14 Japanese Painting


The Poetry of Nature Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection


further enhanced with screens and paintings from Te Met’s own collection. Tis enhancement is abetted even further with 14 pieces of modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics from the Fishbein-Bender Collection, much in the manner of a traditional display in an alcove where two works of art of different ages and materials visually coexist in harmony. Te painting collection really is a


Who’s Who and comprises some of Japan’s greatest 18th-century artists (see box below). Tere are 24 artists represented in this collection and because of the Fishbein-Bender’s search for balance in equal representation of styles, there is a noticeable absence of overlap. Te paintings, mentioned here, illustrate the balance on view with this unique group of paintings. Sakai Hoitsu’s Moon and Kudzu


Silkies (Ukokkei) by Mori Sosen (1747-1821), Edo period, before 1807, hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk, 85.7 x 129.5 cm, Fishbein-Bender Collection. Photo: John Bigelow Taylor


By Martin Lorber


Edo, a small fishing village, became Japan’s capital in 1603 as the new Tokugawa shogunate government wanted to be situated far from Kyoto. It grew into a very large and prosperous merchant-based town. Te population grew so that by the 1770s, it was the largest city in the world. An art style called ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) was born there and grew into one of the most recognisable Japanese art-styles known. During the Edo period (1615-1868),


ukiyo-e certainly


comprised a widespread and prolific group of artists from the late 17th century through to the end of the Meiji period, but it was created for the citizens of Edo and catered to their middle and lower-class tastes, mainly for courtesans, actors, brothels, public strolls and landscapes. However, it was not about paintings. Te Fishbein-Bender Collection is


therefore a world apart from the print-craze of the Edo period and was created during a long-term journey for both the late Mr T Richard


whom they consulted and acquired a wide range of paintings that suited their personal taste. Tey were both long-time supporters of Te Met and began to feel that the collection should serve a purpose greater than themselves and were inspired by the donation of the Burke Collection to the museum. Tey had already donated some paintings to Te Met and most of those on exhibition here are promised gifts. Tey began discussing this matter of exposition and donation with John T Carpenter, the Mary


Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese art at Te Met. Te three worked closely together to create a plan by which the collection could not only be better known, but also fit seamlessly with Te Met’s own famous collection of Japanese paintings. Te celebration of the natural


world serves as a unifying theme, and the distinctive interaction of poetry and the pictorial arts that is fundamental to Japanese tradition are a particular focus of the exhibition. In the show there are 33 paintings from this remarkable collection, which is


The collection is a Who’s Who of Japan’s greatest artists


Yosa Buson (1716-1783) Tanomura Chikuden (1777-1835) Tsubaki Chinzan (1801-1854) Eishosai Choki


(late 18th/early 19th century) Chobunsai Eishi (1756-1829) Togensai Eishu


Fishbein and his wife,


Dr Estelle Bender, who were looking for an art form that they could both enjoy. Because of Dr Bender’s prior acquaintance with Japanese art and Mr Fishbein’s having already been to Japan, Japanese art became their obvious choice. Tey finally decided that Edo paintings would be perfect for them. Tey loved the peaceful and sophistication of them and the fact that there were numerous schools with differing measures and techniques from which to choose. Tey began to slowly collect paintings – but only paintings of a peaceful nature. As the number of scrolls began to grow, they became friends with Leighton Longhi, Joan Mirviss, Koichi Yanagi, and others, with


ASIAN ART MARCH 2018


Herb Gatherers in the Mountains by Yosa Buson (1716-1783), Edo period, circa 1780, hanging scroll, ink and colour on satin, 135.5.x 62 cm, Fishbein-Bender Collection. Photo: John Bigelow Taylor


(late 18th/early 19th century) Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) Matsumura Goshun (1752-1811) Ike Gyokuran (1727/28-1784) Nakamura Hochi (? -1819) Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828) Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) Suzuki Kiitsu (1796-1858) Hishikawa Moronobu (circa 1618-1694) Sakai Oho (1808-1841) Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795) Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799) Soga Shohaku (1730-1781) Mori Sosen (1747-1821) Ike no Taiga (1723-1776) Kano Tan’yu (1602-1674) Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814) Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891)


Vine displays his mastery of the Rinpa School of adding colours to planes in such a way as to make them appear to flow into and around each other. His choice of this wild and invasive vine displays his sensitivity to the beauty of simple nature without the attraction of flowers. Hoitsu’s father was a daimyo (feudal lord) of Himeji castle and after the young man moved to Kyoto, he began studying the classic Kano School. Ten followed by a version of testing the waters, because he then studied under the ukiyo-e master, Utagawa Toyoharu. From there he studied the Maruyama School under Watanabe Nangaku, then the nanga (southern literati painting in the Chinese style) under So Shiseki and, finally, settled on the Rinpa School, fortunately for us. John T Carpenter, in the accompanying catalogue comments


‘Te Rinpa


School literally means ‘school of Korin’, in reference to the early 18th- century Kyoto artist Ogata Korin, who is considered the founding figure of the school. Yet Rinpa’s true origins are in the early 17th-century painting innovations of Tawaraya Sotatsu, which themselves were rooted in yamato-e, or traditional


‘Japanese-


style painting’. Rinpa also tapped into the golden age of Japanese courtly literature – especially the Tale of Ise and the Tale of the Genji from the Heian period (794-1185) – as well as the vast corpus of waka,


the


predominant form of courtly poetry. Sakai Hoitsu was consequently recognised as the most crucial advocate of the Sotatsu-Korin style of painting in the early 19th-century Edo.


Mori Sosen’s Ukokkei (Silkies) a


group of black and white chickens, depicted with minimal ground, harks back to the Chinese tradition of admiring chickens, a tradition epitomised in


the tiny, enamelled


porcelain ‘chicken cups’ made for the Chenghua Emperor. Known as the master of depicting fur, many of his paintings are of macaques from northern Japan. He accomplished the completely natural and ‘touchable’ quality of the fur, as can also be seen in


the depiction of ermine in


Hyacinthe Rigaud’s (1659-1743) portraits of Louis XIV and XV. Yosa Buson was considered one of


the greatest poets of the 18th century, as well as a master painter. Te scholar, the late James Cahill, observed that


Standing Courtesan by Hishikawa Moronobu (circa 1618-1694), Edo period, hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk, 68.6 x 31.1 cm, Fishbein-Bender Collection. Photo: John Bigelow Taylor


‘Te third emergence of poetic painting, after its strongest Chinese manifestations in the late Song and late Ming dynasties, is in late Edo- period Japan, especially in Kyoto and especially in the works of Yosa Buson’ (Cahill, 1996). Te poet-artist was best known for his superb placement of his brushstrokes whether in traditional Chinese style or in the manner of the Nanga School. Herb Gatherers in the Mountains is a bucolic scene of peasants at their tasks within a framework of a mountainside executed in beautifully shaded ink. Te catalogue description explains that the idea of Daoist ‘herb gatherers’ dates back to ancient China, when the subject was popularised by the legend of the sage-doctors Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao who, in their search for medicinal herbs, scaled Mount Tiantai, a sacred mountain in China. Japanese Literati painters consequently loosely embraced this theme. Te artist’s works are emotionally linked to the Fishbein- Bender Collection – Deer in Moonlight, bought in honour of Mr Fishbein’s 60th birthday, whilst the more energetically brushed Herb Gatherers in the Mountains was one of the collectors’ final acquisitions before Mr Fishbein’s untimely death in October 2014. Sakai Hoitsu was the scion of Hakuin Ekoku is possibly best- known of all the Zenga (Zen paintings) masters. In the example here, he wielded a thick brush with simple, but boldly masculine strokes


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