, pl. 60.
11. See Fujioka Michio, Shinch: Kyto gosho (Tokyo: Ch Kron Bijutsu Shup-
pan, 1987), 11.
12. Ibid., 212. The Gion Festival fusuma-e, which stood next to scenes of other Kyoto-
area sites like Uji and Kiyomizudera, are assigned to the painter Ysetsu.
13. Shrenin has four doors with Gion Floats similar to the Shugakuin door paintings
discussed here. For an illustration of one Shrenin door see Yamane Yz, Momoyama
Genre Painting, trans. John M. Shields (New York: Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1973), 176.
14. I thank Timothy Clark, Rosina Buckland, and Melanie Trede for bringing the
British Museum doors to my attention: the four painted doors (#1958.10-11-020-023;
Japanese painting ADD 367A)each with a single festival oat per sideare quite
similar to the Shugakuin painted doors.
15. Timothy Clark, curator in the Department of Japanese Antiquities at the British
Museum, informs me that inscriptions under the door frames indicate that the doors
come from Tfukumonins retirement palace.
16. See Hirotsuras Records of the Detached Villa at Shugakuin (Shugakuin riky shi),
cited in Moriya Sakur, ed., Miyako no riky (Tokyo: Kyodo News Service, 1983), 189.
17. See also Timothy Clark in Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Kazari: Decoration
and Display in Japan, 15th19th Centuries (London: British Museum Press, 2002), 285.
Among other scholars who attribute the paintings to Atsunobu is Yamane, Momoyama
Genre Painting, 164. Among those who attribute them to Gukei is Ishikawa Tadashi,
Kyto no riky (Tokyo: Hshob, 1966), 115. The door paintings of Gion Floats from
Shrenin are also attributed to Atsunobu or Gukei, as are scenes of Pine Beach on slid-
ing doors and panels (fusuma) from Shrenin. See Kagotani Machiko, Josei no chanoyu
(Kyoto: Tanksha, 1985), 9394.
18. The building was moved with other buildings to its present location by 1682;
Moriya, Miyako no riky, 186. It then served as a building in a princess compound and
later, after she took the tonsure, as the reception hall (kyakuden) of her nunnery, Rin-
kyji. Much later the building was incorporated into the middle garden of the Shu-
gakuin villa-and-garden complex. The Gion Float door paintings were removed from
the building in the twentieth century and are kept by the Imperial Household Agency,
Kyoto. Copies of the doors now stand in their place.
19. For more on festival origins see Yoneyama Toshinao, Gionsai (Tokyo: Ch
Kronsha, 1974), and Neil McMullin, On Placating the Gods and Pacifying the Pop-
ulace: The Case of the Gion Gory Cult, History of Religions 27(3) (February
1988):270 293. Some scholars interpret the Gion Festival differently; Takahara Yoshi-
tada maintains that the festival was dedicated to gods of childbirth (ubukami); see Taka-
hara, Yasaka jinja (Tokyo: Gakugeisha, 1987), 3035 and 174202.
20. Kamei Wakana, Suntory bijutsukanz Hie sann-Gion sairei-zu bybu no sei-
saku ito: Kyto to mi o miru manazashi, Kokka 1238 (December 1998):10.
21. Berry, The Culture of Civil War, 217.
22. McKelway, Capitalscapes, 7071.
23. Kamei, Suntory bijutsukanz Hie sann-Gion sairei-zu bybu, 316.
24. Although the Suntory screens are not signed or dated, Kamei bases her attribution
on similarities between these screens and the Illustrated Handscroll of the Origin of the
Kuwanomi Temple (Kuwanomidera engi emaki) painted by Mitsumochi in 1532. See
Kamei, Suntory bijutsukanz Hie sann-Gion sairei-zu bybu, 316.
25. Hayashiya Tatsusabur, Machish: Kyto ni okeru shimin keiseishi 59 Ch
shinsho (Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1964), 130.
26. Berry, The Culture of Civil War, 210241.
27. For mid-eighteenth-century illustrations of these oats see Kyto Gion-eKodai
yamaboko zufu, in Tanaka Yasuhiko, ed., Miyako meisho zue to Gion yamaboko
(Tokyo: Iwazaki Bijutsusha, 1990), 77112.
28. Futaki Ken, Gione onari, in Chsei buke no girei kenky (Tokyo: Yoshikawa
Kbunkan, 1985).
29. Residents on the Chayas block, between Nishikikoji and Takoyakushi streets,
sponsored the minami kannonyama oat, a type not illustrated on Gion Floats. See
E. S. Crawcour, Changes in Japanese Commerce in the Tokugawa Period, in John
W. Hall and Marius B. Jansen, eds., Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern
Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), 192193.
30. For more on Tfukumonin and the Kariganeya see Yamane Yz, Konishike
kyzo: Krin kankei shiry to sono kenky (Tokyo: Ch Kron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1962).
31. A lost document composed in 1698 once accompanied the screens (which are
today in the Art Institute of Chicago) and related that Tfukumonin gave this work to
Chaya Shirjir (dates unknown). See Narazaki Muneshige, Tosa Mitsuoki hitsu ka
Fju-zu bybu, Kokka (December 1957):393396. For an illustration see Carolyn Wheel-
wright, ed., Word in Flower (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1989), g. 59.
32. Mizuo, Edo Painting, 55 and 66.
33. See, for example, records of palace oral exhibitions held in 1629; Yamane Yz,
ed., Ikebana bijutsu zensh 10 Senk no rikka (Tokyo: Sheisha, 1982).
34. Herschel Webb, The Japanese Imperial Institution in the Tokugawa Period (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1968), 136.
35. Only a few surviving documents report directly on Tfukumonins thoughts. Per-
haps most revealing are nine letters assigned to her hand, although Tfukumonin
makes no mention of art or classicism in these letters.
36. No known diary entries specify whether the imperial couple joined the festival
audience. One nobleman who mentions the Gion Festival is Hrin Jsh (15931668),
abbot of Rokuonji and uncle of Gomizunoo. Entries in his diary, the Kakumeiki, indi-
cate that he went to view the festival often, watching the procession from homes along

the parade route among people from a variety of backgrounds. See Kakumeiki, in
Hayashiya Tatsusabur, ed., Shiry taikei: Nihon no rekishi 4 Kinsei (Osaka: saka
Shoseki, 1979), 105, 238, and 385. For more see Iwama Kaori, Gion-e to Kaih Y-
setsu, in Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no netto-
wku (Kyto: Shibunkaku, 1988), 149156.
37. Herbert Plutschow, Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon
Press, 1996), 3031.
Afterword
Quitman Eugene Phillips
The essays in this volume reveal both the advantages and the disadvantages in-
herent in the topic Classicism in Japanese Art of the Early Edo Period. The
notion of a classical revival in the seventeenth century has a venerable aca-
demic pedigree and considerable support from visual evidence. A great many
seventeenth-century paintings and works of craft decoration contain images
derived from famous works of Japanese literature broadly labeled as classical.
Scenes from The Tale of Genji and owering plants celebrated in imperial po-
etry anthologies, for example, make frequent appearances. Most of the works
of visual art in question also share stylistic features with related works from the
Heian period (794 1185), which has long been considered the golden age of
classical literature. Nonetheless, scholarly pedigree and visual evidence may
deect us from important questions. Why focus so intently on one sort of art in
a period of great diversity? What distinguishes the art of the seventeenth cen-
tury so dramatically from that of the sixteenth? Do standard explanations of
contexts and causes stand up to close scrutiny? It is not surprising, then, that a
questioning, revisionist spirit has guided the writing of many of these chapters.
In its classic formulation by Hayashi Tatsusabur and others, the notion of a
classical revival in the seventeenth century is founded on three premises. The
rst is that the classical in Japan can be identied with the art and taste of the
imperial court, especially in the Heian period. In painting, Heianistic art is
identied with yamato-e, paintings that are distinguished not only by their
Japanese themes but also by stylistic features that can be thought of as partic-
ularly Japanese; relative atness and bright mineral pigments are two of the
more important. The second premise is that the arts served the ideological needs
of Kyoto machishan afliation of courtiers, merchants, and elite craftsmen
in Kyoto who rebelled (culturally) against the authority of the Tokugawa. Pro-
moting classicism was a way for the cultural leaders in Kyoto to claim distinc-
tion, and the works of Ketsu and Statsu, in particular, served their ideologi-
cal needs. The third premise is that the classical had languished through much
of the medieval period and been taken up once more as a vital element of cul-
ture. The term classicism implies a revival, and equivalents of classical re-
vival appear in the early writings on early Edo classicism (see the Introduc-
tion). The strength of the three-premise formulation is that it meets even the
most stringent criteria for designating a period of classicism or classical revival:
a height of achievement was reached and lost; a revival occurred in a later pe-
riod; that revival occurred ostensibly as a corrective to recent ills and as a
means of claiming virtue and authority.
The great weakness of the formulation is the shaky ground upon which these
three premises rest. In her Introduction, Elizabeth Lillehoj points out to what
degree both a Japanese classical period and later revivals are constructs and
preoccupations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which they have
served contemporary ideological needs. She also notes that the Heian period
and its literature and art have not always been dened as classical. In Chapter 1,
Melanie Trede directly confronts the relationships among canon formation,
classicism, and relations of power. Satoko Tamamushi touches on these mat-
ters as well in Chapter 2. Other chapters offer particular challenges to one or
more of the three premises underlying the work of Hayashi and others.
Karen Gerhart (Chapter 6) and Elizabeth Lillehoj (Chapter 7) clearly chal-
lenge the rst premisethat the Japanese classical can be identied unprob-
lematically with Heianism. Gerhart reminds us that Japan has long had two
deeply admired pasts (real or imagined). Throughout most of its history, Japa-
nese culture clearly depended on an easy acceptance of the Chinese past as a
legitimate part of its heritage. The Kano paintings for Tokugawa buildings that
Gerhart discusses are, in many ways, almost ideal examples of the sort of clas-
sicism emphasized by Trede: the forms and iconography associated with a
golden past were taken up by those in power (the Tokugawa) as a demonstra-
tion of cultural authority. In her study of Gion Festival pictures, Lillehoj offers
a more subtle challenge by questioning the boundaries even of yamato-e. In
the seventeenth century, the imperial court in Japan was not simply a piece of
ancient history, as in the cases of Greece and Rome in Western classicism, but
part of the living present. Likewise the Gion Festival was born from ancient
imperial sponsorship but had evolved under merchant patronage. Were paint-
ings of its contemporary manifestation, if commissioned by a current empress,
an example of classicism? The many ways one can answer this question com-
plicates the entire issue of Japanese classicism.
The second premisethat a classical revival served the ideological needs of
the Kyoto machish, a group out of powerreceives both direct and indirect
208 Quitman Eugene Phillips

challenges in several chapters. In Chapter 1, Trede emphasizes, on a theoreti-
cal basis, that classicism frequently serves the interests of those in power; in
Chapter 6, Gerhart provides examples of a classicism that operates in exactly
this fashion. Even in the case of Heianistic works, Keiko Nakamachi (Chap-
ter 3) and Joshua Mostow (Chapter 5) investigate examples of elite warrior,
even Tokugawa, patronage and thereby reveal the machish-only notion to be
a great oversimplication. Of course, classicism need not be identied solely
as a tool of cultural oppression wielded by those in power (Tredes etymologi-
cal arguments notwithstanding). Classical forms can be taken up in a spirit of
reform or resistance to the cultural norms of the ruling group, as the second
premise suggests. Moreover, as Lillehoj notes, the same works can be put to
different ideological uses. A revival that began in Kyoto in response to the ma-
chishs underlying sense of unease over its powerlessness could easily have led
to the production of objects that appealed to their oppressors for quite differ-
ent reasons. Moreover, the involvement of the nobility in cultural production,
whatever its deeper implications, meant that members of the court were doing
exactly what the Tokugawa wanted them to be doing: operating in the cultural
rather than political eld. Obviously the authors have broken new ground for
a potentially rich and complex eld of investigation.
At least one of the authors addresses the otherwise ignored third premise
that the classical had languished before the seventeenth century. If treated as a
rigorous historical proposition, the topic of the conference implies that classi-
cal motifs and aesthetics played an especially large and ideologically critical
role in the art and culture of the early Edo period, especially in comparison to
what came just before in the sixteenth century. In her conclusion, Tamamushi
indicates that such may very well not have been the case at all. She directs at-
tention to the yamato-e of the Muromachi period, the study of which has our-
ished over the last two decades and more. What, then, makes the early Edo pe-
riod in particular a time of classicism? To answer this question one must begin
by taking to heart an important point of historical methodology raised by Eliz-
abeth Berry at the Sanwa Symposium: only systematic research in a compara-
tive vein can determine whether or not an observed cultural phenomenon has
historical signicance. Without question, colorful screens, portraits of classical
poets, illustrations of The Tale of Genji, and so forth survive in much greater
numbers from the seventeenth century, but so too do pictures of every other
sort. The Pax Tokugawa, instituted in the Edo period, ended the civil strife
that had regularly reduced buildings and the objects they contained to ashes.
If most of the authors of this volume have ignored one aspect of classicism,
Afterword 209
they have certainly given their full attention to others. They have shown that
the classical in Japan cannot be so easily limited to Heianistic forms and
motifs. They have also shown that no one social group supplied the patrons for
such works. It is perhaps up to medievalists such as myself to carry their work
forward and conduct comparative research between the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries. In the meantime, I would like to change directions and re-
ect more directly on the fundamental question of how viable classicism is
as a concept in the study of Japanese culture.
Most of the chapters in this volume quite reasonably treat classicism as a
sort of thematic umbrella for valuable studies of specic topics. They investi-
gate topics as diverse as the paintings of Statsu and printed images of the
Hundred Poets, One Poem Each. Three authors make important contributions
to our understanding of the role of gender. Laura Allen relates her material to
the education of women. Joshua Mostow suggests that poet-pictures served as
prayers for peace and that their production was often connected to the forging of
alliances through giving women in marriage. Finally, Elizabeth Lillehoj shows
how one such woman could reshape her circumstances to suit her own agenda,
especially through her patronage activities. These are extremely valuable con-
tributions to our eld. But in looking to the future, I would like to argue for a
more rigorous denition of classicism.
Lillehoj and others note that the idea of a Japanese classical past and periods
of classical revival emerged only in the late nineteenth century with the likes
of Fenollosa and Okakura. The goal of these Meiji gures was clearly to pro-
vide the equivalent of Western-style cultural authority to an emerging modern
nation-state, and they identied the classical in Japan with Buddhist art of the
late seventh and eighth centuries. Those paintings, buildings, and statues placed
Japan within a Pan-Asian context and made Japan the most recent heir to the
past glories of the Asian continent. The Gupta period in India, the Tang dy-
nasty in China, and the Nara period in Japan provided defensible equivalents
to the grandeur that was Rome, and the works themselves approximated the
proportional harmony and sense of restraint associated with the best works of
ancient Greece and Rome. As we have seen, scholars of Japanese art history
later turned to a more distinctively nativist construction of the classical in Ja-
pan as parallel to that in literature: one centered on the art of the imperial court
of the Heian period. Although this change liberated the Japanese classical from
a Eurocentric construction of value, it left it in a theoretically debilitated state
as the connections between aesthetics and ideology largely dissolved.
It is telling that the essayists in this volume have not placed much empha-

sis on formal elements as criteria for identifying classicizing works. Instead
themes and motifs dominate. Without question, Western classicism generally
entails iconographic references to the classical past. The stately columns of the
classical architectural orders and narratives from classical mythology have
their place as overt signs of a classicist orientation. But the visual foundation of
classicism in the West also contains a set of fairly well dened aesthetic prin-
ciples. A work of classical art, whether a statue, such as the Doryphoros, or a
building, such as the Parthenon, or even a piece of literature, is thought to share
the rational properties of classical aesthetics: logic, clarity, and restraint. These
visual ideals of classicism separate it from the general deployment of classical
forms and gures, which abound as regular visual currency in the history of
Western art, at least since the beginning of the Renaissance. Rubens (1577
1640) may have painted innumerable gures from Greek mythology, but he
did so in his own, decidedly unclassicizing, manner, while Poussin (1594
1665) reveals his classicism even in his landscapes.
In Western contexts, it is the adoption of classical aesthetics, not the casual
or selective deployment of classical motifs, that represents an act of classicism
because it connotes a serious ideological commitment, not just simple nostal-
gia. Ideologies emerge and develop in opposition to one another. Specically,
Western classicism presents a case for timeless principles of order generally in
opposition to the novel and the eccentric. Does some similar link between aes-
thetics and ideology justify continued use of the term classicism in the Jap-
anese context? Ironically, the most direct parallel appears in the painting proj-
ects discussed by Gerhart. Such Kano non-Heianistic works are noted for their
restraint and clarity of composition and were painted for a regime intent on es-
tablishing principles of stability and order after a long period of upheaval. The
aesthetic/ideological links in Japanese classicism need not correspond in such
a straightforward way to those in the West, however. It is only important that
links exist.
One could suggest links that are very distinctive of Japanese culture. One
could propose, for example, that sensitivity to transience in nature and life or
even keen aesthetic discernment are age-old marks of the superior person in
Japanese culture and that their expression was brought to a certain pinnacle in
the Heian period. One could then point to all sorts of motifs and bits of narra-
tive content that express these ideals. With greater effort, one might even de-
scribe an appropriate set of formal properties or aesthetic principles that em-
body such ideals. The usual qualities ascribed to yamato-ebright mineral
pigments, limited interest in the third dimension, and so forthoffer some
Afterword 211
possibilities. As in classical poetry, there is an abstracted quality to the pictures
that give a sense of intimate emotional engagement with a eeting world rather
than careful observation and reporting. Further investigation of this link, or in-
vestigation of better ones, would go a long way toward making classicism a
truly productive concept in the study of Japanese art history.
The chapters in this book not only offer new insights into the art of the early
Edo period but also clearly point to protable new directions for research. One
direction is toward carefully balanced, comparative studies between the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries. Another is toward further investigation of
the relationship between aesthetics and ideology in the seventeenth century.
We can only be grateful to Elizabeth Lillehoj and Laura Allen, along with all
the contributors, who have taken us so far.

Appendix: Artists and Schools
Honami K oetsu (15581637): multitalented artist from a Kyoto artisan family. A promi-
nent calligrapher, he was known as one of the Three Brushes of the Kanei Era; he
also painted and designed works in lacquer and ceramic. Modern historians of art have
praised Ketsu, along with Tawaraya Statsu, as a founder of Rimpa and a leader of the
cultural renaissance in seventeenth-century Kyoto. The artistic rapport between Ketsu
and Statsu is evident in the poem sheets (shikishi) with Ketsus calligraphy and
Statsus painting. In the century or so after their death, Ketsu was acclaimed but
Statsu was less highly recognizedfor example, Asaoka Okisada (1800 1856) in his
Handbook of Classical Painting (Koga bik; ca. 1851) ranked Ketsu above Statsu and
later Rimpa artists. See also Rimpa.
Igarashi Doho (ca. 1643 1678): Kyoto lacquerer who moved to Kaga (part of present-
day Ishikawa prefecture) to work for the Maeda warrior clan and played a key role in de-
veloping a distinctive lacquer form known as Kaga maki-e. The Igarashi family had spe-
cialized in lacquerware production for generations; their founder, Shinsai (. 1434
1490), apparently worked for the Ashikaga shoguns.
Iwasa Matabei (1578 1650): painter who frequently chose classical courtly themes.
Matabei has been described alternatively as a Tosa artist, a Kano artist, and the founder
of ukiyo-e (pictures of the oating world). Some scholars compare Matabei to Statsu
as a participant in a yamato-e revival, whereas others characterize Matabei as a painter
who bridged court and commoner audiences. In part it was Matabeis originality in
treating classical themes that has led to an interest in his unique position in early-Edo-
period circles of art.
Kano school or atelier: hereditary lineage of artists founded in the Muromachi period
by Kano Masanobu (14341530), enlarged by his son Motonobu (14761559), and con-
tinuing into the nineteenth century. The Muromachi Kano painters were heavily de-
pendent on Chinese themes and styles, but they often worked in a yamato-e manner, as
well, as did later Kano artists. In the Edo period, multiple lineages of artists training
under Kano masters emerged. The Tokugawa shogunal government employed a num-
ber of prominent Kano artists; regional lords employed others; in addition, low-ranking
town painters sometimes received Kano training.
Kano Atsunobu (1640 1718): painter; son of Kano Sosen Nobumasa; third head of
the Saruyamachi Kano line. Along with Sumiyoshi Gukei, he is often credited with
painting the set of Gion Festival Floats on doors installed in palace halls of Empress
Tfukumonin.
Kano Eino (16311697): painter; follower and son of Kano Sansetsu; third head of the
Kyoto Kano line of painters; author of A History of Painting in This Realm (Honch gashi).
Kano Ikkei (15991662): painter; son of Kano Naizen; student of Kano Mitsunobu; au-
thor of the Biographies of Japanese Painters (Tansei jakubokush).
Kano Sanraku (15591635): painter; adopted son and student of Kano Eitoku; leader of
the atelier of Kyoto Kano (Ky Kano) painters. Unlike other Kano branches, they re-
mained in Kyoto and, after Sanraku, were led by Sansetsu (1589 1651), Ein (1631
1697), and Eiki (16621702).
Kano Tanyu (1602 1674): painter; son of Kano Takanobu. Of all the seventeenth-
century artists, his work was most canonical in its day, as well as later in the Edo period.
Tany studied in Kyoto under Kano Ki (ca. 1569 1636) but left for Edo perhaps as
early as 1617, complying with a Tokugawa request that he serve as goy eshi. He was later
appointed oku eshi. Tany supervised a crew of artists on numerous major projects in-
cluding the ornamentation of several palatial Tokugawa residences and the Kyoto im-
perial palace. These projects reveal Tanys strong inheritance from earlier Kano styles,
making them classically Kano. Some of Tanys work was meant for elite public
spaces and adheres to a formal Chinese mode, but other works, like his Tale of Genji
screens, are painted in a yamato-e manner.
Kano Yasunobu (1613 1685): painter; son of Kano Takanobu; student of Kano Ki;
adopted as heir of the main Kano house after the death of Sadanobu (1597 1623). In
the late 1630s or early 1640s, the Tokugawa appointed him goy eshi and he moved to
Edo. Yasunobu painted at the imperial palace, as well as in Zen temples. He was the
author of the Private Guidelines for the Way of Painting (Gad yketsu).
Konoe Nobutada (15651614): prominent Kyoto aristocrat and calligrapher; one of the
Three Brushes of the Kanei Era. Widely acclaimed for his skillful refashioning of
Japanese-style (way) calligraphy, he developed an individual calligraphic manner
based on native courtly models and Chinese models. Nobutada also painted abbrevi-
ated images of divine and legendary gures with bold brushwork in ink; these paintings
can be called classical in that they adopt traditional subjects of painting and pay hom-
age to an earlier style: the Muromachi-period style of Zen ink painting.
Kuwayama Gyokushu (17431799): painter; student of Ike no Taiga (17231776); mem-

ber of the Kansai-area circle of Nanga artists. Gyokush was the author of Humble
Words on Matters of Painting (Kaiji higen; published in 1799). See also Nanga.
Nanga: indigenous Japanese school of literati painting. Not really a formal school, ate-
lier, or lineage, like the Kano or Tosa schools, this was an informal network of painters
who claimed to share a common understanding of their art. Supposedly they based
their art on amateur literati painting of China, known as Southern school painting (C:
nan-tsung hua; J: nanga) and as scholar-gentlemens painting (C: wen-jen hua; J: bun-
jinga), but their art was actually a synthesis of Northern and Southern school paintings
by artists of Ming and Qing-dynasty China. Although Nanga in Japan is markedly dif-
ferent in appearance from other Japanese styles of painting, there is no single, consis-
tent Nanga style. In some cases it is amateurish like certain Chinese literati art; in other
cases it is closer to a professional Chinese manner.
Nonomura Ninsei (d. ca. 1694): Kyoto ceramic artist. Ninseis overglaze polychrome
enamel wares (iro-e tki) became famous for their gorgeous designs, widely understood
as a reection of courtly Kyoto aesthetics.
214 Appendix
Ogata Kenzan (16631743): multitalented artist of Kyoto; brother of Krin. He studied
ceramic design under Nonomura Ninsei.
Ogata K orin (1658 1716): painter acclaimed as a leading artist of Rimpa; brother of
Kenzan. His familys shop, the Kariganeyawhich had prospered early in the Edo pe-
riod as one of the leading dry-goods stores in the countrywas forced to close its doors
due to poor business in his lifetime. Later, to cover his expenses, Krin turned to paint-
ing. Seeking clients for his work, he made several round trips between Kyoto and Edo
in the years from 1704 to 1709. See also Rimpa.
Rimpa (school of K orin): group of artists in several generationsseparated by gaps in

timewho shared certain stylistic approaches but did not necessarily work in the same
studio or belong to the same family. In this respect, Rimpa differed from most artistic
schools of the Edo period. The rst generation of Rimpa artists is commonly identied
as Honami Ketsu (15581637) and Tawaraya Statsu (d. 1643?), both important to the
study of so-called classicism in seventeenth-century art. The term Rimpa is mislead-
ing in that it suggests there was a formal school of artists working under Ogata Krin
(1658 1716). Although inuential, Krin did not found the style; he was born over a
decade after the death of Statsu and was heavily indebted to Statsus work. Often
Rimpa is described as a decorative styleindicating a tendency for graphic qualities
such as extensive use of rich colors and gold or silver, asymmetric compositions, and
planar use of space. Some but not all Rimpa works display these qualities.
Sakai Hoitsu (17611828): painter of Rimpa and admirer of Krin; from a warrior fam-
ily, lords of Kzuke province (present-day Gumma prefecture).
Shokado Shojo (15841639): Shinto-Shingon priest and prominent Kyoto calligrapher;

one of the Three Brushes of the Kanei Era. He was praised for his creative interpre-
tation of Japanese-style (way) calligraphy, which was based on native and Chinese
models. Shj painted abbreviated images of divine and legendary gures in ink with
bold brushwork inspired by earlier Zen paintings.
Sumiyoshi school or atelier: lineage of painters founded in 1663 when Emperor Gosai
(16371685; r. 16541663) appointed Tosa Hiromichi (later Sumiyoshi Jokei) to be the
ofcial painter at Sumiyoshi Shrine and permitted him to separate from the Tosa fam-
ily and form his own lineage. The Sumiyoshi painters were known for miniaturist paint-
ings in a richly colored yamato-e manner.
Sumiyoshi Gukei (16311705): painter; son of Sumiyoshi Jokei; served as oku eshi from
1685. Along with Kano Atsunobu, he is often credited with painting the set of Gion Fes-
tival Floats on doors installed in palace halls of Empress Tfukumonin.
Sumiyoshi Jokei (15991670): painter. Known early in his career as Tosa Hiromichi, he
changed his name after taking the tonsure. He was conscripted by the Tokugawa to
paint for them and was later appointed goy eshi.
Tawaraya S osetsu (. mid-seventeenth century): painter and successor of Tawaraya

Statsu. He served the Maeda family, feudal lords in the region of Kanazawa, and was
named hokky in the 1640s.
Tawaraya S otatsu (d. 1643?): painter whose birth and death dates are not clear. He is
thought to have used seals reading Taiseiken and Inen, and he is referred to as
Appendix 215
Tawaraya Statsu due to the name of his shop, the Tawaraya. Some scholars believe
that Inen was a trademark of Statsus shop. Although the artists birthplace is uncer-
tain, he typically is described as a resident of Kyoto and as a member of the machish,
the active merchant class in Kyoto. Scholars believe that the court granted Statsu the
title of hokky by 1630. Statsu is central to modern scholarship on early Edo classicism
in art. According to a modern appraisal, Statsu and Honami Ketsu were the founders
of Rimpa. In the century after his death, Statsu was largely overlooked, or forgotten, or
confused with Ogata Krin, and he was only rediscovered early in the modern era.
Soon thereafter he was elevated in the public eye, called a genius, and declared a star
of the classical revival. The art of Statsu and Ketsu has occupied an undeniably im-
portant place in the historical consciousness of modern Japan, but modern writers and
connoisseurs have at times implied that Statsu and Ketsu rediscovered yamato-e on
their own. Modern enthusiasts also have suggested that Statsu and Ketsu formulated
uniquely Japanese styles when in fact the two drew from a variety of native and foreign
sources. See also Rimpa.
Tosa school or atelier: leading professional lineage of painters founded in the early
Muromachi period. In many respects, they were the inheritors and preservers of native
styles of painting begun in the Heian period. At times Tosa art is treated as the most clas-
sical of all Edo art if only because of the many Tosa paintings of Heian courtly scenes. At
other times, Tosa art is treated as synonymous with court art in that the court provided
a natural home for classicism. To some extent, this appraisal is justied due to the
signicant role of court sponsorship in sustaining the Tosa school as well as the central-
ity of classical yamato-e to Tosa painting. This appraisal, however, underestimates the
variety of styles employed by Tosa artists.
Tosa Mitsumochi (. ca. 15201560): painter; served as edokoro azukari and head of the
Tosa school. Mitsumochi is best known for his work on the (Illustrated Handscroll of the
Origins of Kuwanomi Temple) (Kuwanomidera engi emaki), made for the twelfth shogun
of the Muromachi period, Ashikaga Yoshiharu (15111550).
Tosa Mitsunari (1646 1710): painter; son of Tosa Mitsuoki; edokoro azukari and head
of the Tosa school from 1681 to 1710.
Tosa Mitsunori (1583 1638): painter; son and student of Tosa Mitsuyoshi. Under Mi-
tsunori, the Tosa atelier returned to Kyoto after having been located in Sakai for several
decades; apparently this move was made on the invitation of Emperor Gomizunoo (1596
1680; r. 1611 1629).
Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691): painter; son and student of Tosa Mitsunori; edokoro azukari
from 1654 to 1681. Mitsuoki often depicted courtly scenes that are meticulously nished
in color, indicating a debt to Muromachi-period yamato-e, but he drew from other
sources as well. His many paintings of owers-and-birds, especially quail, are patterned
after Song academic painting. Mitsuoki also established a reputation as a connoisseur
of painting, and late in life he composed a treatise on art, the Ofcial Summary of Paint-
ing Rules of This Realm (Honch gah taiden).
216 Appendix
Glossary
bakufu (tent government): military government headed by a shogun. A new bakufu was
established in the early seventeenth century by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542 1616) and
headquartered at Edo (present-day Tokyo). In earlier periods, bakufu were overseen
by the Minamoto family (Kamakura era, 1185 1333) and later by the Ashikaga fam-
ily (Muromachi era, 13331573).
biwa: four-stringed lute that is strummed with a large plectrum.
bybu: folding screen; a common format for painting in Japan.
chnin (block residents): townspeople; in the Edo period, this included people from the
artisan and merchant classes.
chg: the highest rank a woman could attain while married to a reigning emperor.
daimyo (daimy): major warrior lords whose holdings reached 10,000 kokuefs
awarded by the shogunal government. Of these daimyo, lords of Tokugawa branch
houses (gosanke, gosanky) and collateral houses (shimpan) held an eminent posi-
tion in Edo society, followed in descending order through the hereditary vassals
(fudai) and warriors of the great outside houses (tozama).
edokoro: painting bureau. At the imperial court, an atelier known as the edokoro had
been in existence since at least the ninth century, producing paintings for private and
ofcial commissions. In later centuries, such ofces were also sponsored by major
temples and shrines, military governments, and retired emperors.
edokoro azukari: chief artist and director of the ofcial painting bureau of the imperial
court. Starting in the twelfth century, the head of the edokoro was typically the leader
of a family of professional painters. From the mid-fteenth century, heads of the Tosa
school held the esteemed position of edokoro azukari at court. But after Tosa Mitsu-
moto (. 1530 1569) was killed in battle, Tosa Mitsuyoshi (1539 1613) apparently
moved the Tosa school to Sakai and Kano artists assumed leadership of the imperial
painting bureau. Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691) restored the position of edokoro azukari
to the Tosa school in 1654. In naming their own edokoro azukari, Tokugawa military
lords appointed leaders of the Kano family of painters and later Sumiyoshi family
painters.
Fenollosa, Ernest (18531908): Harvard-trained professor teaching philosophy and eco-

nomics in Japan from 1878. Along with Okakura Kakuz, he initiated a scholarly ex-
ploration of ancient Japanese arts, cataloging treasures in a series of art surveys of the
Nara-Kyoto area and encouraging Japanese artists to return to their roots. In 1889,
they participated in the founding of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (Tky Bijutsu
Gakk), which specialized in a curriculum of traditional Japanese arts.
Fukko yamato-e (revival yamato-e): early-nineteenth-century movement to revive styles
and themes of painting favored by the imperial court, especially in the Heian and Ka-
makura periods.
fusuma: sliding doors and panels; a common format for painting in Japan. Constructed
on a wooden frame covered with thick paper, fusuma often separate rooms or hide
shelves and storage spaces.
fzokuga: illustrations of everyday life, often identied as one branch of evolving

yamato-e. The term was coined in the Meiji period (18681912) to translate the West-
ern term genre painting. Although scholars disagree over when genre painting fully
emerged, scenes of everyday life appear as details in larger paintings as early as the
Heian period. Around the sixteenth century, genre scenes became an exclusive focus
in works of art.
gaj: album; a common format for painting in Japan.
Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji): lengthy novel ascribed to Murasaki Shikibu (ca.
978ca. 1016) and acclaimed as a classic of court literature since the thirteenth cen-
tury. The leading character is a handsome, artistically gifted courtier named Genji,
also known as The Shining Prince.
Genji-e: illustrations of The Tale of Genji.
Gion Festival: festival rst held in Kyoto in 869 with a procession to appease spirits
blamed for plagues, specically the god Gozu Tenn. Because plagues typically oc-
curred in hot, humid weather, the Gion Festival was held in midsummer. Although
festival activities now extend through July, they were formerly held in the sixth month
with a welcoming of the gods palanquins on the seventh day, a farewell to the palan-
quins on the fourteenth day, and a parade of oats on the seventeenth day of that
month.
goy eshi: ofcial painters to the bakufu, typically provided with a salary. In the sixteenth
century, painters of the Kano school served as the salaried employees of leading mil-
itary lords. Some scholars, however, use the term goy eshi to refer to the Kano
painters after Kano Tany, when the position was clearly dened in the governmen-
tal system.
Gozu Tenn (Skt: Gavagriva): bull-headed king of the devas, a deity of Indian origin
who served as the patron god of the Jetavana monastery (J: Gion Shja). People con-
sidered Gozu Tennone of many spiteful spirits (onry)responsible for both
causing and preventing disease. Thus the Gion Festival revolves around a meeting
with a revered spirit (gory-e).
haiku: short verses of seventeen syllables arranged in a 575 pattern; based on linked
verse (renga) of the Muromachi period. In the Edo period, these were commonly
light verse.
Heike monogatari (Tale of the Heike): narrative composed in the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries concerning the protracted twelfth-century struggle between the
Taira and Minamoto clans.
218 Glossary
Heike nky (Sutra scrolls of the Taira family): set of handscrolls preserved at Itsu-
kushima Shrine. The set was originally produced in the Heian period and included
segments of painting, some of which were restored in 1602, supposedly by Tawaraya
Statsu (d. 1643?).
hengaku: votive plaques often displayed in Shinto shrines; a format for painting in Japan.
hokky (Bridge of the Law): honoric title deriving from a Buddhist phrase. Originally
applied to priests, the title was later given to Buddhist artists as well. The lowest of
three ranks for artists in later centuries, it followed the higher ranks of hgen
(Dharma Eye) and hin (Dharma Seal).
hoko: type of Shinto oat. With a long pole or halberd rising from a peaked roof, pa-
raded through Kyoto streets at a high point in the Gion Festival. Largest of these are
the mountain oats (yamaboko), measuring about 25 meters in height and weighing
about 12 tons. Floats typically carried a few actors or dolls and a group of hayashi mu-
sicians numbering up to forty performers.
Hyakunin isshu (One hundred poets, one poem each): collection of verse compiled in
the thirteenth century by Fujiwara no Teika.
iro-e tki: ceramic wares decorated with overglaze polychrome enamels. In the seven-
teenth century, many of these wares were produced under the direction of Nono-
mura Ninsei (d. ca.1694) at the Omuro kiln near Ninnaji in Kyoto.
Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise): collection of waka poems with narrative prefaces arranged
as 125 episodes. Although the authors and date of Tales of Ise are not known, it is be-
lieved that the poems were composed in the ninth and tenth centuries. The central
gure is a handsome courtier, often identied as the historical gure Ariwara no Na-
rihira (825880), who becomes involved in numerous love affairs.
Jing: empress and wife of Emperor Chai (r. ca. 192200). Supposedly this shamaness-
queen took command of Chais forces after his death and led them in a victorious
invasion of a Korean kingdom. Although accounts of Jings exploitsrecounted in
Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki; 712) and Chronicles of Japan (Nihon shoki; 720)
are largely ctitious, Japan did exert considerable military inuence on the Korean
peninsula in the century after her death.
kachga: pictures of owers-and-birds; a common subject in Japanese painting.
kakemono: hanging scroll; a common format for painting in Japan.
Kakumeiki (Dividing plant record): diary kept between 1635 and 1668 by Hrin Jsh
(15931668), abbot of Rokuonji in northwestern Kyoto. Hrin was the uncle of Em-
peror Gomizunoo (15961680; r. 16111629) and had many aristocratic connections.
kanazshi jokun: didactic books for women with texts printed in Japanese script, often
accompanied by illustrations.
Kanei bunka (Kanei culture): term coined by Japanese cultural historians to refer to a
phase that extended one or two decades before and after the Kanei era (16241644),
roughly the rst half of the seventeenth century.
Glossary 219
Kanei no sanpitsu (Three Brushes of the Kanei Era): the three leading calligraphers of
the seventeenth centuryKonoe Nobutada (1565 1614), Shkad Shj (1584
1639), and Honami Ketsu (15581637). This term draws upon a classical precedent,
the Three Brushes of the Heian Period (Heian sanpitsu).
kanga (Han painting): term that came into widespread use in the Muromachi period.
Despite its literal meaning, it does not refer to Chinese painting of the Han dynasty
(206 b.c.220); instead it refers to paintings based on models from the Song dynasty
(9601279) and the Yuan dynasty (12791368). The term kanga was introduced to
differentiate colorful Tang-style court painting from Song and Yuan-style works.
kara-e (Tang painting): term used by Japanese writers from the Heian period on to refer
to paintings from the Tang period (618907). Later this term was applied to Japanese
renderings of Chinese themes.
Kariganeya: leading dry-goods shop of early-seventeenth-century Kyoto run by the

Ogata family. With an impressive clientele of warrior and aristocratic families, the
Kariganeya lled orders for clothing and fabric from Empress Tfukumonin and
other famous personages. The brothers Krin (1658 1716) and Kenzan (1663 1743)
inherited the Ogata fortune in the late seventeenth century, and soon thereafter the
Kariganeya oundered.
kasen-e (pictures of immortal poets): portraits of a select group of renowned poets that
are often placed next to their poem. Most often there are thirty-six kasen in a group,
based on a collection of poems by the Heian-period poet Fujiwara no Kint.
Kinch narabi ni kuge shohatto (Regulations for the palace and nobility): measure is-
sued by the Tokugawa in 1615 decreeing that the emperor and courtiers should take
as their main task preservation of traditional scholarship and court culture.
kirei sabi (beautiful and tranquil): aesthetic term related to tea ceremony in the style of
Kanamori Swa (also known as Shigechika, 1584 or 15891656).
kokugaku (national learning): Japanese learning that spread in the late eighteenth cen-
tury; frequently tinged with Neo-Shinto notions and seeking a national identity in
classics of Japanese literature.
koten (C: gudian; old texts): term that Japanese writers borrowed centuries ago from
Chinese textual sources, where it generally referred to works that set a standard. In
the seventeenth century and earlier, people in Japan apparently understood koten to
refer to Chinese literary classics; only much later did they come to conceive of koten
as embracing Japanese literary classics as well.
koten fukk (classical revival): phrase coined in the mid-twentieth century by Japanese
cultural historians including Hayashiya Tatsusabur in reference to seventeenth-
century cultural developments, especially in Kyoto.
kotenteki bijutsu (old textlike art): term commonly translated as classical art.
koto: musical instrument resembling a zither with strings made of twisted silk and a
long sounding board.
220 Glossary
machi-eshi (town painter): generic term for painters who worked independently in
towns, not sponsored by a particular patron or organization.
maki-e (sprinkled picture): form of ornamented lacquer produced by spreading gold or

silver powder on a wet lacquer ground.
makimono (handscroll): horizontal scroll in various lengths; a common format for

painting in Japan.
meisho-e: pictures of famous sites associated with waka poetry. Meisho-e was a central
thematic category of yamato-e from about the eleventh century on. Until the six-
teenth century, meisho-e included a fairly set number of natural locales in Japan with
literary, historical, or religious associations. Later the number of sites increased to in-
clude places with little literary or historical precedent.
mitate: literally, a comparison; in visual art, usually a comparison, often parodic in na-
ture, of a recent scene with a classical motif.
monogatari: historical or ctional prose narratives.
monzeki: Buddhist temples and nunneries afliated with the imperial family.
Nanga: indigenous Japanese Southern school of painting.
Nihonga (Japanese-style painting): painting of the Meiji, Taish, and Shwa eras based
on several earlier traditions of Japanese art as well as certain Western styles.
ch dent no fukkatsu (rebirth of dynastic traditions): phrase coined in the mid-twentieth

century by Hayashiya Tatsusabur and colleagues to refer to a purported nineteenth-
century revival of elite cultural traditions of the Heian-period court.
Okakura Kakuz (18621913) (a.k.a. Okakura Tenshin): art critic, teacher, and associate
of Ernest Fenollosa.
okeshden (toilette rooms): dressing chambers; an informal private space in the womens
quarters of the palace.
oku eshi: chief painter admitted into the inner quarters of the shogun; ofcial painters
to the shogunate. The four branches of the Kano school in the Edo periodthe Ka-
jibashi Kano, the Kobikich Kano, the Nakabashi Kano, and the Hamach Kano
supplied the oku eshi.
Okutaimensho: Inner Reception Hall; a formal public space of the imperial palace.
Otsubone: quarters at court for the empress attendants.
rakuch rakugai-zu (scenes in and around Kyoto): expansive folding-screen composi-

tions depicting city streets in miniature detail arranged in a panoramic, maplike for-
mation. Making its appearance in the sixteenth century, this subject is one of many
varieties of genre painting of the time.
Rimpa (school of Krin; also Rinpa): group of artistsseparated by gaps in timewho

shared certain stylistic approaches but did not necessarily work in the same studio or
Glossary 221
belong to the same family. In this respect, Rimpa differed from most artistic schools
of the Edo period. The term Rimpa is misleading in suggesting there was a formal
school of artists working under Ogata Krin (16581716). Although inuential, Krin
did not found the style; he was born more than a decade after the death of Tawaraya
Statsu (d. 1643?) and was heavily indebted to Statsus work. Often Rimpa is de-
scribed as a decorative styleindicating a tendency for graphic qualities such as ex-
tensive use of rich colors and gold or silver, asymmetric compositions, and planar use
of space.
Seiryden (Clear, Cool Hall): main building of the imperial palace. Until the sixteenth
century, the Seiryden was the main living quarters of the emperor, but later it was
used for ceremonial purposes. The present Seiryden of the palace is a nineteenth-
century reconstruction based on a Heian-period original.
sengoku jidai (age of wars): protracted phase of civil strife lasting roughly from 1467 to
1568.
senmen: fan; a common format for painting in Japan.
Sent Gosho: palace for retired emperors; in the early seventeenth century, the Sent
Gosho was reconstructed for Gomizunoo in Kyoto.
shikishi: square poem sheets; a format for painting in Japan.
Shishinden: building for state ceremonies within the imperial palace; important court
events were held here, including coronations.
shoin (study): style of residential architecture that typically features a group of rooms in-
cluding a main room that has a writing alcove (tsukeshoin), a display alcove (toko-
noma), and shelves.
Shsh hakkei-zu (Eight views of the Xiao and Xiang rivers): popular theme from Chi-
nese painting and poetry adopted by Japanese painters and poets.
Shugakuin: a villa-and-garden complex built for Emperor Gomizunoo and Empress

Tfukumonin in the hills of northeastern Kyoto in the mid-seventeenth century.
shukuzu: small connoisseur sketches; reduced-size sketches of famous old paintings.
sshokuteki (decorative): term often used in the twentieth century to describe certain
early Edo artworks emphasizing pattern and at areas of rich color. Edo-period au-
diences clearly valued decorative arts (applied arts), but many premodern Western
critics ranked painting and sculpture as superior. Just as Japanese art was being intro-
duced to the West in the nineteenth century, a broad anti-academic decorative
movement emerged in Europe and the United States. In response, late-nineteenth-
century exponents of Japanese art praised the decorativeness of Rimpa, for example.
sukiya (tastefully discriminating): aesthetic term applied to architecture in seventeenth-

century teahouses at Shugakuin Detached Palace, Katsura Detached Palace, and the
Ekan Sans.
Tsunegoten (ordinary living quarters): originally a building with private rooms for day-
time use by the emperor; in the Edo period, a building with formal rooms for a vari-
ety of ceremonial and administrative functions.
222 Glossary
ukiyo-e (pictures of the oating world): paintings and woodblock prints that ourished
in the Edo period; frequently featuring images of Kabuki actors and courtesans but
also including landscapes, cityscapes, and owers-and-birds. Best known are the
richly colored nishiki-e (brocade pictures) developed in the late eighteenth century.
waka: Japanese court poetry in thirty-one syllables.
yamato-e (pictures of Yamato): Japanese-style painting. Yamato refers to the Nara re-
gion, considered the ancient heartland of the Japanese people. There are several
main styles of yamato-e: one style is visually luxurious, animated with vibrant color
and strong pattern; another is more subdued in color with vigorous linear qualities.
In thematic terms, yamato-e features Japanese seasonal images and scenes of famous
sites associated with waka or scenes and characters from Japanese court poetry and
prose narratives including The Tale of Genji, Tales of Ise, and Tale of the Heike. Some
yamato-e themes derive from the Heian period. A modernist denition holds that
yamato-e is uniquely Japanese and distinct from foreign modelsnot only Chinese
art but also Japanese monochrome-ink painting that follows Chinese models,
namely kara-e (Tang painting) and kanga (Han painting). In fact, however, yamato-e
owes much to Chinese painting and literature, especially painting and literature of
the Tang dynasty (618907).
Glossary 223
Kanji List
Aburakji Dainagon Takasada bijutsu

!"#$% Bijutsu Shinp !
Agedatami biwa
Akashi Bo Juyi
Akazome Emon ! Botanka Shhaku !"
Aki Bugaku-zu bybu !"
Aki-no-no buke
Akiyama Terukazu ! Buke hyakunin isshu !"#
Amaterasu mikami !" Buke shohatto !"
Amidaky ! buke tens !
Anegawa bun
Anzai Unen ! bunjinga
ariso Bunki
Arisugawa no Miya Yukihito Bunsei
!"# bybu
Ariwara no Narihira !
Asai Nagamasa ! chadgu
Asano Mitsuakira ! chadka
Asaoka Okisada ! chanoyu
Ashigamo-zu tsuitate !" chashitsu
Ashikaga Takauji ! chatsubo
Ashikaga Yoshiharu ! Chaya
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu ! chigaidana
Ashikaga Yoshimochi ! Chikurin shichiken !
Asukai Masachika !" Chikusa Dainagon Ariyoshi
Asukai Masatoyo !" !"#$
Asukai no Masatsune !" Chino Kaori !
Asukai Saki no Dainagon Masaaki Chiyo
!"#$%& Chdai-no-ma !
Atago Dainagon Michitomi Chgonka
!"#$ Chmyji
Atsuta Chnin kkenroku !"
Chot
bakufu Chdan-no-ma
Ban Zhao chg
Bat Kannon ! Chg Goten !
Bifaji Chkamonin !
bijinga chkei
Chko sanjrokunin !"# Fukui Rikichir !"
Fukushima Masanori !
Daigo Fuyumoto ! funeboko
Daigoji funpon-shugi !
daij daijin ! furigana !
daimy Furukawa Miyuki !
dainagon furukotobumi !"#
Daini no Sanmi ! ( furukikotofumi !"#)
Daishi-kai Furuta Oribe !
Daishji fusuma
Daitokuji Fuyuki
Dan Takuma fzokuga
Danzan
Date ga
dattanjin Gadan keiroku !
denju Gad yketsu !
Dch gaisen funeboko !
dgu gaj
Dong Qichang gaku
Dong Yuan Ganmon
Donkein Gaozong
Gasetsu
Edo Gedan-no-ma !
Edo nij oshiro goten Gembei Katsushige !"
!"#"$ Genji
edokoro azukari Genji-e
e-hyakunin isshu !" Genji gaiden !
Eikand Genji k
Eiri Genji monogatari !"#$ Genji kokagami !
Ekan Sans ! Genji monogatari !
ema Genji monogatari emaki !"#
emaki Genji monogatari kogetsush
End Naotsune ! !"#$
Enryji Genji monogatari Sekiya Miotsukushi-zu
bybu !"#$%&'(
Fhime Genna
Fuji genpon
Fjin-Raijin-zu bybu !" Genroku
Fujioka Sakutar !" Genry
Fujiwara no Ietaka ! Gion matsuri
Fujiwara no Kiyosuke ! Gion Nankai !
Fujiwara no Mototoshi ! Gion sairei boko !"
Fujiwara no Teika ! Gion sairei-zu !"
Fujiwara no Yoshitsune ! Gion shja !
Fujiwara Nobuzane ! Gdansh
Fujiwara Okikaze ! Gokmy
fukko yamato-e !" Gokysoku-no-ma !"
226 Kanji List

Gomizunoo hikime kagibana !
Gosai Hino Chnagon Sukemochi
Goshirakawa !"#$
Got Hino Saki no Dainagon Hirosuke
Gotoba !"#$%
goy eshi ! Hiraga Seibei !"
Goyzei Hiramatsu Sangi Tokikazu
Gozu Tenn ! !"#
guadian Hirasawa Kshir !"
Guangwu Hishikawa Moronobu !
Guhua pinlu ! hitatare
Gyk Goten ! Hitotsubashi Tokugawa !
Gyokuen Kai ! hgen
Gyson Hgen-Heiji monogatari
!"#
Hachij no Miya Toshihito hin
!" Hin Tany-hitsu !"
Hachiman hj
Hachisuka hkaboko
haikai Hkaiji
haikai no renga !" Hokeky
Hakusan hokky
Hamuro Juichii Yoritaka hoko
!"#$ Honami Ketsu !"
Han Honch gah taiden !"#
Hannya shingy ! Honch gashi !
Han Zhuo Honch jokan !
Hara Sankei Honda Izunokami Tomimasa
Hasegawa Thaku !" !"
Hasu shita-e hyakunin isshu wakakan Honda Tadatoki
!"#$%&' honga
Hatakeyama Honmaru
Hatsune Honpji
Hayami Gyosh ! Hrin Jsh !
Hayashibara Hosokawa Ysai !
Hayashiya Tatsusabur !" Hotei
Heian Hott Kokushi !
Heibonsha Huashi
Heike monogatari emaki Hyakunin isshu !
!"# Hyakunin isshu gaz !"#
Heike nky ! Hyakunin isshu te-kagami
hengaku !"#
Hiei Hyakunin isshu zsansh
Higashizono Dainagon Motokata !"#$
!"#$ Hyakunin isshu-zu bybu
Higuchi Chnagon Nobuyasu !"#$
!"#$
Hykeikan
Kanji List 227

Ichij Jrakuden
Ichij Kanet ! Josetsu
Ichi-no-ma Jj Genji !
Idemitsu Jukibon
Igarashi Dho !" Juntoku-in gyosei meisho waka nijisshu
Ihara Saikaku ! emaki
Ike no Taiga !"#$%&'()*+
Ikeda
Ikeda Kikan ! kabeharitsuke-e !
Ikeda Mitsumasa ! kabokuzu
Ikenob Senk ! kabuki
Imadegawa Koresue !" kabukimono !
Imadegawa Udaijin Kinnari kachga
!"#$% Kaigan
Imay bijin jnikei !"#$ Kaih Ysetsu !
Insei Kaiji higen !
iro-e tki ! Kaikan sh
Ise Jing ! Kajii no Miya Jiin Hshinn
Ise monogatari ! !"#$%
Ishin Sden ! kakemono
ita ni kakitaru ema !"#$% Kakinomoto no Hitomaro !"
Itoya Joun ! Kakumeiki
Itsukushima Kamakura
Itsukushima hmotsu zue kami
!"# Kamo wake-ikazuchi no yashiro no uta-
Iwai Hiromi ! awase !"#$
Iwasa Matabei !" kana
Iwasaki Yanosuke !" Kanamori Swa !
iwatoyama kanazshi !
Izanagi no Mikoto !" kanazshi jokun !"#
Izumi Shikibu ! kanbun
Kanbun
Jakuren Kanei
Jidai fud uta-awase !"# Kanei bunka !
Jidaihin tenrankai !"# Kanei no sanpitsu !"
Jien Kanfugenky !
Jikjiky ! kanga
Jimyin Dainagon Mototoki kangateki
!"#$% Kanjinch
Jing Hao Kano Atsunobu !
Jing Kano Ein !
jinokuchi Kano Eitoku !
Jish sanjrokunin uta-awase-e Kano Ikkei !
!"#$%& Kano Kho !
Jittei waka emaki !"# Kano Ki !
Jdan-no-ma ! Kano Kshi !
Jokun sh Kano Masunobu !
228 Kanji List

Kano Mitsunobu ! Kenzan iboku !
Kano Motonobu ! kiin
Kano Naganobu ! Kimura Kenkad !"
Kano Sanraku ! Kinch narabi ni kuge shohatto
Kano Sansetsu ! !"#$%
Kano Shigenobu ! Kingin s unrymon dsei ky bako
Kano Ssh ! !"#$%&'
Kano Takanobu ! kinkishoga !
Kano Tanshin ! Kinoshita Chshshi !"
Kano Tany ! Kinoshita Junan !
Kano Tsunenobu ! Kinpish
Kano Yasunobu ! Kinsei meika shoga dan
kanpaku !"#$
kanshi Kinysh
Kara kirei sabi !=E F
Kara jimbutsu Kishi Kkei
kara-e Kitamura Kigin !
karamono Kitano Tenjin !
Karasumaru Dainagon Mitsuo Kiyohara Yukinobu !
!"#$ Kiyomori
Karasumaru Mitsuhiro ! Kobayashi Tadashi
Karasumaru Saki no Dainagon Kb Daishi !
Sukeyoshi !"#$% Kobori Ensh !
Kariganeya Kchi
kariginu Koch
karuta =E F kd
kasen Ketsu betsuden Takagamine yorai
kasen-e !"#$%
kasen-e hengaku !" Ketsu-bon
kasen no ema !" Ketsu-kai
Katsuko Koga bik !
Katsura Riky Koga Michitomo !
Katsuta Chiku ! Koga Saki no Udaijin Hiromichi
Kawagoe !"#$%
Kazahaya Dainagon Sanetane kohitsu
!"#$ Kohitsu Ryetsu !
Kazanin Dainagon Sadanobu Kohitsu Ryhan !
!"#$% Kohitsu Rysa !
Kazanin Mochishige !" koi
Keian Kojiki
Keich Kkamonin !
Keich Kokin denju !
Keisai Eisen ! Kokinsh
Kejyubon ! Kokka
kenj no sji ! kokka Shint !
Kenjo teijo no han !" kokugaku
Kenninji kokusaika
Kanji List 229

Komura maki-e
Kongji makimono
Konjaku monogatari sh !" Manji
Kno Motoaki ! Manp kashira-gaki hyakunin isshu
Konoe Naidaijin Motohiro taisei !"#$%&'
!"#$ Manshuin no Miya Nihon Hshinn
Konoe Nobutada ! Rysh !"#$%&'(
Krinha gash !" many-gana !
kosetsu Manysh
ktaig Marinokji Dainagon Masafusa
koten !"#$%&
koten fukk ! Masuda Don !
kotenshugi ! Masunobu
koten shumi ! Matsubara Shigeru
kotenteki bijutsu !" Matsudaira Hideyasu !
koto Matsudaira Sadanobu !
kuge Matsudaira Tadanao !
Kuge shohatto !" Matsuho
Kuj Matsunaga Teitoku !
Kuj Sukezane ! Matsushima
Kuj Udaijin Kaneharu Matsushima-zu bybu !"
!"#$ Meiji
Kumakura Isao ! Meiji 1820 nijriky shzenkji roku
Kumazawa Banzan ! NUJOM !"#$%&
kurashishizumu !" Meireki
Kuroda Meish
Kurokawa Harumura ! meisho-e
Kurokawa Mayori ! Meisho jikkei-zu !"
Kusaka Mengzi
Kuwanomidera Mi Fu
Kuwayama Gyokush ! Midaidokoro
Kyakuden Minamoto no Toshiyori
Ky Kano Minamoto Toyomune
kygen Ming
Kygoku misemono
Kyto mitate
Ky-Date-ke-bon hyakunin isshu gaj Mitsui Bussan !
!"#$%&'( Mitsui Takafusa !
miyabi
Lien zhuan Mizuo Hiroshi !"
Liu Guandao Mko shrai ekotoba !"#
Luny Momoyama
monogatari
machi monzeki
machi-eshi Mri
machish Mori Tru
Maeda Motoori Norinaga !
230 Kanji List

Murasaki Shikibu nikki
Murygiky Nikk
Muromachi Nikk Tshg !"
my ningy
Myhin Gynen Shinn ninj
!"#$ Ni-no-ma
Myhin no Miya Muhon Hshinn Ninomaru Goten !"
Gyjo !"#$%&' Nishi Honganji !
Mykji Niwata Saki no Dainagon Shigeeda
Myshinji !"#$%
n
Nagoyaj ! Nin Hshi !
Nakamachi Keiko ! Nonoguchi Ryho !"
Nakanoin Dainagon Michishige Nonomiya Chnagon Sadabuchi
!"#$ !"#$%
Nakanoin Michikatsu ! Nonomura Ninsei !"
Nakanoin Michimi ! N jie
Nakanoin Michimura ! N luny
Nakayama Ky ! N xiao jing
Nanba Chnagon Munekazu Nygo Gosho
!"#$ Nyin Gosho !
Nanga Nyin Goten !
Nankb Tenkai !"
nanshga Obama
Nanzenji Oda Nobunaga !
Narikane Ogata Kenzan !
Narutaki Ogata Krin !
Narutaki betsuya ! Ogata Shaku !
Nenj gyji emaki !"# Ogura
Ne-no-hi Oka Yoshiko
Nichiren Okada Kiyoshi
Nihon bijutsushi !" Okakura Kakuz !
Nihon Gink ! Okayama
Nihon shoki ! okeshden !
Nihonga oku eshi
Nij no shiro no gyk no den no sashi- Okutaimensho !
zu ! "# $ %& Omuro
Nij oshiro gyk no goten on-e tsuke Onna shisho
osashi-zu Ono no Takamura
!"#$ % &' () oshie
Nij oshiro osakuji shosho ozaimoku Otsubone
takaharai ch oyudono
! "#$% &'()* ch dent !
Nij Tsunahira ! ch dent no fukkatsu
Nijj !"#$
Nijj gykki !"# e no Masafusa !
Nijshik ! gi
Kanji List 231

gimachi Saki no Dainagon Sanetoyo Sannomaru Shzkan !"#
!"#$%& Sanuki
hiroma Sasamegoto !
hj Satake
imikado Sadaijin Tsunetaka Satomura Jha !
!"#$% Sei Shnagon !
imikado Tsunemitsu !"# Seikad Bunko !"
jin Seikanji Dainagon Hirofusa
mi hakkei ! !"#$%
mine Seiryden
mura Seigai Seiwa
nin Sekigahara
sakaj Tenshukaku !"# Sekiya-Miotsukushi-zu bybu
ta Shko ! !"#$
Sen no Riky
rakuch rakugai-zu ! Senba Tshg !"
Reizei Tamechika ! sengoku jidai !
renga senmen
rikka Senmen harimaze bybu
Rimpa !"#
Rishuky senmonka
rokkasen Sennin
Rokuj Sent Gosho !
Rokuonji Senzaish
rokush seppuku
rnin sessh
ropp Shi jing
runesansu !" shi-e
Ryei hinami ki !" Shiga
Shij
Sagami Shijgawara !
Saigy Shij-Karasuma !
Saigy monogatari emaki shikash
!"# shikishi
Sakai shikishi ema !
Sakai Hitsu ! Shimabara no ran !
Sakai Tadakatsu ! Shimizudani Sanenari !"
Sakaki Hyakusen ! Shin rokkasen gaj !"#
Sakakibara Satoru Shin sanjrokkasen zuj
Sambin !"#$%
Sanjnishi Sanetaka !" Shinbi Shoin !
Sanjrokkasen gaku !"# Shinbi Taikan !
Sanjrokuninsh !" Shinden
sankin ktai ! Shinjtmonin !"
Sank Jeki ! Shinkei
Sanmyakuin Shinkokinsh !
San-no-ma shinkoku
232 Kanji List

Shinmachidri Sumiyoshi Gukei !
Shinsenen Sumiyoshi Jokei !
shintai Sumiyoshi mde
Shinto/Shint Sumiyoshi no yukari !
Shiragi Sumiyoshi Taisha !
Shirakawa Nii Masataka Su
!"# Susanoo no Mikoto !"
Shishinden
Shgoin no Miya Nihon Hshinn Taga Taisha !
Dkan !"#$%&'( Taish
shheiga Taishokkan
shoin Tajikarao no Mikoto !
Shkad Shj !" Takagamine
Shokunin uta-awase ! Takaoka
Shokuruibon Takatsukasa Kanehiro !
Shokushi Takatsukasa Kanpaku Sadaijin
Shrenin Fusasuke !"#$%&
Shrenin no Miya Muhon Hshinn Takatsukasa Nobuko !
Sonsh !"#$%&'( Takayama Noboru
Shsh hakkei-zu !" Takeno J !
Shunji Takeno Megumi
Shu jing Taketori monogatari !
Shbun Taki Seiichi
Shugakuin Takuan Sh !
shuinsen beki !" Tamamushi Satoko !
Shko jisshu ! Tamazushima Myjin !"
shukuzu Tanaka Chikayoshi !
Shunzei Tanaka Hidemichi !
Shtei Shnin ! Tanaka Ichimatsu !
Sima Guang Tanaka Totsugen !
Soan-bon hyakunin isshu Tang
!"#$ Tani Bunch
Song Tani Shan
Sono Jun-Daijin Motoyoshi Tansei jakubokush !"
!"# Tao Yuanming (T Enmei)
Sono Motoka Tawaraya Ssetsu !
sshi Tawaraya Statsu !
sshokusei Teika jittei !
sshokuteki Teika-ei tsukinami kach uta-e
Statsu gash ! !"#$%&
Statsu-kai Teikan-zu
Sugawara Michizane ! Teikan zusetsu !
suhama Teishitsu gigeiin !"
suibokuga Tenbrin Udaijon Kintomi
sukiya !"#$%
Suminokura Soan ! Tendai
Suminokura-bon tenka taihei xz
Kanji List 233

tenn ukiyo-e
tennsei ukone no shgen !"
Toba Sj ! ushin
Tfukumonin Masako !"# Ushizu
Thoku uta-e
Tokitsugu kyki ! utamakura
tokonoma Utsuyama
Tokudaiji Sadaijin Kinnobu
!"#$ waka
Tokugawa Hidetada ! Waka jittei gaj !"#
Tokugawa Iemitsu ! wakakan
Tokugawa Ietsuna ! Wakamurasaki
Tokugawa Ieyasu ! Wakana-j
Tokugawa jikki ! Wakimoto Tkur !"
Tokugawa Reimeikai !" Wakisaka
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi ! Wang Mang
Tokugawa Yoshimune ! Wang Yangming
Torii Kiyonobu ! Wanli
Tosa Hiromichi ! way
Tosa Mitsumochi !
Tosa Mitsunari ! Xiao jing
Tosa Mitsunori ! Xie He
Tosa Mitsuoki ! Xuanzong
Tosa Mitsuyoshi !
Toshitada yamaboko
Tshg yamabushi
Tshun Yamaga Sok !
Tun-hitsu Yamamoto Shunsh !
Ty bijutsu taikan !"# Yamamoto Soken !
Ty Sessh ! Yamane Yz !
Toyokuni (Hkoku) Yamashina
Toyotomi Hidetsugu ! Yamashina Tokitsugu !
Toyotomi Hideyori ! yamato-e
Toyotomi Hideyoshi ! Yamazaki Ansai !
Tsuchida Staku ! Yamazaki Skan !
Tsugaru Yanagihara Dainagon Sukeyuki
Tsuji Nobuo !"#$
Tsunegoten Yanagisawa Kien !
Tsuruko Yang Guifei
Tsuta-no-hosomichi-zu !" Yasaka Jinja !
Yashiro Yukio !
Udda Jemon Kagenori Yasumura Toshinobu !
!"#$% Ygenin
Udda Jemon Kinnori Yon-no-ma
!"#$% yorimachi
Udda Jemon Mitsunori Yuan
!"#$% ygei
234 Kanji List

ygen Zhao Mengfu
Ysai sh Zhou
Zhu Xi
zashiki Zho kko gafu !"#
Zen zu
Zenrinji
Kanji List 235

Selected Bibliography
Primary Sources
Asaoka Okisada. Koga bik. 3 vols. plus index revised and enlarged by ta Kin as
Ztei koga bik. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1904.
Edo bakufu nikki. Historiographic Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo. Facsimile.
Edo shiry ssho. Tokyo: Shinjimbutsu raisha, 1967.
Gyjo Hshinn. Gyjo hshinn nikki. In Murayama Shuichi, ed., Myhin shiry,
vol. 1. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1976.
Hrin Jsh. Kakumeiki. 6 vols. Kyoto: Shibunkaku Shuppan, 1997.
Kano Ein, comp. Honch gashi (1693). In Kasai Masaaki, ed., Yakuch honch
gashi. Tokyo: Dhsha, 1985.
Kinch mikurai gosho shosho goden e tsuke no ch. 2 vols. Tokyo: Kunaich
Shorybu.
Kuwayama Gyokush. Kaiji higen. In Sakazaki Tan, ed., Nihon kaigaron taikei, vol. 1.
Tokyo: Meich Fukykai, 1980.
uchi nikki. Historiographic Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo. Facsimile.
Sakazaki Tan, ed. Nihon garon taikan. Tokyo: Meich Fukykai, 19791980.
Tokugawa jikki. Compiled by Narushima Motonau. In Kuroita Katsumi, ed., Shintei
zho kokushi taikei, vols. 3847. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 19641966.
Tosa Mitsuoki, comp. Honch gah taiden. In Sakazaki Tan, ed., Nihon garon taikan.
Tokyo: Meich Fukykai, 19791980.
Yamashina Tokitsugu. Tokitsugu kyki. 13 vols. In Dai Nihon kokiroku. Tokyo:
Iwanami Shoten, 19591987.
Secondary Sources
Addiss, Stephen. The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks 1600
1925. New York: Abrams, 1989.
. Obaku: Zen Painting and Calligraphy. Lawrence, Kans.: Spencer Museum of
Art, 1978.
Addiss, Stephen, Thomas J. Rimer, et al. Shisendo: Hall of the Poetry Immortals. New
York: Weatherhill, 1991.
Aimi Ku. Statsu Fraijin to Mykji. In Nihon shoshigaku taikei 45, 1 Aimi Ku
sh. Tokyo: Seishd Shoten, 1985.
Akiyama Terukazu. Genji-e no keifu. In Akiyama Ken, ed., Zusetsu Nihon no koten
7 Genji monogatari. Tokyo: Sheisha, 1988.
. Heian jidai sezokuga no kenky. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1964.
Akiyama Terukazu, Tanaka Ichimatsu, and Mizuo Hiroshi. Zadankai: Freer Gallery
z Statsu no Matsushima-zu bybu o megutte. Kokka 958 (1973):526.
Akunuma Taka. Nonomura Ninsei-saku iroe Rimpa-mon chawanNonomura
Ninsei-saku iroe Kingin ryj chawan. Kokka 1232 (1998):2125.
Aoyama Tadakazu. Kanazshi jokun bungei no kenky. Tokyo: fsha, 1982.
Asao Naohiro. Bakuhansei to tenn. In Taikei Nihon kokkashi. Tokyo: Tky
Daigaku Shuppankai, 1975.
Asao Naohiro with Marius B. Jansen. Shogun and Tenn. In John Whitney Hall,
Keiji Nagahara, and Kozo Yamamura, eds., Japan Before Tokugawa: Political
Consolidation and Economic Growth, 15001650. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1981.
Ashmole, Bernard. Architect and Sculptor in Classical Greece. New York: New York
University Press, 1972.
Assmann, Jan. Das kulturelle Gedchtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung, und politische Identitt
in frhen Hochkulturen. Munich: Beck, 19921997.
Baroni, Helen J. Obaku Zen: The Emergence of the Third Sect of Zen in Tokugawa
Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.
Befu Harumi. Village Autonomy and Articulation with the State. In John W. Hall
and Marius B. Jansen, eds., Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern
Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Bernstein, Gail Lee. Recreating Japanese Women, 16001945. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1991.
Berry, Mary Elizabeth. The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto. Berkeley: University of
. Hideyoshi. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982.
. Public Peace and Private Attachment: The Goals and Conduct of Power in
Early Modern Japan. Journal of Japanese Studies 12(2) (1986):237271.
Binyon, Laurence. Painting in the Far East. London: Edward Arnold, 1913.
Birge, Bettine. Chu Hsi and Womens Education. In W. Theodore de Bary and
John W. Chaffee, eds., Neo-Confucian Education: The Formative Stage. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1989.
Bix, Herbert P. Peasant Protest in Japan, 15901884. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1986.
Bloom, Allan. Closing of the American Mind. New York: Touchstone Books, 1988.
. The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of Ages. New York: Harcourt
Brace, 1994.
Board of Chamberlains, Imperial Household, ed. Art Masterpieces from the Imperial
Collection: Calligraphy. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun, 1987.
Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice. The Persecution of Confucianism in Early Tokugawa
Japan. Monumenta Nipponica 48(3) (Autumn 1993):293314.
, ed. Kaempfers Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1999.
Bolitho, Harold. The Dog Shogun. In Wang Gungwu, ed., Self and Biography:
Essays on the Individual and Society in Asia. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1975.
. Treasures Among Men. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, ed. Courtly Splendor: Twelve Centuries of Treasures
from Japan. Boston: Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1990.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Translated
by Richard Nice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984.

Bowring, Richard. Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji. New York: Cambridge
Boxer, C. R. The Christian Century in Japan, 15491650. London: Cambridge
Brower, Robert H., and Earl Miner. Japanese Court Poetry. Stanford: Stanford
Brown, Kendall H. The Politics of Reclusion: Painting and Power in Momoyama
Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
. Shkad Shj as Tea Painter. Chanoyu Quarterly 49 (1987):740.
Brown, Yu-ying. Kaempfers Album of Famous Sights of Seventeenth Century
Japan. British Library Journal 15(1) (1989):90103.
Brownlee, John S. Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 16001945: The Age
of the Gods and Emperor Jinmu. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997.
Bruschke-Johnson, Lee. The Calligraphy of Konoe Nobutada: Reassessing the
Inuence of Aristocrats on the Art and Politics of Early Seventeenth-Century
Japan. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Leiden, 2002.
Butler, Lee A. Court and Bakufu in Early 17th Century Japan. Ph.D. dissertation,
Princeton University, 1991.
. Emperor and Aristocracy in Japan, 14671680. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
. Tokugawa Ieyasus Regulations for the Court: A Reappraisal. Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 54(2) (1994):509551.
Carter, Steven D. Literary Patronage in Late Medieval Japan. Michigan Papers in
Japanese Studies, 23. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of
Michigan, 1993.
Chibbett, David. The History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration. Tokyo:
Kodansha International, 1977.
Chino Kaori. Bijutsukan, bijutsu shigaku no ryiki ni miru jend rons. In
Kumakura Takaaki, Chino Kaori, et al., eds., Onna? Nihon? Bi? Tokyo: Kei
Gijuku Daigaku Shuppankai, 1999.
. Gender in Japanese Art. Translated by Joshua S. Mostow. Aesthetics
(Japanese Society for Aesthetics) 7 (1996):4968.
. Nihon bijutsu no jend. Bijutsushi 136 (March 1994):235246.
. Tenn-no-haha no tame no kaigaNanzenji hj no shhekiga o megutte.
In Chino Kaori, Suzuki Tokiko, and Mabuchi Akiko, eds., Biijutsu to jend
hitaish no shisen. Tokyo: Bruecke, 1997.
Chino Kaori and Nishi Kazuo. Fuikushion toshite no kaiga. Tokyo: Perikansha, 1991.
Chino Kaori, Suzuki Tokiko, and Mabuchi Akiko, eds. Biijutsu to jendhitaish
no shisen. Tokyo: Bruecke, 1997.
Chino Kaori, Kamei Wakana, and Ikeda Shinobu, eds. Hbdo Daigaku Sakura
Bijutsukan Genji monogatari gach. Kokka 1222 (Winter 19971998).
Clark, Timothy. Mitate-e: Some Thoughts, and a Summary of Recent Writings.
Impressions 19 (1997):627.
Clunas, Craig. Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China.
Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
. Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China. Princeton: Princeton
Selected Bibliography 239

Coaldrake, William H. Architecture and Authority in Japan. London: Routledge, 1996.
. Edo Architecture and Tokugawa Law. Monumenta Nipponica 36(3)
(Autumn 1981):263269.
Commission Impriale du Japon, ed. Histoire de lart du Japon. Paris: Maurice de
Brunoff, 1900.
Cooper, Michael, ed. They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports on
Japan, 15431640. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
Cranston, Edwin A. Poem Cards: Waka and the Kyoto Renaissance. In Felice
Fischer, ed., The Arts of Honami Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master.
Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000.
Cranston, Fumiko. Takagamine Colony: Ketsu at Takagamine. In Felice Fischer,
ed., The Arts of Honami Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia:
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000.
Crawcour, E. S. Changes in Japanese Commerce in the Tokugawa Period. In John
W. Hall and Marius B. Jansen, eds., Studies in the Institutional History of Early
Modern Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Cunningham, Michael R. The Triumph of Japanese Style: Sixteenth-Century Art in
Japan. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
Daigoji no hmotsu tenkan. Kaiga Sshi 107 (31 December 1895):2
Daishi-kai, ed. Daishi-kai tenkan zuroku. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 1911.
Dalby, Liza Criheld. Kimono: Fashioning Culture. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1993.
De Bary, W. Theodore, and John W. Chaffee, eds. Neo-Confucian Education: The
Formative Stage. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
Doi Kumiko. Goy maki eshi Kami Chj. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and
Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1998.
. Nikki ni shirusareta urushi. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama
Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1988.
Doi Tsugiyoshi. Kinsei no Nihon kaiga no kenky. Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1970.
. Momoyama Decorative Painting. Translated by Edna B. Crawford. New York:
Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1977.
Dore, R. P. Education in Tokugawa Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1965.
Earl, David Magarey. Emperor and Nation in Japan: Political Thinkers of the
Tokugawa Period. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964.
Eliseeff, Danielle, and Vadime Eliseeff. Art of Japan. Translated by I. Mark Paris.
New York: Abrams, 1985.
Elison, George. Deus Destroyed: The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973.
Elison, George, and Bardwell L. Smith, eds. Warlords, Artists, and Commoners.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981.
Faure, Bernard. The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen
Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Fenollosa, Ernest. Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art. Vol. 2. New York: Dover, 1963.
Fischer, Felice. Introduction and Handscrolls: The Flowering of Artistic
Collaboration. In Felice Fischer, ed., The Arts of Honami Ketsu, Japanese
Renaissance Master. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000.

, ed. The Arts of Honami Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia:
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000.
Fister, Patricia. Japanese Women Artists, 16001900. Lawrence, Kans.: Spencer
Museum of Art, 1988.
. Kinsei no josei gakkatachi: Bijutsu to jend. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1994.
Fujikake Shizunari. Iwasa Matabei no gaf. Kokka 391 (December 1922):171177.
Fujino Tamotsu. Bakuhan taiseishi no kenky. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1961.
Fujioka Michio. Shinch: Kyto gosho. Tokyo: Ch Kron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1987.
Fujiwara Yuchiku. Rikka: The Soul of Japanese Flower Arrangement. Tokyo:
Shufunotomo, 1978.
Fukaya Katsumi. Bakuhansei kokka to tenn: Kaneiki o chshin ni. In Kitajima
Masamoto, ed., Bakuhansei kokka seiritsu katei no kenky: Kaneiki o chshin ni.
Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1978.
Fukui Rikichir. Bijutsu. Tokyo: Seinen Fukykai, 1931.
. Krin k, pts. 13. Geibun 6 (1915):6190, 6598, and 4279.
. Momoyama jidai no bijutsu. In Nihon Rekishi Chiri Gakkai, ed., Azuchi-
Momoyama jidaishi ron. Tokyo: Jinysha, 1915.
Furukawa Miyuki. Zho kko gafu. Vol. 1. Revised by Kurokawa Mayori. Tokyo:
Yrind, 1882.
Gerd, Lester. The Blossoming of Chonin Art and Culture in Japan. Arts of Asia
24(1) (1994):7888.
Gerhart, Karen M. The Eyes of Power: Art and Early Tokugawa Authority. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1999.
. Honch Gashi and Painting Programs: Case Studies of Nij Castles
Ninomaru Palace and Nagoya Castles Honmaru Palace. Ars Orientalis 28
(1999):6797.
. Issues of Talent and Training in the Seventeenth-Century Kano Workshop.
Ars Orientalis 31 (2001):103128.
. Kano Tany and Hrin Jsh: Patronage and Artistic Practice. Monumenta
Nipponica 55(4) (Winter 2000):483508.
. Tokugawa Authority and Chinese Exemplars: The Teikan Zusetsu Murals of
Nagoya Castle. Monumenta Nipponica 52(1) (1997):134.
Gifushi Rekishi Hakubutsukan, ed. bakuZen to geijutsu, Ingen Zenshi tanj 400
nen kinen. Gifu: Gifushi Rekishi Hakubutsukan, 1992.
Gluck, Carol. Japans Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1985.
Glum, Peter. Layers of Meaning and Lyric Echoes in a Japanese Screen Painting
of the Sotatsu School. Oriental Art 26(1) (1980):7281.
Graham, Patricia J. Tea of the Sages: The Art of Sencha. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1998.
Graybill, Maribeth, Manabe Shunsh, and Sadako Ohki. Days of Discipline and
Grace: Treasures from the Imperial Buddhist Convents of Kyoto. New York:
Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies, 1998.
Grilli, Elise. The Art of the Japanese Screen. Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1971.
Groom, Gloria, ed. Beyond the Easel: Decorative Paintings by Bonnard, Vuillard,
Denis, and Roussel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Gropius, Walter, ed. Katsura. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960.

Grossberg, Kenneth Alan. Japans Renaissance: The Politics of the Muromachi Bakufu.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Guillory, John. Canon. In Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin, eds.,
Critical Terms for Literary Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Guth, Christine M. E. Art, Tea, and Industry: Masuda Takashi and the Mitsui Circle.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
. Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City 16151868. New York: Abrams, 1996.
. Masuda Dono: Tea and Art Collecting in the Meiji Era. Chanoyu Quarterly
53 (1988):734.
. Varied Trees: An Inen Seal Screen in the Freer Gallery of Art. Archives of
Asian Art 39 (1986):4861.
Haga Kshir. Wabicha no kenky. Kyoto: Tanksha, 1978.
Hall, John Carey. Japanese Feudal Laws, 3: The Tokugawa Legislation. Transactions
of the Asiatic Society of Japan 38(4) (1911):269331.
Hall, John W. The Bakuhan System. In Marius B. Jansen, ed., Warrior Rule in
Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
. Feudalism in JapanA Reassessment and The New Look of Tokugawa
History. In John W. Hall and Marius B. Jansen, eds., Studies in the Institutional
History of Early Modern Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
. Kyoto as Historical Background. In John W. Hall and Jeffrey P. Mass, eds.,
Medieval Japan: Essays in Institutional History. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1974.
. Rule by Status in Tokugawa Japan. Journal of Japanese Studies 1(1) (1974):
3949.
, ed. The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 4: Early Modern Japan. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Hall, John W., and Marius B. Jansen, eds. Studies in the Institutional History of Early
Hall, John W., Keiji Nagahara, and Kozo Yamamura, eds. Japan Before Tokugawa:
Political Consolidation and Economic Growth, 15001650. Princeton: Princeton
Hamanaka Shinji. Nihon ni shinkotenshugi kaiga wa atta ka? 192030 nendai
Nihonga o kensh suru: Shinkotenshugi te nani?kenky nto yori. In
Yamatane Bijutsukan kaikan sanj shnen kinen shinpojiumu hkokusho.
Yamatane: Yamatane Bijutsukan, 1999.
Hanley, Susan B. Everyday Things in Premodern Japan. Berkeley: University of
Haraguchi Shizuko. Kakumeiki ni mieru emakimono. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka
Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto: Shibunkaku,
1998.
Harootunian, H. D. Things Seen and Unseen: Discourse and Ideology in Tokugawa
Nativism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Hashimoto Fumio. Architecture in the Shoin Style: Japanese Feudal Residences.
Translated by H. Mack Horton. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1981.

Haskell, Francis, and Nicholas Penny. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical
Sculpture, 15001900. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.
Hay, John. Some Questions Concerning Classicism in Relation to Chinese Art. Art
Journal 47(1) (Spring 1988).
Hayashi Susumu. Shinshutsu no Statsu-hitsu Ybai-zu bybu ni tsuite. Bijutushi
147 (1999):152153.
Hayashiya Tatsusabur. Chsei bunka no kich. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai,
1953.
. Kinsei dent bunkaron. Tokyo: Sgensha, 1974.
. Koten bunka no sz. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1964.
. Machish: Kyto ni okeru shimin keiseishi 59 Ch shinsho. Tokyo: Ch
Kronsha, 1964.
. Nihon bunkashi. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1988.
. Statsu no suiboku sugitoe Kobijutsu 6 (October 1964):71105.
, ed. Shiry taikei: Nihon no rekishi 4 Kinsei. Osaka: saka Shoseki, 1979.
. Uji shishi 3 Kinsei no rekishi to keikan. Uji: Uji Shiyakusho, 1976.
Heinrich, Amy Vladeck, ed. Currents in Japanese Culture: Translations and
Transformations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Henderson, Dan Fenno. The Evolution of Tokugawa Law. In John W. Hall and
Marius B. Jansen, eds., Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern Japan.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Hickman, Money L., ed. Japans Golden Age: Momoyama. New Haven: Yale
Hirabayashi Moritoku et al. Essays: Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the
Imperial Collections. Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery, 1997.
Hirsch, E. D., Jr. Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. New York:
Vintage Books, 1988.
Hiruma Hisashi. Edo no kaich. In Nishiyama Matsunosuke, ed., Edo chnin no
kenky, vol. 2. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1973.
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, eds. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 19831997.
Honami Ketsu. Yamato Bunka 45 (August 1966):4248.
Hurst, G. Cameron, III. Insei: Abdicated Sovereigns in the Politics of Late Heian
Japan, 10861185. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
Hyga Susumu. Chaya ni miru ski no kkan. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko,
and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1998.
Ienaga Sabur. Jdai yamato-e zenshi. Rev. ed. Tokyo: Bokusui Shob, 1966.
, ed. Iwanami kza Nihon rekishi 10 Kinsei. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 19621963.
Ii Haruki. Genji monogatari chshakushi no kenky. Tokyo: fsha, 1980.
Ikegami, Eiko. The Taming of the Samurai: Honoric Individualism and the Making
of Modern Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Ishii Hisayasu et al. Court and Samurai in an Age of Transition: Medieval Paintings
and Blades from the Gotoh Museum, Tokyo. New York: Japan Society Gallery, 1990.
Ishikawa Kenritsu Rekishi Hakubutsukan, ed. Konoeke Ymei Bunko no meih.
Ishikawa: Ishikawa Kenritsu Rekishi Hakubutsukan, 1988.

Ishikawa Tadashi. Imperial Villas of Kyoto. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1970.
. Kyto no riky. Tokyo: Hshob, 1966.
Ishikawa Tadashi, Shirahata Yoshi, and Takeda Tsuneo, eds. Miyako no miyabi:
Kinsei no kytei bunkaten. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1988.
It Munehiro. RakuhokuEntsji no enkakuShkokuji matsu kara Nanzenji
matsu e. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka
no nettowku. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1998.
. Shoki bakusei to Hrin Jsh. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama
It Tasabur. The Book Banning Policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Acta Asiatica
22 (1972):3661.
It Toshiko. Ise monogatari-e. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1984.
. Keich jichinen jichigatsu jichinichi no Ketsu shikishi. Yamato Bunka
45 (August 1966):4248.
Itoh Teiji. Imperial Gardens of Japan. New York: Weatherhill, 1970.
. Kobori Ensh: Architectural Genius and Chanoyu Master. Chanoyu
Quarterly 44 (1985):737.
, ed. Katsura. Tokyo: Shinkenchikusha, 1983.
Iwada Hisako. Kakumeiki no naka no Imari. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and
Iwama Kaori. Gion-e to Kaih Ysetsu. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and
. Shugakuin hakkei. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds.,
Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1998.
. Tosa Mitsuoki to kinri edokoro no fukk. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko,
Jansen, Marius B., ed. Warrior Rule in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1995.
Jones, Sumie, ed. Imaging/Reading Eros. Bloomington: East Asian Studies Center,
Indiana University, 1996.
Jordan, Brenda G., and Victoria Weston, eds., Copying the Master and Stealing His
Secrets: Talent and Training in Japanese Painting (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 2003).
Kagotani Machiko. Josei no chanoyu. Kyoto: Tanksha, 1985.
Kamada Michitaka. Kinsei toshi, Kyto. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1976.
Kamei Wakana. Suntory bijutsukanz Hie sann-Gion sairei-zu bybu no seisaku ito:
Kyto to mi o miru manazashi. Kokka 1238 (December 1998):316.
Kamens, Edward. The Past in the Present: Fujiwara Teika and the Traditions of
Japanese Poetry. In Carolyn Wheelwright, ed., Word in Flower: The Visualization
of Classical Literature in 17th-Century Japan. New Haven: Yale University Gallery,
1989.
Kanagawa Kenritsu Hakubutsukan, ed. Kanei no hana: Gomizunootei to Tfukumonin
Masako. Tokyo: Kasumi Kaikan, 1996.
Kasanoin Jikun et al. Seasons of Sacred Celebration: Flowers and Poetry from an
Imperial Convent. New York: Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies/Weatherhill,
1998.

Kasaya Kazuhiko. Nihon kinsei shakai no atarashii rekishiz o motomette. Nihonshi
Kenky 333 (May 1990):3561.
Kawahara Masahiko. The Ceramic Art of Ogata Kenzan. Translated by Richard L.
Wilson. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1985.
Kawamoto Shigeo, Kawamoto Keiko, and Miura Masayuki. Kenj no sji no
kenky. Kokka 1028 (1979):928 and 1029 (1979):731.
Kawasaki Hiroshi. Shosoyogin ni arawareta Krin to Kenzan. Kobijutsu 81
(1987):5890 and 82 (1987):8490.
Keene, Donald. World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era,
16001878. New York: Grove Press, 1976.
Kemp, Wolfgang. The Work of Art and Its Beholder: The Methodology and Aesthetics
of Reception. In Mark A. Cheetham, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith Moxey, eds.,
The Subjects of Art History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Kihara Toshie. Hrin Jsh kishin no Kano Tany hitsu Kach-zu tsuitate ni tsuite.
Nihon no Bijutsu Kgei 662 (1993).
. Kano Tany to Shkokujiz Kach-zu tsuitate. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka
1998.
. Kano Tany hitsu Shsh hakkei-zu bybu. Kokka 1259 (September 2000):
1720.
. The Search for Profound Delicacy: The Art of Kano Tany. In Miyeko
Murase and Judith G. Smith, eds., The Arts of Japan: An International Symposium.
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
. Ybi no tanky: Kano Tany ron. 2 vols. Suita: saka Daigaku Shuppankai, 1998.
Kinoshita Kyoko. Books: The Advent of Movable-Type Printing: The Early Keich
Period and Kyoto Cultural Circles. In Felice Fischer, ed., The Arts of Honami
Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art,
2000.
Kirihata Ken, ed. Inishie no miyabi na sekai: ch no asobi. Kyoto: Shiksha, 1992.
Kishi Kkei. Ne-no-hi no tana oyobi Itsukushima kykan ni tsuite. In Ketsu
Association, ed., Ketsu. Kyoto: Unsd, 1916.
Kita, Sandy. The Bulls of Chmy-ji: A Joint Work by Statsu and Mitsuhiro.
Monumenta Nipponica 47(4) (Winter 1992):492520.
. An Illustration of the Ise monogatari: Matabei and the Two Worlds of Ukiyo.
Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (September 1984):252267.
. The Last Tosa: Iwasa Katsumochi Matabei, Bridge to Ukiyo-e. Honolulu:
Kitano Yoshie. Tenkyin Jdan-no-ma/Ichi-no-ma shhekiga ni kansuru ikksatsu
Kano Ikkei Kssh to no kanren ni tsuite. Kokka 1253 (March 2000):2126.
Kitazawa Noriaki. Me no shinden: Bijutsu juyshi nto. Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha,
1989.
Ko, Dorothy. Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-
Century China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.
Kobayashi Tadashi. Ed jidai kanga yshiki no seiritsu. In Kobayashi Tadashi and
Murashige Yasushi, eds., Kach no sekai 5 Shsha na sshokubi: Edo shoki no
kach. Tokyo: Gakken, 1981.

. Edo kaiga shiron. Tokyo: Ryuri Shob, 1983.
. Gazoku no ko: Honga to ukiyo-e. In Nakano Mitsutoshi, ed., Nihon no
kinsei, vol. 12. Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1993.
. Kkan Kuwayama Gyokush ch Gaen higen. Museum 218 (May 1969):
412.
. Shahon Gaen higen to Kaiji higen. Museum 197 (August 1967):2730.
Kobayashi Tadashi and Kon Motoaki, eds. Teihon Nihon kaigaron taisei. Tokyo:
Perikansha, 1995.
Kobayashi Tadashi and Murashige Yasushi, eds. Kach no sekai 5 Shsha na sshokubi:
Ed shoki no kach. Tokyo: Gakken, 1981.
Ketsu Association, ed. Ketsu. Kyoto: Unsd,1916.
. Ketsu betsuden Takagamine yorai. Kyoto: Unsd, 1918.
Komatsu Shigemi. Genji monogatari emaki 1 Nihon emaki taisei. Tokyo: Ch
Kronsha, 1977.
. Kanei sanpitsu 10 Nihon no sho. Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1981.
. Nenj gyji emaki 8 Nihon emaki taisei. Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1977.
, ed. Fukko way 11 Nihon no sho. Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1982.
Kondo Ichitaro. Japanese Genre Painting: The Lively Art of Renaissance Japan.
Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1961.
Kondo Takemoto. Gomotsu Statsu Senmen-chirashi bybu no denrai ni tsuite no
goden. Kobijutsu 33 (1971):7882.
Kon Motoaki. Ed Kano zakk. Kobijutsu 71 (July 1984):436.
. The Kano School: The Japanese Academy and Its Literature. Bijutsu
Rons 5 (1989):125129.
. Tany to Nagoyaj Kaneid zei goten. In Bijutsushi Rons 6
(1990):99124.
Korezawa Kyz. Kanei no sanpitsu. Nihon no Bijutsu 150 (1978):1102.
Kshitsu no shib gyobutsu. 12 vols. Tokyo: Mainichi Newspapers, 1992.
Kubo Takako. Kinsei shoki no chtei ni okeru nyin no yakuwari. Gakushin Joshi
Tanki Daigaku Kiy 32 (1994):2844.
Kumakura Isao. Chanoyu no rekishi. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1991.
. Gomizunoo-in 26 Asahi hydensen. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1982.
. Gomizunoo tenn. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1994.
. Kanei bunka no kenky. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1988.
. Kanei Culture and Chanoyu. In Paul Varley and Kumakura Isao, eds., Tea
in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1989.
. Ketsu and the History of Tea Culture. In Felice Fischer, ed., The Arts of
Honami Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia: Philadelphia
. Tokugawa Hidetada no chanoyu. In Nishiyama Matsunosuke Sensei Koki
Kinenkai, ed., Ed no gein to bunka. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1985.
Kumakura Takaaki, Chino Kaori, et al. Onna? Nihon? Bi? Tokyo: Kei Gijuku
Daigaku Shuppankai, 1999.
Kuroda Taiz, Melinda Takeuchi, and Yamane Yz. Worlds Seen and Imagined:
Japanese Screens from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts. New York: Asia Society, 1995.

Kuroda Toshio. Chsei ni okeru kenmitsu taisei no tenkai. In Kuroda Toshio
chosakush, vol. 2. Kyoto: Hskan, 1994.
. The Discourse on the Land of the Kami (Shinkoku) in Medieval Japan:
National Consciousness and International Awareness. Translated by Fabio
Rambelli. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 23(34) (1996):353385.
Kurokawa Shind, ed. Nihon kyiku bunko. Tokyo: Dbunkan, 1910.
Kurozumi Makoto. Kangaku: Writing and Institutional Authority. In Haruo Shirane
and Tomi Suzuki, eds., Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and
Japanese Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Kuwata Tadachika. Furuta Oribe. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1968.
Kyto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, ed. Myhin to Sanjsangend. Kyoto: Kyto
Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 1999.
. Tany shukuzu. 2 vols. Kyoto: Kyoto National Museum, 1981.
Kyto-shi, ed. Kyto no rekishi. 10 vols. Tokyo: Gakugei Shorin, 19681976.
. Shiry Kyto no rekishi. 16 vols. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 19791988.
Leach, Bernard. Kenzan and His Tradition: The Life and Times of Koetsu, Sotatsu,
Korin, and Kenzan. New York: Transatlantic Arts, 1966.
Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
. Tea Taste in Japanese Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963.
Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and James T. Ulak. Reections of Reality
in Japanese Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1983.
Lillehoj, Elizabeth. The Early Kanamori Family and Tea. Chanoyu Quarterly 77
(Fall 1994):3355.
. Flowers of the Capital: Imperial Sponsorship of Art in 17th-Century Kyto.
Orientations 27(8) (September 1996):5769.
. Tfukumonin: Empress, Patron, and Artist. Womans Art Journal 17(1)
(Spring/Summer 1996):2834.
Linhartov, Vera. Sur un fond blanc: crits Japonais sur la peinture du IXe au XIXe
sicle. Paris: ditions Gallimard, 1996.
Link, Howard A. Exquisite Visions: Rimpa Paintings from Japan. Honolulu: Honolulu
Academy of Arts, 1980.
Machida Shiritsu Kokusai Hanga Bijutsukan, ed. Kinsei Nihon kaiga to gafu: Edehon
ten. Vol. 2. Machida: Machida Shiritsu Kokusai Hanga Bijutsukan, 1990.
Marra, Michele. The Aesthetics of Discontent: Politics and Reclusion in Medieval
Japanese Literature. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.
. Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1999.
. Representations of Power: The Literary Politics of Medieval Japan. Honolulu:
Martin, Peter. The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan.
Maruyama Masao. Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan. Princeton:
Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art. New York: Prentice-Hall/Abrams, 1993.
Mass, Jeffrey P., and William Hauser, eds. The Bakufu in Japanese History. Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1985.

Matsubara Shigeru. Kano Tany hitsu Shin Sanjrokkasen zuj no seisaku jij.
Mizuguki 2 (1987):4549.
Matsuno Yoichi and Ueno Yozo, eds. Kinsei uta bunsh, vol. 1. Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten, 1996.
McCullough, Helen C. Brocade by Night: Kokin Wakash and the Court Style in
Japanese Classical Poetry. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985.
, ed. and comp. Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology. Stanford: Stanford
, trans. Kokin Wakash. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985.
, trans. The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan. Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1959.
, trans. The Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
, trans. Tales of Ise: Lyrical Episodes from Tenth-Century Japan. Stanford:
McKelway, Matthew. Capitalscapes: Painting and Politics in 1617th Century
Japan. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1999.
McMullin, Neil. Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan. Princeton:
. On Placating the Gods and Pacifying the Populace: The Case of the Gion
Gory Cult. History of Religions 27(3) (February 1988):270293.
Meech-Pekarik, Julia. The Artists View of Ukifune. In Andrew Pekarik, ed.,
Ukifune. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
Miller, Roy Andrew. Japans Modern Myth: The Language and Beyond. New York:
Weatherhill, 1982.
Minamoto Toyomune. Tawaraya Statsu 14 Nihon bijutsu kaiga zensh. Tokyo:
Sheisha, 1976.
Minamoto Toyomune, Tanaka Ichimatsu, and Mizuo Hiroshi. Zadan-kai: Heike
nky to Statsu. Kokka 997 (1977):1732.
Miner, Earl. An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry. Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1968.
Miner, Earl, and Robert H. Brower. An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968.
Miner, Earl, Hiroko Odagiri, and Robert Morrell. The Princeton Companion to
Classical Japanese Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Miura Tsaku, ed. Rekidai shchoku zensh, vol. 4. Tokyo: Kawade Shob, 1941.
Miyajima Shinichi. Emperors as Artists and Cultural Leaders. In Hirabayashi
Moritoku, ed., Essays: Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial
Collections. Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler
Gallery, 1997.
. Tosa Mitsunobu to Tosaha no keifu. Nihon no Bijutsu 247 (December
1986):1102.
Mizuo Hiroshi. Edo Painting: Sotatsu and Korin. Translated by John M. Shields.
New York: Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1978.
. A Portrait of Honami Koetsu. Chanoyu Quarterly 34 (1983):2152.
. Statsu-Krinha gash. Kyoto: Krinsha Shuppan Kabushiki Kaisha, 19651966.
Mori Tru. Kasen-e, Hyakunin isshu-e. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1981.
Morita Seionosuke. Ketsu shaika Kishi Kkei . In Ketsu betsuden Takagamine
yorai. Kyoto: Unsd, 1919.

Moriya Katsuhisa. Urban Networks and Information Networks. In Chie Nakane
and ishi Shinzabur, eds., Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic
Antecedents of Modern Japan. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1990.
Moriya Sakur, ed. Miyako no riky. Tokyo: Kyodo News Service, 1983.
Moriya Takeshi. Kabuki no jidai. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1976.
. Ygei and Chnin Society in the Edo Period. Acta Asiatica 33 (1977):3254.
Mostow, Joshua S. Modern Constructions of Tales of Ise: Gender and Courtliness.
In Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki, eds., Inventing the Classics: Modernity,
National Identity, and Japanese Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press,
2001.
. Nihon no bijutsu gensetsu to miyabi. In Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai
Kenkyjo, ed., Ima, Nihon no bijutsu shigaku o furikaeru. Tokyo: Tky Kokuritsu
Bunkazai Kenkyjo, 1999.
. Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image. Honolulu:
. Picturing Love Among the One Hundred Poets. In Love in Asian Art and
Culture. Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
1998.
Munsterberg, Hugo. The Arts of Japan: An Illustrated History. Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle,
1957.
Murakata Akiko, ed. and trans. The Ernest F. Fenollosa Papers in the Houghton
Library, Harvard University. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Museum-Shuppan, 1982.
Murase, Miyeko. Bridge of Dreams: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection of Japanese
Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
. Bybu: Japanese Screens from New York Collections. New York: Asia Society,
1971.
. The Iconography of the Tale of Genji. New York: Weatherhill, 1983.
. Japanese Screen Paintings of the Hgen and Heiji Insurrections. Artibus
Asiae 26 (1974):193228.
. Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from the Burke Collection. Richmond: Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, 1993.
. The Taiheiki Emaki: The Use of the Past. Artibus Asiae 53(34)
(1993):262284.
. Tales of Japan: Scrolls and Prints from the New York Public Library. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1986.
. Themes from Three Romantic Narratives of the Heian Period. Apollo 276
(February 1985):100107.
Murase, Miyeko, and Judith G. Smith, eds. The Arts of Japan: An International
Symposium. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
Nagoyashi Hakubutsukan, ed. Fukko yamato-eTanaka Totsugen to sono shhen.
Nagoya: Nagoya City Museum, 1978.
Najita, Tetsuo. History and Nature in Eighteenth-Century Tokugawa Thought. In
John Whitney Hall, ed., The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 4: Early Modern
Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Nakabe Yoshitaka. Kakumeiki ni arawareta Tawaraya Ssetsu. In Reizei Tamehito,
Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto:
Shibunkaku, 1998.

Nakai, Kate Wildman. Tokugawa Confucian Historiography: The Hayashi, Early
Mito School, and Arai Hakuseki. In Peter Nosco, ed., Confucianism and
Tokugawa Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Nakamachi Keiko. Bakumatsu kara Meiji no Statsu-Krin kan. In Rimpa ni yume
miru. Tokyo: Shinchsha, 1999.
. Edo Kano hihan no shins. Bijutsu Furamu 1 (Autumn 1999):2631.
. Fjin-Raijin-zu bybu to Statsu-Krin. Jissen Joshi Daigaku Bigaku
Bijutsushigaku 1 (1986):89104.
. Tawaraya Statsu hitsu Matsushima-zu bybu k, pt. 1. Jissen Joshi Daigaku
Bigaku Bijutsushigaku 10 (1995):2134.
. Ukiyo-e ga kiokushita Ise monogatari-e. Jissen Joshi Daigaku Bigaku
Bijutsushigaku 41 (1999):169194.
. Ukiyo-e Memories of Ise monogatari. Translated and adapted by Henry
Smith and Miriam Wattles. Impressions (2000):5485.
Namiki Seishi. Kakumeiki ni miru kaiga juy no arikata. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka
1988.
Narazaki Muneshige. Iwasa Matabei Katsumochi ni tsuite. Special volume on
Matabei. Kokka 686 (May 1949).
. Iwasa Matabei Katsumochi ni tsuite. In Kaiga ronsh. Tokyo: Kdansha,
1977.
. Tosa Mitsuoki hitsu ka Fju-zu bybu. Kokka (December 1957):393396.
Narusawa Katsutsugu. Kinri eshiYamamoto Yga no katsud. In Reizei
Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto:
Shibunkaku, 1998.
Nezu Bijutsukan, ed. Reizei Tamechika: Fukko yamato-e no gajintachi: Uemura Wad
Korekushion. Tokyo: Nezu Bijutsukan, 1993.
Nishi Kazuo. Gomizunooin no sanj no chaya. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko,
. Himejij to Nijj 19 Shinpen meih Nihon no bijutsu. Tokyo: Shgakkan,
1991.
Nishikawa Takeshi. Katsura: A Princely Retreat. Translated by Charles S. Terry. New
York: Kodansha International, 1977.
Nishimoto Shko. Kariganeya Isshzuan ch ni tsuite. Bijutsushi Gakkai 113
(1982):4051.
Nishiyama Matsunosuke. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan,
16001868. Translated and adapted by Gerald Groemer. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1997.
Nishiyama Matsunosuke Sensei Koki Kinenkai, ed. Edo no gein to bunka. Tokyo:
Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1985.
Noda Tadao. Shimogy monjo, Sanj-Karasuma Manjch monjo. Nihonshi
Kenky 35 (1958):7576; 36 (1958):8698; 39 (1958):8191; and 41 (1959):7886.
Noma Seiroku. The Arts of Japan. Vol. 2: Late Medieval and Modern. Tokyo:
Kdansha, 1987.
Nosco, Peter. Keeping the Faith: Bakuhan Policy Towards Religions in Seventeenth-
Century Japan. In P. F. Kornick and I. J. McMullen, eds., Religion in Japan:
Arrows to Heaven and Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

, ed. Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1984.
Notehelfer, F. G. On Idealism and Realism in the Thought of Okakura Tenshin.
Journal of Japanese Studies 16(2) (1990):309354.
Ohta Aya. Ky Katsura no miyake denrai no bijutsumiyabi to karei. Tokyo:
Sannomaru Shzkan, 1996.
. The Tradition and Transmission of Imperial Culture in the Early Modern
Period: The Collection of the Former Katsuranomiya Family. In Hirabayashi
Moritoku, ed., Essays: Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collections.
Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1997.
Oka Yoshiko. Hrin Jsh no yuigonj. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and
. Hrin Jsh to Kakumeiki. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama
. Kakumeiki ni miru karamonoyatachikinsei shot no tjiki ryts. Shis
48 (1991):245262.
. Kanamori SwaOmuro kaiy izen o chshin ni. Geinshi Kenky 114 (July
1991):3760.
. Kanei bunka no chanoyu. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama
. Karamonoya oboegakihira Gohee to Katsurayama Chji. In Reizei
Shibunkaku, 1998.
. M hitotsu no Kanei bunkaron: Buke to dgu no kankei. Kytoshi Rekishi
Shirykan Kiy 10 (1992):389419.
. Omuro-gamaBunken shiry o chshin ni. Ty Tji 18 (19881990):546.
. Swa no shoj o megutte. Shis 41 (1984):5076.
Okada Kiyoshi, ed. Itsukushima hmotsu zue, vol. 2. Hiroshima: Itsukushima Jinko
[afterword dated 1841].
Okada Takao. Miyako no chashitsu: Nishiyama-Kitayama. Tokyo: Gakugei
Shuppansha, 1989.
Okakura Kakuzo. The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan.
Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1971. Originally published in 1904.
kawa Naomi. Edo Architecture: Katsura and Nikk. Translated by Alan Woodhull
and Akito Miyamoto. New York: Weatherhill, 1975.
Okudaira Shunroku. Ensaki no bijinKanbun bijin-zu no ichi seikei o megutte. In
Yamane Yz Sensei Koki Kinen Kai, ed., Nihon kaigashi no kenky. Tokyo:
Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1989.
. Kinkakuji no yraku. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori,
eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1998.
kuma, Shigenobu. Fifty Years of New Japan. London: Dutton, 1909.
ONeill, P. G. Organization and Authority in the Traditional Arts. Modern Asian
Studies 18(4) (1984):631645.
Ono Shinji. Bakufu to tenn. In Ienaga Sabur, ed., Iwanami kza Nihon no
rekishi, vol. 10. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1963.
Ooms, Herman. Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 15701680. Princeton:

. Tokugawa Village Practice: Class, Status, Power, Law. Berkeley: University of
Osaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan, ed. Ketsu no shoKeich-Genna-Kanei no meihitsu.
Osaka: Osaka City Museum, 1990.
ta Shko. Statsu no Matsushima bybu. In E wa Kataru, vol. 9. Tokyo:
Heibonsha, 1995.
Ozaki Yoshimichi. Kanha to kuge shakaishijis kakudai e mukete. In Reizei
Shibunkaku, 1998.
Pekarik, Andrew. Japanese Lacquer, 16001900. New York: Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1980.
, ed. Ukifune. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
Phillips, Quitman E. Honch Gashi and the Kano Myth. Archives of Asian Art 67
(1994):4657.
. The Price Shuten Dji Screens: A Study of Visual Narrative. Ars Orientalis
26 (1996):122.
Pincus, Leslie. Authenticating Culture in Japan: Kuki Shz and the Rise of National
Aesthetics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
Plutschow, Herbert. Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon
Press, 1996.
Pollack, David. The Fracture of Meaning: Japans Synthesis of China from the Eighth
Through the Eighteenth Centuries. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Ponsonby-Fane, Richard A. The Fortunes of the Emperors: Studies in Revolution,
Exile, Abdication, Usurpation, and Deposition in Ancient Japan. Washington,
D.C.: University Publications of America, 1979.
. The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society, 1959.
. Kyoto: Its History and Vicissitudes Since Its Foundations in 792. Hong Kong:
Rumford Printing Press, 1931.
Powers, Martin J. Art and Political Expression in Early China. New Haven: Yale
Powers, Martin, et al. The Problems of Classicism. Art Journal 47(1) (Spring 1988).
Qui, Peipei. Adaptation and Transformation: A Study of Taoist Inuence on Early
Seventeenth-Century Haikai. In Amy Vladeck Heinrich, ed., Currents in Japanese
Culture: Translations and Transformations. New York: Columbia University Press,
1983.
Rambelli, Fabio. Religion, Ideology of Domination, and Nationalism: Kuroda
Toshio on the Discourse of Shinkoku. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 23
(1996):387426.
Ravina, Mark. Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan. Stanford: Stanford
Reizei Tamehito. Hrin Jsh to Fujitani TamesatoHitomaro-zu o megutte. In
Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku.
Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1998.
Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds. Kanei bunka no nettowku.
Richter, David, ed. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends.
New York: St. Martins Press, 1989.

Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. Fourth Century Styles in Greek Sculpture. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.
Rodd, Laurel Rasplica, and Mary Catherine Henkenius, trans. Kokinsh: A
Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1984.
Rpke, Ian Martin. Historical Dictionary of Osaka and Kyoto. Lanham, Md.:
Scarecrow Press, 1999.
Roseneld, John M. Extraordinary Persons: Works by Eccentric, Nonconformist
Japanese Artists of the Early Modern Era (15801868) in the Collection of Kimiko
and John Powers. Cambridge, Mass.: Sackler Museum, 1999.
. Japanese Arts of the Heian Period: 7941185. New York: Asia House Gallery,
1967.
. Japanese Studio Practice: The Tosa Family and the Imperial Painting Ofce
in the Seventeenth Century. In Peter M. Lukehart, ed., The Artists Workshop:
Studies in the History of Art, vol. 38. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art,
1993.
, ed. Song of the Brush: Japanese Paintings from the Sans Collection. Seattle:
Seattle Art Museum, 1979.
Roseneld, John M., et al. The Courtly Tradition in Japanese Art and Literature:
Selections from the Hofer and Hyde Collections. Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Art
Museum, 1973.
Roseneld, John M., and Shimada Shujiro. Traditions of Japanese Art: Selections from
the Kimiko and John Powers Collection. Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Art Museum,
1973.
Saitama Kenritsu Hakubutsukan, ed. Jotei: Meish tenn to shogun Iemitsu
Matsudaira Nobutsuna to sono jidai. Tokyo: Kasumi Kaikan, 1997.
Sait Hidetoshi, ed. Gosho to Katsurag 6 Kshitsu no meih. Tokyo: Tokyo National
Museum, 1999.
, ed. Kinsei kytei no bijutsu: Shugakuin to Kyto Gosho. Tokyo: Gakken, 1988.
Sait Hidetoshi and Tsuji Nobuo, eds. Kinsei kytei bijutsu 19 Nihon bijutsu zensh.
Tokyo: Gakken, 1979.
Sait Takamasa. The Teabowls of Honami Ketsu. In Felice Fischer, ed., The Arts
of Honami Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia: Philadelphia
Sakai City Museum, ed. Genji monogatari no kaiga. Sakai: Sakai City Museum, 1986.
. Sumiyoshi TaishaUtamakura no sekai. Sakai: Sakai City Museum, 1984.
Sakai Tetsuo. Kuwayama Gyokush no garon ni tsuite. Bijutsu Shigaku 2
(1979):139154.
Sakakibara Satoru, ed. Tosa, Sumiyoshi-ha, Edo meisaku gach zensh. Tokyo:
Shinshind, 19931994.
Sanekata Yko. Shinwa naki shinwa: Edokoro azukari Tosa Mitsuoki no henreki.
Bijutsu Fuormu 1 (Autumn 1999):3540.
. Tosa Mitsuoki no iro to sumiSuma Akashi-zu bybu o chshin ni.
Bijutsushi 143(1) (October 1997):4764.
Sannomaru Shzkan, ed. Ky Katsurag denrai no bijutsumiyabi to karei. Tokyo:
Sannomaru Shzkan, 1996.
, ed. Kytei bunka no hana. Tokyo: Sannomaru Shzkan, 1993.

Sansom, George. A History of Japan to 1332. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1974.
Sasaki Jhei. The Era of the Kan School. Modern Asian Studies 18(4)
(1984):647656.
Sat Dshin. Nihon bijutsu tanj: Kindai Nihon no kotoba to senryaku. Tokyo:
Kdansha, 1996.
. Sekaikan no saihen to rekishikan no saihen. In Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai
Sat Masahiko. Kyoto Ceramics. Translated and adapted by Anne Ono Towle and
Usher P. Coolidge. New York: Weatherhill, 1973.
Screech, Timon. The Meaning of Western Perspective in Edo Popular Culture.
Archives of Asian Art 47 (1994):5869.
. The Shoguns Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States,
17601829. London: Reaktion Books, 2000.
Seidensticker, Edward, trans. The Tale of Genji. New York: Knopf, 1976.
Sen Sshitsu, ed. Chad koten zensh. Kyoto: Tank Shinsha, 1961.
Sennyji, ed. Kshitsu no otera: Sennyji ten. Kyoto: Sennyji, 1992.
Shimada Shjir, ed. Zaigai hih, vol. 2. Tokyo: Gakush Kenkysha, 1969.
Shimatani Hiroyuki. Gyobutsu: Shinkan 5 Kshitsu no shih gyobutsu. Tokyo:
Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1992.
Shimazaki Susumu. Kanazawa chih ni okeru Statsuha to Ssetsu ni tsuite. In
Yamane Yz, ed., Rimpa kaiga zensh 2 Statsuha. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai
Shinbunsha, 1978.
Shimizu, Yoshiaki. Japan: The Shaping of Daimyo Culture: 11851868. Washington,
D.C.: National Gallery, 1988.
Shimizu, Yoshiaki, and Susan E. Nelson. Genji: The World of a Prince. Bloomington:
Indiana University Art Museum, 1982.
Shimizu, Yoshiaki, and John M. Roseneld. Masters of Japanese Calligraphy, 8th
19th Century. New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1985.
Shimomi Takao. Ryk retsujoden no kenky. Tokyo: Tkai Daigaku Shuppankai,
1989.
Shimonaka Kunihiko, ed. Shiry: Kyto no rekishi 3 Seiji-gysei. Tokyo: Heibonsha,
1979.
Shinsh Kyto Ssho Kankkai, ed. (Shinsh) Kyto ssho. 22 vols. Kyoto: Rinsen
Shoten, 19671976.
Shintani Akio. Yky kkan kara mita Kaneiki Kyto no kkan ksei. In Reizei
Shibunkaku, 1998.
Shirane Haruo. The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of The Tale of Genji. Stanford:
. Issues in Canon Formation. In Shirane Haruo and Tomi Suzuki, eds.,
Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Shirane Haruo and Tomi Suzuki, eds. Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National
Identity, and Japanese Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Shively, Donald H. Bakufu Versus Kabuki. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
18(34) (1955):326356.

. Creating a Context: Popular Culture and the Academy in Genroku Japan.
In Peter Nosco, ed., Remembering Paradise: Nativism and Nostalgia in Eighteenth-
Century Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990.
. Popular Culture. In John Whitney Hall, ed., The Cambridge History of
Japan, vol. 4: Early Modern Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
. Sumptuary Regulations and Status in Early Tokugawa Japan. Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 25 (19641965):126135.
. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the Genroku Shogun. In Albert M. Craig and
Donald H. Shively, eds., Personality in Japanese History. Berkeley: University of
Singer, Robert T., ed. Edo: Art in Japan 16151868. Washington, D.C.: National
Gallery of Art, 1998.
Smith, Thomas C. The Japanese Village in the Seventeenth Century. In John W.
Hall and Marius B. Jansen, eds., Studies in the Institutional History of Early
Stinchecum, Amanda Mayer. Kosode: 16th19th Century Textiles from the Nomura
Collection. New York: Japan Society and Kodansha International, 1984.
Stern, Harold P. Rimpa: Masterworks of the Japanese Decorative School. New York:
Japan Society, 1971.
Sugimoto Mari. Kytei saron ni miru dent no keishKanei bunka no hyka o
megutte. Geinshi Kenky 111 (1990):3442.
Sugiyama Jir. Classic Buddhist Sculpture: The Tempy Period. Translated by Samuel
Crowell Morse. Tokyo: Kodansha International and Shibund, 1982.
Swinton, Elizabeth de Sabato. The Women of the Pleasure Quarter: Japanese
Paintings and Prints of the Floating World. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1995.
Taguchi Eiichi and Akiyama Ken, eds. Gka Genjie no sekaiGenji monogatari.
Tokyo: Gakush Kenkysha, 1988.
Tajima Shiichi, ed. Shinbi taikan, vol. 12. Kyoto: Nihon Shinbi Kyokai, 1906.
. Ty bijutsu taikan, vol. 2. Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin, 1908.
Takagi Hiroshi. Nihon bijutushi no seiritsu shiron: Kodai bijutsushi no jidai kubun
no seiritsu. Nihonshi Kenky 400 (1995):7498.
Takahara Yoshitada. Yasaka jinja. Tokyo: Gakugeisha, 1987.
Takeda Tsuneo. Gens ktei, Kokka 1049 (1982):1325.
. Kano Tany 5 Nihon bijutsu kaiga zensh. Tokyo: Sheisha, 1976.
. Kanoha kaigashi. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1995.
. Kinsei shoki fzokuga 12 Nihon no bijutsu. Tokyo: Shibund, 1967.
. Nihon o tsukutta hitobito 17 Tfukumonin. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1980.
. Shheiga 4 Zaigai Nihon no shih. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1979.
. Tosa Mitsuyoshi to saiga: Kyoto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan Genji Monogatari
Gach o megutte. Kokka 996 (1976):1140.
, ed. Keibutsuga: Shiki keibutsu 9 Nihon bybue shsei. Tokyo: Kdansha, 1977.
Takeno Megumi. Kinsei ni okeru Teikaei Tsukinami Kach Utae no tenkai:
Yoshimura Kkei sakuhin o chshin ni. Museum 414 (September 1985):417.
Takeuchi, Melinda. Taigas True Views: The Language of Landscape Painting in
Eighteenth-Century Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992.
Taki Sei-ichi. Three Essays on Oriental Painting. London: Bernard Quartich, 1910.
Originally published in Kokka (July 1905 and July 1907).

Tamamushi Satoko. Heike nky to Tawaraya Statsu. In Heike nky to Itsukushima
no hmotsu. Hiroshima: Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, 1997.
. Kinsei shki no bybu to ryshi sshokuShkad Shj hitsu Chokusensh
waka bybu o megutte. Bijutsushi 117 (March 1985):5575.
. Krinkan no hensen 18151915. Bijutsu Kenky 371 (1999):170.
. Nihon bijutsu no sshokusei to iu gensetsu. In Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai
. Rinpa: The Past, Present, and Future. In Miyeko Murase and Judith G.
Smith, eds., The Arts of Japan: An International Symposium. New York:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
. Sakai Hitsu hitsu Natsuakikusa-zu bybuTsuioku no ginshoku. E wa
Kataru 13 (1994):1103.
. Sakai Hitsu hitsu Natsuakikusa-zu bybu to Takarai Kikaku no amagoiku
Edo no Fjin-Raijin ish no bunmyaku kara. Jissen Joshi Daigaku Bigaku
Bijutsushi 13 (1998):7989.
Tanaka Hidemichi. Nihon bijutsu zenshi. Tokyo: Kdansha, 1995.
Tanaka Ichimatsu. Heike Nky to Jikjiky. In Nihon emakimono shsei, vol. 6.
Tokyo: Yzankaku, 1929.
. Tanaka Chikayoshi oboegaki. Tanaka Chikayoshi, vol. 1. Tokyo: Meich
Kankkai, 1985.
Tanaka, Stefan. Miidasareta monoNihon to Seiy no kako toshite no Nihon
bijutsushi. In Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, ed., Ima, Nihon no bijutsu
shigaku o furikaeru. Tokyo: Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, 1999.
Tanaka Toshio. Eshi It Chbee no futatsu no gagy. In Reizei Tamehito, Oka
1998.
Tanaka Yasuhiko, ed. Miyako meisho zue to Gion yamaboko. Tokyo: Iwazaki
Bijutsusha, 1990.
Tanaka Yjir, ed. Honami Ketsu 18 Shod geijutsu. Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1971.
Tani Naoki. Daikugashira Nakai Masatomo to kinsei Kyto no fukk. In Reizei
Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku.
Tanihata Akio. Chanoyu and the Imperial Court. Chanoyu Quarterly 71
(1992):4550.
, ed. Kinsei chadshi. Kyoto: Kdansha, 1988.
Teramoto Naohiko. Genji monogatari juyshi ronk. Tokyo: Kazama Shobo, 1983.
Thompson, Sarah, and H. D. Harootunian. Undercurrents in the Floating World:
Censorship and Japanese Prints. New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1992.
Toby, Ronald. Carnival of the Aliens: Korean Embassies in Edo-Period Art and
Popular Culture. Monumenta Nipponica 41(4) (1986):415456.
. State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of
the Tokugawa Bakufu. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Tokugawa Bijutsukan Zuroku Kankkai, ed. Tokugawa bijutsukan. Tokyo: Tky
Chnichi Shinbun Shuppan, 1962.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu, ed. NHK Tokugawa Bijutsukan 1 Oku dgu no hana: Genji
monogatari emaki to Hatsune no chd. Tokyo: Nihon Hs Shuppankai, 1988.

, ed. The Shogun Age Exhibition from the Tokugawa Art Museum. Nagoya:
Tokugawa Art Museum, 1983.
. Tokugawa bijutsukan meihin kansh. Tokyo: Tky Shinbun Shuppankyoku,
1982.
Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, ed. Ima, Nihon no bijutsu shigaku o furikaeru.
Tokyo: Tky Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyjo, 1999.
Tky Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, ed. Kshitsu no meihgosokui jnen kinen
tokubetsuten. Tokyo: Tokyo National Museum, 1999.
. Muromachi jidai no bybuten: Kokka skan hyakunen kinen. Tokyo: Asahi
Shinbunsha, 1989.
Tomioka Hiroshi. The Kyoto Imperial Palace and Imperial Villas. Tokyo: Konishiroku
Photo, 1964.
Tonomura Hitomi, Anne Walthall, and Wakita Haruko, eds. Women and Class in
Japanese History. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan,
1999.
Totman, Conrad. Early Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1993.
. Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 16601843. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
. Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun. San Francisco: Heian International, 1983.
Trede, Melanie. Kerun Ty Bijutsukan shoz Taishokkan-e no juy bigakuteki
ksatsu. Bijutsushi 141(1) (October 1996):4563.
Tsuji Nobuo. Iwasa Matabei 13 Nihon bijutsu kaiga zensh. Tokyo: Sheisha, 1980.
Ueda, Makoto. Literary and Art Theories in Japan. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese
Studies, 1967/1991.
Vaporis, Constantine N. To Edo and Back: Alternate Attendance and Japanese
Culture in the Early Modern Period. Journal of Japanese Studies 23(1) (Winter
1997):2567.
Varley, Paul. Japanese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984.
Varley, Paul, and Kumakura Isao, eds. Tea in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu.
Von Halberg, Robert, ed. Canons. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashi. Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern
Japan: The New Theses of 1825. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies,
Harvard University, 1986.
. In Name Only: Imperial Sovereignty in Early Modern Japan. Journal of
Japanese Studies 17(1) (1991):2557.
Wakisaka Atsushi. Hasegawa Sakon hitsu Sanbas-zu no monogataru tokoro. In
Reizei Tamehito, Oka Yoshiko, and Iwama Kaori, eds., Kanei bunka no nettowku.
Wakita Haruko. Marriage and Property in Premodern Japan from the Perspective
of Womens History. Journal of Japanese Studies 10 (Winter 1984):7799.
. Women and the Creation of the Ie: An Overview from the Medieval Period
to the Present. Translated by David P. Phillips. Nichibei Josei Jaanaru 4 (April
1993):83105.
Wakita Osamu. Bakuhan taisei to josei. In Joseishi Sg Kenkykai, ed., Nihon
joseishi, vol. 3. Tokyo: Tky Daigaku Shuppankai, 1982.

Watanabe Kenji. Salaries of Men of Letters in the Edo Period. Proceedings of the
Midwest Association for Japanese Literary Studies 3 (Summer 1997):3948.
Watkins, Nicholas. The Genius of a Decorative Aesthetic. In Gloria Groom, ed.,
Beyond the Easel: Decorative Paintings by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, and Roussel.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Watson, William, ed. The Great Japan Exhibition: Art of the Edo Period, 16001868.
London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1981.
Webb, Herschel. The Japanese Imperial Institution in the Tokugawa Period. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1968.
Wheelwright, Carolyn, ed. Word in Flower: The Visualization of Classical Literature
in Seventeenth-Century Japan. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1989.
Whitney Museum of American Art, ed. In a Classical Vein: Works from the
Permanent Collection. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1993.
Wilson, Richard. The Art of Ogata Kenzan: Persona and Production in Japanese
Ceramics. Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1991.
Winckelmann, Johann J. The History of Ancient Art. Translated by G. Henry Lodge.
Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1880.
Wlinn, Heinrich. Principles of Art History. Translated by M. D. Hottinger. New
York: Holt, 1932.
Yabuki Osamu. Kinsei ni okeru tenn to shogun to nmin. Nihonshi Kenky 332
(April 1990):6673.
Yamamoto Hirofumi, ed. Kanei jidai 39 Nihon rekishi ssho. Tokyo: Yoshikawa
Kbunkan, 1989.
Yamamura Kozo. The Increasing Poverty of the Samurai in Tokugawa Japan,
16001868. Journal of Economic History 31(2) (June 1971):378406.
Yamane Yz. Fzokuga kara Ukiyo-e e oyobi: Yuna-zu kaisetsu. In Zusetsu Nihon
no koten 15 Ihara Saikaku. Tokyo: Sheisha, 1978.
, ed. Ikebana bijutsu zensh 10 Senk no rikka. Tokyo: Sheisha, 1982.
. Ketsu, Statsu, Krin 10 Suiboku bijutsu taikei. Tokyo: Kdansha, 1975.
. Konishike kyzo: Krin kankei shiry to sono kenky. Tokyo: Ch Kron
Bijutsu Shuppan, 1962.
. Momoyama Genre Painting. Translated by John M. Shields. New York:
Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1973.
. Ogata Krin and the Art of the Genroku Era. Acta Asiatica 15 (1968):6986.
. Rimpa kaiga zensh. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, 19771980.
. Statsu to Krin 14 Genshoku Nihon no bijutsu. Tokyo: Shgakkan, 1969.
Yamane Yz, Masato Nait, and Timothy Clark, eds. Rimpa: Art from the Idemitsu
Collection, Tokyo. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
Yamashita, Samuel Hideo. Reading the New Tokugawa Intellectual Histories.
Journal of Japanese Studies 22(1) (Winter 1996):148.
Yamashita Yoshiya. ShizuokakenzKano Sansetsu hitsu Fuji, Miho-no-Matsubara-
zu bybu rokkyoku iss ni tsuite. Kobijutsu 71 (July 1984):4755.
Yamazaki Tsuyoshi. Lacquerware: The Ketsu Style in Lacquerware. In Felice
Fischer, ed., The Arts of Honami Ketsu, Japanese Renaissance Master.
Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000.
Yashiro Yukio. Statsu hitsu Matsushima bybu. Bijutsu Kenky 73 (1938):18.
. Zuihitsu Statsu, pt. 1. Yamato Bunka 10 (1953):5162.

Yasuda Atsuo. Krinha gash no zengo: gata Krin o chshin to suru kindai
Rimpa kan o megutte. Bijutsu Fuormu 1 (Autumn 1999):4450.
Yasuda Kenichi. Kinsei no suki kkanRakuch no yashiki, rakugai no chaya. Tokyo:
Ch Kron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1988.
Yasumura Toshinobu. Kano Tany 7 Shinch Nihon bijutsu bunko. Tokyo:
Shinchsha, 1998.
. Karasumaru Mitsuhiro to Tawaraya Statsu. Tokyo: Itabashi Bijutsukan, 1982.
. Rimpa nante, hont ni atta no ka? Bijutsu Fuormu 1 (Autumn 1999):4144.
, ed. Edo meisaku gaj zensh 4 Kano-haTany, Morikage, Itch. Tokyo:
Shinshind, 1994.
Yokota Fuyuhiko. Imagining Working Women in Early Modern Japan. Translated
by Mariko Asano Tamanoi. In Tonomura Hitomi, Anne Walthall, and Wakita
Haruko, eds., Women and Class in Japanese History. Ann Arbor: Center for
Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1999.
. Kinsei shakai no seiritsu to Kyto. Nihonshi Kenky 404 (April 1996):5070.
Yokota-Murakami, Gerry. The Formation of the Canon of N: The Literary Tradition
of Divine Authority. Osaka: Osaka University Press, 1997.
Yonemura, Ann. Japanese Lacquer. Washington, D. C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1979.
Yonemura, Ann, et al. Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collections.
Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1997.
Yoneyama Toratar. Seikad no enkaku to bijutsuhin. In Seikad hkan. Tokyo:
Seikad Foundation, 1992.
Yoneyama Toshinao. Dokyumento Gion matsuritoshi to matsuri to minsh to.
Tokyo: NHK Bukkusu, 1986.
. Gionsai. Tokyo: Ch Kronsha, 1974.
Yoshida Teruji. Iwasa Matabei 1 Ukiyo-e taisei. Tokyo: Thshoin, 1931.
Yoshida Yji. Edokoro no yukueTosa Mitsushige shiron. Geijutsu Ronky 1, 2, 3
(1971, 1973, 1975).
. Kinsei TosahaMitsunori kara Mitsuoki-e. Kobijutsu 71 (July 1984):5687.
Zolbrod, Leon. Haiku Painting. Tokyo: Kdansha, 1982.

Contributors
Laura W. Allen is a research associate at the Center for Japanese Studies, University
of California, Berkeley. Her essay on models of exemplary behavior in the thirteenth-
century Illustrated Life of Saigy (Saigy monogatari emaki) appeared in the Journal of
Japanese Studies in 1995. Her chapter is part of her larger study of gure paintings by
Tosa Mitsuoki (16171691).
Karen M. Gerhart holds a Ph.D. in Japanese art history from the University of Kansas.
She is the author of The Eyes of Power: Art and Early Tokugawa Authority (1999) and
her essays on paintings and murals of Nij and Nagoya castles have appeared in Mon-
umenta Nipponica and Ars Orientalis. Currently she is associate professor of the history
of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh.
Elizabeth Lillehoj received her Ph.D. in Japanese art history from Columbia Univer-
sity in 1988. She is the author of the catalog Woman in the Eyes of Man: Images of Women
in Japanese Art (1995) along with other publications on medieval and early modern
Japanese art. Her current research relates to imperial sponsorship of art in seventeenth-
century Japan. She is associate professor of art history at DePaul University, Chicago.
Joshua S. Mostow is associate professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the Uni-
versity of British Columbia. He is the author of Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin
Isshu in Word and Image (1996) along with numerous articles on literary and visual
analysis of Japanese art. Among these is the essay Picturing Love Among the One Hun-
dred Poets, in Love in Asian Art and Culture (1998).
Keiko Nakamachi is professor in the Department of Aesthetics and Art History at Jissen
Womens University, Tokyo. She has examined numerous topics related to later Japa-
nese art, focusing often on Edo-period Rimpa. Her books include Rimpa ni yume miru
(Dreaming of Rimpa, 1999) and Ogata Krin (1998).
Quitman Eugene Phillips received his doctorate from the University of California at
Berkeley in 1992. Since then he has taught Japanese art history and art-historical theory
and methods at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, achieving the rank of associate
professor in 1998. He is the author of The Practices of Painting in Japan, 1475 1500
(2000) and articles on the Kano school, Japanese pictorial narration, and a variety of
other topics. His current research deals with Buddhist painting of the Muromachi pe-
riod, especially as it relates to rituals for the dead.
Satoko Tamamushi received her masters degree from Thoku University. Formerly
she served as chief curator of the Seikad Bunko Art Museum and currently she is a
professor of Japanese art history at Musashino Art University. Among her publications
are Sakai Hitsu hitsu Natsuakikusa-zu bybu in E wa Kataru 13 , which won the six-
teenth Suntory Gakugei Sh Award in 1994, and Transition of the Image of Krin,
18151915 (1999).
Melanie Trede has studied in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Tokyo and received her M.A.
and Ph.D. in the history of East Asian art from the University of Heidelberg. She has
published articles and reviews, mainly on the subject of Japanese pictorial narratives, in
English, German, and Japanese. She has taught at the University of Heidelberg and
was a visiting professor at Columbia University in 1999. Currently she is assistant pro-
fessor of Japanese art histories at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
262 Contributors
Index
References to gures and plates are in Famous Masters of Recent Times (Kin-
italic sei meika shoga dan), 35
Chaya merchant house, 197198, 204n.
Admonitions for Women (N jie), 106 31
107, 107 chnin (block residents), 217
Album of New Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. classical art; Chinese notion of, 2831,
See Thirty-Six Poets Painting 169170; Japanese notion of, 1, 68,
Anderson, William, 37, 51n. 62 2428, 8182, 207211, 220; Western
Anzai Unen, 3536 notion of, 35, 1617n. 4, 2123,
Ariso bybu. See Rough Sea Screens 2526, 52n. 85, 7475, 170, 210211
Art History of Japan in the World (Nihon classical revival (koten fukk), 1, 68, 16,
bijutsu zenshi), 24, 42, 46n. 10 8182, 207211, 220
Asai Nagamasa, 142 classical taste (kotenshugi), 28, 30
Asano Mitsuakira, 56 classicism, 14, 16n. 2, 21, 24, 2728, 43,
Ashikaga; painting, 40; period, 3940 99, 187188, 202, 207211
Ashikaga Takauji, 194 classics (koten), 2829, 30, 48n. 34, 73,
Ashikaga Yoshiharu, 195, 216 127, 159, 220; literary, 3, 15, 17n. 13,
Ashikaga Yoshimochi, 178 47n. 21, 99100, 109, 187
Autumn Grass with Deer, painting of, 61 commoner, 6, 9, 88, 94, 113, 114,
188189, 195196, 198200
bafuku (military government), 1, 81, 145, Compendia of Asian Art, The (Ty
184n. 13; bakufu painter, 11 bijutsu taikan), 59, 76n. 10
Ban Zhou, 106 Confucianism, 9, 102, 110111, 169, 172,
Battle of Sekigahara, 54, 187 177, 178
Binyon, Lawrence, 41, 51n. 78 court, 79, 16, 158; culture of, 7475,
Biographies of Japanese Painters (Tansei 8082, 8990, 103105, 110, 117119,
jakubokush), 10, 19n. 31, 214 181, 182, 199201; literature of, 85, 170,
biwa, 117 187
Black Pine with Water, painting of, 61 creation of tradition. See dent no
Buddhism, 31, 102, 106, 111, 171 sshutsu
buke tens (liaison ofcer), 149
Bunsei, 178 daimyo (daimy), 135, 138; culture, 171;
bybu (folding screens), 53, 64, 66, 83, family, 85, 89, 133, 135
121, 196, 197, Pl. 1, 2, 8, 10, 12, 16 Daishikai (Daishi Association), 6162,
76n. 13
chadgu (tea ceremony utensils), 10 Dan Takuma, 62
Chats about Calligraphy and Painting of Date Family One Hundred Poets Picture
Album (Ky-Date-ke-bon hyakunin fzokuga (genre painting), 42, 188190,
isshu gaj), paintings in, 133136, 134, 202, 218
148151
dattanjin (Monguls), 175176, 177, 179, ga (rened), 32
185nn. 22 24, 26, Pl. 12 Gad yketsu. See Private Guidelines for
dent no sshutsu (creation of tradition), the Way of Painting
73, 77n. 37 gaj (album), 133, 152, 155, 218
Dong Qichang, 30, 31, 33, 35, 49n. 38 Ganmon, 5455, 55, 57, 58, 6162
Dong Yuan, 170 Gaozong, 170, 183n. 3
Dowry Set with Designs from First War- Gembei Katsushige, 190
bler, 84, 112, 112 Genji-e (Illustrations of The Tale of
Genji), 100103, 105, 111, 114, 116118,
Edo period, 1, 16n. 1, 45n. 2, 7374, 79, 121, 128, 129n. 2, 132n. 39, 218, Pls. 1,
8689, 101, 152; art, 53, 70, 79, 86, 89 38. See also Tale of Genji; Sekiya
91, 94, 99, 154, 209; boom, 42; city of, and Miotsukushi Chapters from The
16n. 1, 45n. 2, 8990; early, 93, 187, Tale of Genji Screens
198199; education/guild system, 27; Genji k (Genji incense game), 105
four-class system, 199; late, 14, 5960, Genji monogatari. See Tale of Genji
63, 71 Genna era, 138, 143
edokoro azukari, 27, 102, 114, 132n. 46, Genroku era, 39, 88, 117, 119, 153
216217 Gion Festival, 16, 188, 190, 195197,
ema (paintings of horses), 140141, 164n. 203n. 13; oats, 187191, 193, 195197,
18 201202, 203nn. 12, 18, 204n. 29, 218;
emaki (illustrated handscroll), 139, 221 paintings of, 189193, 192, Pls. 1416;
Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art, 40, parade, 194, 200; Shrine, 193195, 197
46n. 12 Gion Nankai, 3335
gokysoku-no-ma (waiting rooms), 174
Fenollosa, Ernest, 4, 17n. 10, 24, 40, 41, Gomizunoo (Emperor), 1516, 8081,
46n. 12, 51n. 75, 72, 77n. 33, 210, 217, 221 8687, 95n. 12, 104105, 173174, 176,
Flowering Plants of Summer and Au- 179, 200201, 203nn. 12, 18, 204n. 29,
tumn, painting of, 72 204nn. 29, 36, 216, 222
Four Books for Women (Onna shisho), Gosai (Emperor), 105, 114, 215
106, 107, 131n. 23 goy-eshi, 90, 214, 215, 218
Fjin-Raijin-zu bybu. See Wind and Gozo Tenn, 193, 218
Thunder Gods Screens Great Tradition of Painting Methods of
Fujioka Sakutar, 2627, 39, 47n. 23 Our Country, The (Honch gah
Fujiwara no Teika, 15, 52, 58, 85, 133, 137, taiden), 28, 48n. 29, 216
139, 144, 150, 152, 153, 166n. 51 Greco-Buddhist art, 24
fukko yamato-e, 8, 218 Greco-Roman revival, 170
Fukui Rikichir, 6, 18n. 18, 6163, 73, Guangwu, 169
76nn. 17, 18, 77n. 30 gui, 28, 30, 35, 48nn. 30
Fukushima Masanori, 5455, 59 Gupta period, 210
funeboko (ship oat), 196198, Pl. 14 guzhou, 2829
Furukawa Miyuki, 58, 76n. 7
furukikotofumi (furukotobumi), 30 haikai, 87, 110, 218
Furuta Oribe, 137138 Hakuh period, 2324
fusuma, 83, 190, 218 Han Dynasty, 169
264 Index
Han Zhuo, 181182 Honch gashi. See History of Painting in
Hara Sankei, 61 This Realm
Hay, John, 22, 28, 45n. 3, 48n. 30 Honch jkan. See Mirror of Japanese
Hayami Gyosh, 69 Women
Hayashiya Tatsusabur, 67, 18nn. 19, 21, Honch teijo kagami. See Mirror of
80, 195 196, 204n. 25, 204n. 25, 204n. Japans Virtuous Women
36, 207, 221 Hrin Jsh, 87, 96n. 21, 204n. 36
Heian classicism, 7, 202 Humble Words on Matters of Painting
Heian Jing, 67 (Kaiji higen), 3135, 49n. 44, 50nn. 50,
Heian period; art of, 24, 46n. 9, 79, 92, 52, 53, 54, 9293, 97n. 31, 214
114; Buddhism in, 54; classical revival, Hyakunin isshu. See One Hundred Poets,
8081; culture, 2627, 109; palace One Poem Each
model, 34 Hyakunin isshu gaz. See Portraits of
Heianistic art, 207, 209, 210 One Hundred Poets
Heike monogatari (The Tale of Heike), Hyakunin isshu te-kagami. See One
218, 223 Hundred Poets Calligraphy
Heike nky. See Sutra Scrolls of the Model-book
Taira Family
hengaku, 140, 142143, 145146, 219 Ichinomiya Okiko (Empress Meish),
hikime kagibana, 114 174, 179, 184n. 15, 199, 203n. 10
Hishikawa Moronobu, 156157, 158, Igarashi Dho, 11, 213
158 Ihara Saikaku, 26
Histoire de lart du Japan, 37, 51n. 63 Ike no Taiga, 33, 48n. 31, 50n. 53, 214
History of Painting in This Realm, A Ikeda family, 90, 135
(Honch gashi), 10, 19n. 31 Ikeda Kikan, 29, 48n. 32
Hobsbawn, Eric, 26 Illustrated Guide to the Treasures of Itsu-
hgen (Dharma Eye), 28, 155 kushima (Itsukushima hmotsu zue),
Hgen-Heiji monogatari-zu senmen hari- 5657, 58, 59, 60, 60, 76n. 6
maze bybu. See Screens with Fans of Illustrated Handscroll of The Collection
A Tale of the Hgen War and A Tale of Japanese Poetry for One Thousand
of the Heiji War Years (Senzaish waka-kan), 6264, 64
hin (Dharma Seal), 27 Illustrated Handscroll of The New Col-
Hitsu school. See Sakai Hitsu lection of Ancient and Modern Japa-
hkaboko (showering down oat), 196 nese Poetry (Shinkokinsh waka-kan),
197, Pl. 15 6263, 63
Hokeky. See Lotus sutra Illustrations of Eight Views of Xiao and
hokky (Bridge of the Law), 53, 75n. 2, Xiang (Shsh hakkei-zu), 151152, 222
215, 216, 219 Images of Elegant Figures of One Hundred
hoko (Shinto oats), 193, 218 Poets (Fry sugata-e), 157, 158, 159
Honami Ketsu; art, 11, 43, 8081, 164n. Imay bijin jnikei. See Twelve Views of
13, 207, 213, 215216; and Japanese- Beautiful Women of Today
ness, 3839; Ketsu-kai, 6061; Immortal Poets Painting (kasen-e), 75,
Koyetsu-Korin school, 4041; One 133, 138141, 145147, 154155, 158
Hundred Poets, calligraphy in, 138; 159, 163n. 4, 220; kasen-e bybu, Pl. 10,
revival, 22, 41; style, 63 142146; kasen-e hengaku, 138, 140
Honch gah taiden. See Great Tradition 142, 145, 148. See also Thirty-Six Poets
of Painting Methods of Our Country Painting
Index 265
imperial court. See court Kanei no sanpitsu (Three Brushes of the
imperial palace, 34, 50n. 57, 81, 9193, Kanei Era), 138, 213215, 220
97n. 30, 175180, 184n. 16, 190193, 214 kanga (Chinese painting), 42, 143, 220,
Impressionism, 40 223; kangateki (Chinese-style paint-
individuality, 64, 74 ing), 181
Insei period, 144 Kano; art, 44; artists, 9, 15, 149, 159, 178,
iro-e tki (ceramics with enamel over- 190, 213, 214; atelier/school, 10, 15, 27,
glaze), 90, 214, 218 33; mode, 149; paintings, 128, 133, 134,
Ise monogatari. See Tales of Ise 135, 136, 136, 138, 143, 147, 150, 154, 155,
Itsukushima Shrine (Itsukushima Jinja), 156, 157, 158, 160, 165n. 39, 208; style,
54, 83, 146 152, 154; texts, 10, 19n. 31, 27
Iwasa Matabei (Matahei), 11, 37, 145, Kano Atsunobu, 191, 192, 203n. 17, 213,
165n. 38, 190, 203n. 8, 213; style of, 146 Pls. 1415
Iwasaki Yanosuke, 68, 71, 77n. 26 Kano Ein, 9n. 31, 213214
iwatoyama (mountain-grotto oat), 196 Kano Eitoku, 35, 214
197, Pl. 15 Kano Hidenobu, 191
Kano Masunobu, 155157, 156
Japaneseness, 13, 22, 39, 41, 45, 94 Kano Motonobu, 33, 141, 178, 213, Pl. 12
Japonisme, 25; age of, 42 Kano Sanraku, 11, 35, 142143, 213
Jetavana Monastery, 193194 Kano Sansetsu, 11, 213, 214
Jing (Empress), 197, 219 Kano Takanobu, 142143, 214
jdan-no-ma (upper chamber), 175, 181 Kano Tanshin, 153
Jokun sh. See Selected Lessons for Kano Tany; art, 9, 27, 48n. 27, 109,
Women 131n. 28, 134, 139140, 158, 214; atelier
Josetsu, 33, 178 of, 191; copybook, 136; painting at Ni-
Jukibon scroll, 64, 66 nomaru Palace, 15, 172177; Portraits
of the One Hundred Poets, painting of,
kachga (paintings of owers and birds), 135137, 135137, 145149; Teikas
9192, 152, 184n. 19, 219 Birds and Flowers, 152; Thirty-Six Im-
Kaempfer, Engelbert, 176, 185n. 25 mortal Poets, painting of, 143, 143
Kaiji higen. See Humble Words on Mat- Kano Tsunenobu, 154, Pl. 11
ters of Painting Kano Yasunobu, 19n. 31, 35, 134, 214
kakemono (kakefuku; hanging scroll), 83, Kara (Tang), 91, 97nn. 28, 29; kara-e
219 (Tang painting), 220, 223
Kakumeiki, 87, 204n. 36, 219 Karasumaru Mitsuhiro, 43, 8284,
Kamakura period, 24, 42, 95n. 10, 99, 141, 8687
159, 171 Kariganeya, 88, 198, 204n. 30, 215, 220
Kanamori Swa, 87, 95n. 10, 97n. 27, 220 kariginu (hunting robes), 144
kanazshi (prose literature in Japanese), kasen-e. See Immortal Poets Painting
9, 102 Katsura Detached Palace, 80, 222
kanazshi jokun, 86, 102111, 129n. 5, Keian era, 59
131nn. 24, 32, 219 Keich era, 63, 142
Kanbun era, 15, 138139 Keisai Eisen, 157, 159, 159
Kanei bunka (Kanei cultural phase), 6, Kejyubon, 54, 56, 57, 59, 59, 61
9, 18n. 20, 80, 97n. 27, 219 kenj no sji (32 Confucian Sages), 92,
Kanei era, 6, 75, 8182, 138, 146; Kanyei, 175
39 kiin (spirit resonance), 32
266 Index
Kimura Kenkad, 3134, 49n. 44, 50n. Kuki Ryichi, 37
52, 97n. 31 kurashishizumu (classicism), 1, 28. See
Kinch narabi ni kuge shohatto (Regula- also classical revival, classicism
tions for the Palace and Nobility), 104, Kurokawa Harumura, 58
220 Kuwayama Gyokush, 29, 3136, 49nn.
kinkishoga (Four Accomplishments), 91, 44, 55, 50nn. 50, 51, 53, 55, 60, 92, 97n.
175, 176179, 185n. 29 31, 214
Kinsei meika shoga dan. See Chats about Kyoto, 1516, 68, 8690, 93; art, 8, 14,
Calligraphy and Painting of Famous 18n. 20, 88, 114; aristocrats, 6, 91, 93,
Masters of Recent Times 148, 187; commoners, 188189, 198;
kirei sabi (beautiful and tranquil), 81, printing in, 9, 138; repressive govern-
95n. 10, 138, 220 ment, 198; scenes of, 190195, 221
Kishi Kkei, 60, 62, 76nn. 11, 12 Ky-Date-ke-bon hyakunin isshu gaj.
Kami Nagashige, 112113, 112 See Date Family One Hundred Poets
Kobayashi Tadashi, 33, 49n. 44 Picture Album
Kobori Ensh, 138
kd (incense game), 10. See also Genji Li, Chu-tsing, 28, 48n. 30, 183n. 4
k literati art. See Nanga
Ketsu-kai (Ketsu Association), 60, Liu Guandao, 176
95n. 5 Lotus Sutra (Hokeky), 54 64, 76n. 19
koga (old paintings), 3
Kohitsu Ryhan, 5861, 76n. 9, 147 machi-eshi (town painter), 11, 53, 221
koi (antique spirit), 2829, 3132, 34 machish (commoner townspeople), 6,
35, 44 18n. 21, 207209, 216
Kojiki. See Record of Ancient Matters maki-e (lacquer sprinkled with gold pow-
kojin (individual), 54 der), 55, 213, 221
kokka Shint (National Shinto), 5 makimono. See emaki
kokugaku, 29, 220 Manchu, 177
kokusaika (internationalization), 42 Mannerist art, 24
Komura Shrine, 142 Manp kashira-gaki hyakunin isshu
Kno Motoaki, 18n. 21, 27, 48n. 26, 176, taisei. See Ten Thousand Treasures
184n. 16 Annotated One Hundred Poets, One
Konoe Nobutada, 3336, 44, 93, 138, Poem Each Compilation
142143, 145, 164nn. 26, 29, 165n. 34, Masuda Don, 61, 62
214, Pl. 10 Matsudaira Sadanobu, 34
Korea, 5, 32, 185n. 32, 197198, 219 Matsushima Screens (Matsushima-zu
kosetsu (antique simplicity), 29, 3132, bybu), 53, 6467, 65, 67, 83, 8688
3435, 44 medievalism, 40
koten. See classics Meiji period, 35, 2829, 54, 79, 86,
koten fukk. See classical revival 97n. 29
kotenshugi. See classical taste meisho-e (pictures of famous places), 70,
kotenteki bijutsu. See old textlike art 151, 153, 221
koto, 122, 220 Mengzi, 29
Koyetsu-Korin school. See Honami merchant, 6, 9, 14, 6566, 8689, 171,
Ketsu 182, 187190, 195200, 217
kuge shohatto. See Kinch narabi ni Mi Fu, 30
kuge shohatto Middle Ages, 39, 100
Index 267
Ming Dynasty; art of, 3031, 100, 214 Nihonga (Japanese-style painting), 69,
215; emperor of, 179 221
Mirror for Instructing the Emperor (Tei- Nij Castle, 15, 169, 172178, 173, 180,
kan zusetsu), 174, 176, 178179, 179, 182, 185n. 38, 186n. 38, 200; Nij oshiro
185nn. 32, 33, 186n. 33 osashi-zu, diagram of, 173174, 180;
Mirror of Japanese Women (Honch j- Ninomaru Palace, 15, 169, 172173,
kan), 107109, 110121, 110, 118 175177, 186nn. 38, 39, 40, 41, 200;
Mirror of Japans Virtuous Women painting from Upper Chamber,
(Honch teijo kagami), 117, 118, 119 Grand Audience Hall, Pl. 13; Visita-
120, 120 tion Palace, diagram with, 174
mitate (parody), 13; mitate-e (parody pic- Ninomaru Palace. See Nij Castle
tures), 158, 221 Nonoguchi Ryho, 109
miyabi (courtliness), 6, 18n. 17 Nonomura Ninsei, 11, 9091, 214215
Mko shrai ekotoba. See Painted Hand- N jie. See Admonitions for Women
scroll of the Mongol Invasion Nyin Gosho (the empress retirement
Momoyama period, 6, 18n. 18, 24, 73, 81, compound), 191
9193, 101, 147
Mongols. See dattanjin ch dent no fukkatsu (rebirth of dynas-
monogatari (narratives), 68, 82, 8586, tic traditions), 80, 221
99, 221 Oda Nobunaga, 195
monzeki (courtly temples), 10, 82, 105, Ogata family, 198, 220
110, 130n. 14, 221 Ogata Kenzan, 59, 96n. 20, 215
Mori Tru, 134136 Ogata Krin, 14, 22, 3233, 35, 39, 43
Motoori Norinaga, 30, 34 45, 5354, 58, 62, 67, 68, 71, 79, 88,
Murasaki Shikibu, 102, 108110, 111, 115, 9193, 95n. 7, 96n. 20, 143, 215216,
119, 129n. 2, 130n. 16, 131nn. 27, 28, 144, 221222; Krin school, 38, 95n. 6;
218 style, 41, 71, 89
Murasaki Shikibu Viewing the Moon at hiroma (Grand Audience Hall), 180
Ishiyamadera, painting of, 109, 111 182
Muromachi period, 10, 16n. 2, 24, 39, 75, Okada Kiyoshi, 56
87, 137, 141, 147, 171, 176, 194195, 209 Okakura Kakuz, 4, 210, 221
my (exquisite), 32 okeshden (dressing chambers), 191, 221;
Carp in Golden Nets, painting of, 193
Nakanoin Michimura, 143 oku eshi (painter of the inner quarters),
Nanga (Southern school painting), 33 27, 221
36, 93, 214, 221 Okutaimensho (Inner Reception Hall),
Nara period, 24, 210 191, 221
Narrative Handscrolls of Annual Rites old textlike art (kotenteki bijutsu), 34,
and Ceremonies of the Court (Nenj 220. See also classicism
gyji emaki), 81, 95n. 12 mura Seigai, 5960
Nenj gyji emaki. See Narrative Hand- One Hundred Poets Calligraphy Model
scrolls of Annual Rites and Ceremonies Book (Hyakunin isshu tekagami),
of the Court 134136, Pl. 9
Neo-Classicism, 23 One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each
Neo-Confucianism, 106, 111, 130n. 17 (Hyakunin isshu), 15, 99, 133138,
Nihon bijutsushi (Japanese art history), 79 145146, 148149, 154, 155, 156, 159,
268 Index
210, 219; in album paintings and copy- Chinese, 40, 43; Japanese, 38. See also
book, 133137, 134, 135, 136, 137, 146 classical revival; classicism
151, 154, 154, 155, 156, Pl. 9; early ver- renga (linked verse), 137, 141142
sions, 137139; in handscroll paint- Rimpa, 14, 7980, 85, 92; artists, 11, 53,
ings, 143, 143; in hengaku paintings, 60, 63, 69, 7172, 75, 7980, 143, 215,
138; in prints, 138139, 139, 140, 156 221222; lineage, 73; painting style, 54,
157, 158, 159; in screen paintings, 143 59; patronage, 88
146, 149, Pl. 10; in uta-e, 155157 Room of Four Seasons, 191
Onna shisho. See Four Books for Women Roseneld, John, 8, 18n. 20, 19n. 29, 24,
Osaka Castle, 143 46n. 9
Otsubone (quarters for empress atten- Rough Sea Screens (Ariso bybu), 6566,
dants), 190, 221 86
oydono (bathing and relaxing area), 174, Russo-Japanese War, 5, 27, 39
184n. 16 rygawa ch (two-sided block), 196
Painted Handscroll of the Mongol Inva- Sakai Hitsu, 54, 59, 78n. 40, 88, 215;
sion (Mko shrai ekotoba), 176 school of, 72
Painting in the Far East, 41 Sakaki Hyakusen, 33
Pax Tokugawa, 209 samurai, 171172
Pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi Shrine, 70 Scenes In and Around Kyoto (rakuch
pine, 180182 rakugai-zu), 190, 221; screens of, 195,
Pleasures of the Shij Riverside Screens, 196
73, 74 Screens of a Pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi
Poetry Slips Attached to Cherry and Shrine (Sumiyoshi mde bybu), 67, 70
Maple Trees, screen paintings of, 198, Screens with Fans of A Tale of the Hgen
204n. 31 War and A Tale of the Heiji War
Portrait of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, (Hgen-Heiji monogatari-zu senmen
159, 160 harimaze bybu), 69, 77n. 29, 86
Portraits of One Hundred Poets Seiryden, 92, 184n. 16, 222
(Hyakunin isshu gaz), 134136, 135, Seiwa (Emperor), 193
136, 149150 Sekiya and Miotsukushi Chapters from
Private Guidelines for the Way of Paint- The Tale of Genji Screens (Genji
ing (Gad yketsu), 10, 19n. 31, 214 monogatari Sekiya-Miotsukushi-zu
proto-nationalist, 29, 36 bybu), 53, 8283, 70, Pl. 1; label on
packing bag, 70
Qing period, 177; painting of, 214 Selected Lessons for Women (Jokun sh),
107109, 108109, 119, 127
rakuch rakugai-zu. See Scenes In and Sen no Riky, 137
Around Kyoto sengoku jidai (age of the country at war),
rebirth of dynastic traditions. See ch 222
dent no fukkatsu senmen (fan), 69, 222
Record of Ancient Matters (Kojiki), 34, senmonka (professional painters), 32
219 Sennin (Chinese Immortals), 91, 175
Reigen (Emperor), 190 Sent Gosho, 184n. 13, 191, 222
Reizei Tamechika, 8 shell game, 104, 105
Renaissance, 1, 23, 27, 3840, 43, 73; Shij, 73, 74, 197
Index 269
shikishi (ornamental poem sheets), 85, Sumiyoshi school, 38, 215
137140, 143, 146, 163n. 7, 222 Supplemental Album of Antique Paint-
Shinden (Imperial apartments), 50n. 61, ings, The, 5859
92, 175, 191 Susanoo no Mikoto, 194
Shinkei, 142 Sutra Scrolls of the Taira Family (Heike
shinkoku (land of the deities), 5, 17n. 14 nky), 14, 5464, 55, 56, 57, 66, 74,
shintai, 115, 128 76nn. 4, 5, 19, 83, 219
Shinto, 5, 54, 67, 102, 106, 111, 141, 193
Shirane, Haruo, 17n. 13 , 26, 45, 47n. 22 Taira family, 54
Shishinden, 92, 222 Taish era, 54, 61, 63, 79
shoin, 222 Takahashi San, 62
Shkad Shj, 32, 44, 50n. 60, 93, 138, Takeno J, 137
215 Taketori monogatari. See Tale of the
shokunin uta-awase (imaginary poetry Bamboo Cutter
contest between different occupa- Taki Seiichi, 3839
tions), 143 Takuan Sh, 6566, 8688
Shokuruibon, 54, 57, 57, 60, 61 Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori
Shsh hakkei-zu. See Illustrations of monogatari), 170
Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang Tale of Genji, The (Genji monogatari),
Shbun, 33 1415, 42, 48n. 34, 99105, 115117,
Shugakuin, 80, 191, 196197, 201, 222; 119121, 129n. 2, 209, 218, 223; album
Reception Hall, 193, 194 paintings, 114120, 115, Pls. 47; hand-
Shko jisshu. See Ten Types of Collected scroll painting, 103, Pl. 3; printed illus-
Antiquities trations, 103106; screen paintings,
shukuzu, 19n. 30, 143, 222 53, 6771, 8284, 99106, 108109,
Sino-Japanese War, 5, 67 114, 117, 119126, 122125, 129n. 2, 155,
Soan One Hundred Poets (Soan-bon 209, 214, 218, 223, Pls. 38. See also
hyakunin isshu), 138, 139 Genji-e
Song Dynasty, 10, 39, 170, 177 Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari), 99100,
sshokuteki (decorative), 80, 95n. 7, 105, 219, 223; painting of, 42, 85, 92
222 Tanaka Chikayoshi, 61, 63, 76n. 16
Statsu-kai, 69 Tanaka Hidemichi, 24, 42, 46n. 10
Statsu school. See Tawaraya Statsu Tanaka Totsugen, 8
Southern school, 3336, 93; artists, 93. Tang Dynasty, 24, 30, 79, 91, 106, 170,
See also Nanga 175, 184n. 18, 210
suhama (shore), 65 Tani Bunch, 34
sukiya, 80, 222 Tani Shan, 6566, 86, 88
Suminoe Writing Box, 67, 68 Tansei jakubokush. See Biographies of
Suminokura Soan, 8081, 138, 139, 190, Japanese Painters
198 Tao Yuanming, 175176, 178179
Sumiyoshi Great Shrine, 6667, 71. See Tatars. See dattanjin
also Screens of a Pilgrimage to Tawaraya Ssetsu, 72, 215
Sumiyoshi Shrine Tawaraya Statsu; art, 7, 22, 3233,
Sumiyoshi Gukei, 11, 191, 203n. 17, 215 4145, 5355, 6365, 69, 7173, 75,
Sumiyoshi Hirotsura, 191 7980, 95n. 7, 138, 207, 210, 213, 215,
Sumiyoshi Jokei, 37, 40, 51n. 62, 81 222, Pls. 12; Heike nky, painting in,
270 Index
6165; Japaneseness, 39; methods, 35; Tosa Mitsunori, 114116, 115, 216
patrons of, 82, 86, 8889; school of, Tosa Mitsuoki, 11, 15, 2728, 40, 48n. 29,
82, 84; themes of, 9194; yamato-e 102103, 109, 111, 114118, 115, 123, 122
and, 14 125, 128, 129n. 4, 132n. 38, 134135, 137,
Teikan zusetsu. See Mirror for Instructing 142, 149150, 152153, 155, 158, Pls. 4
the Emperor 9
Teishitsu gigeiin (Imperial household Ty bijutsu taikan. See Compendia of
artist), 60 Asian Art, The
te-kagami, 135, 147 Toyotomi Hideyori, 142, 185n. 32
Ten Thousand Treasures Annotated One Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 142, 185n. 32, 198
Hundred Poets, One Poem Each Com- Tsunegoten (Ordinary living quarters),
pilation (Manp kashira-gaki 92, 191, 222
hyakunin isshu taisei), 138139, 140 Twelve Views of Beautiful Women of
Ten Types of Collected Antiquities (Shko Today (Imay bijin jnikei), 157, 159
jisshu), 34, 50n. 56
tenka taihei (peace under heaven), 8 ukiyo-e, 13, 38, 133, 156, 158, 213, 223
tennsei (imperial system), 5 Ukiyo zoshi (oating world), 26
Tenpy (Tempy) period, 24, 26, 46n. 8 ushin style, 153, 153
Thirty-Six Poets Painting, 139150, 143, uta-e (poem-pictures), 133, 151152, 154
156, 157; Narikane version, 138139; 156, 158, 163n. 2
New Thirty-Six Immortal Poets,
147148; Thirty-Six Immortal Poets Visitation Palace, 15, 169, 172174, 173
Album, 155157, 156157 174, 176, 179180, 182183
Three Essays on Oriental Painting, 38,
51n. 69 waka, 62, 87, 104, 111112, 121, 129n. 6,
Toba Sj, 32 137, 221, 223
Tfukumonin (Masako; Empress), 16, Wakimoto Tkur, 41, 51n. 79
181, 184n. 14, 187191, 197201, 202nn. Wang Mang, 169
1, 2, 204nn. 30, 31, 207, 220; patronage Wanli, 179
of art, 200, 222 warriors, 84, 86, 88, 90, 171172, 176,
Tokugawa; classicism, 16, 28, 36, 183; 178179, 189, 194196, 199
painting, 35, 37, 39, 4244, 213214, Wind and Thunder Gods Screens (Fjin-
216; period, 28, 37, 38, 44, 45n. 2, 133, Raijin-zu bybu), 53, 7173, 77n. 32,
200201 83, 8687, 96n. 20, Pl. 2
Tokugawa Hidetada, 1516, 83, 172
Tokugawa Iemitsu, 84, 173174, 180 Yamamoto Soken, 152
181 Yamane Yz, 41, 51n. 80, 96n. 15, 203n.
Tokugawa Ieyasu, 54, 81, 84, 104, 142, 13, 204nn. 30, 33
145, 158, 183n. 10, 200 yamato-e, 7, 1415, 19n. 25, 3840, 42
Tosa; atelier, 15; domain, 31; model, 150; 44, 69, 7475, 7980, 151, 154, 187,
painting, 43, 154; school, 27, 33, 38, 41, 189, 202, 208, 211, 213216, 221, 223
122, 133, 136, 143, 150, 154; style, 4041, yamato-e revival, 8, 42, 44, 64, 71
152 Yanagisawa Kien, 33
Tosa Hiromichi. See Sumiyoshi Jokei Yasaka Shrine. See Gion Festival
Tosa Mitsumochi, 216 Yashiro Yukio, 65, 67, 76nn. 20, 24
Tosa Mitsunari, 216 yorimachi (contributing blocks), 196
Index 271
Yuan Dynasty, 10, 30, 170, 176; painting Zhao Mengfu, 3031, 35
of, 39 Zhou period, 170
ygei (elegant pastimes), 199 Zhu Xi, 106, 130nn. 17, 18
Zen (Chan) Buddhism, 31, 8687, 137,

171, 178
272 Index
Production Notes for Lillehoj | critical perspectives
on classicism in japanese painting, 16001700
Cover and interior designed by April Leidig-Higgins

in Electra, with display type in Triplex.
Composition by Copperline Book Services, Inc.
Printing and binding by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Printed on 70 lb. Fortune Matte, 500 ppi

Critical Perspectives On Classicism in Japanese Painting, 1600-1700

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Judul Asli

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Critical Perspectives On Classicism in Japanese Painting, 1600-1700

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Critical

Edited by Elizabeth Lillehoj

University of Hawaii Press Honolulu

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

University of Hawaii Press books are printed on acid-

Designed by April Leidig-Higgins

Publication of this book has received generous support

List of Illustrations vii

Foreword | Samuel C. Morse xi

Introduction | Elizabeth Lillehoj 1

Chapter One | Melanie Trede 21

Chapter Two | Satoko Tamamushi 53

Chapter Three | Keiko Nakamachi 79

Chapter Four | Laura W. Allen 99

Chapter Five | Joshua S. Mostow 133

187 Chapter Seven | Elizabeth Lillehoj

207 Afterword | Quitman Eugene Phillips

213 Appendix: Artists and Schools

225 Kanji List

237 Selected Bibliography

Color plates follow page 132

figure 2.4. Ganmon scroll in the Illustrated Guide to the Treasures of 58

figure 2.5. Kejyubon scroll in the Illustrated Guide to the Treasures of 59

figure 2.6. Shokuruibon scroll in the Illustrated Guide to the Treasures 60

figure 2.7. Tawaraya Statsu, detached segment of Illustrated Handscroll 63

figure 2.8. Tawaraya Statsu, detail of Illustrated Handscroll of The 64

figure 2.9. Tawaraya Statsu, Matsushima Screens 65

figure 2.10. Cover of Jukibon chapter from the Heike nky 66

figure 2.11. Ogata Krin, Matsushima Screen 67

figure 2.12. Ogata Krin, Suminoe Writing Box 68

figure 4.1. Four Pairs of Shells, from a shell game 104

figure 4.2. Illustration from the Admonitions for Women 107

110 figure 4.5. Illustration from Mirror of Japanese Women

115 figure 4.8. Tosa Mitsunori, illustration for Channel Buoys

123 figure 4.11. Tosa Mitsuoki, First Warbler (left screen)

125 figure 4.12. Tosa Mitsuoki, New Herbs I (right screen)

127 figure 4.13. Illustration from Selected Lessons for Women

143 figure 5.8. Kano Tany, Pictures of Thirty-Six Immortal Poets

155 figure 5.10. Kano school, The Handmaid KoShikibu

figure 5.13. Hishikawa Moronobu, Images of Elegant Figures of One 158

figure 7.4. Shugakuin Reception Hall 193

figure 7.5. Floor plan, Shugakuin Reception Hall 194

plate 2. Tawaraya Statsu, Wind and Thunder Gods Screens

plate 4. Tosa Mitsuoki, illustration for An Autumn Excursion, Tale of

plate 7. Tosa Mitsuoki, illustration for Heartvine, Tale of Genji Album

plate 10. Anonymous, Screens of Immortal Poets Painting

plate 11. Kano Tsunenobu, The Style of Mystery and Depth

plate 12. Kano Motonobu (attrib.), Mongols Playing Polo (detail)

plate 13. Upper Chamber, Grand Audience Hall, Ninomaru Palace

plate 16. Anonymous, Gion Festival Screens (detail)

This book is based on a symposium, Classicism in Japanese Art of the Early

Chair, Board of Directors,

xii Samuel C. Morse

In Japan, the seventeenth century was a time of remarkable artistic innovation

The Classical Revival

seems to have been affected by a strong undercurrent of resistance to the To-

Thus art that referred to a classical pastwhether an age of elegant aristocrats,

contrasts with our [modern, Western] linear concept of time according to

Terminology and Ideology:

The Concept of Classicism

Classicism as a Disciplinary Category

Ideology and Canon Formation

The Chinese Terms Gudian and Gui