6 Japanese Art


Tiger (1786) by Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799), detail from a set of six sliding door panels, ink on paper, Muryo-ji, Kushimoto. Important Cultural Property


ROSETSU Ferocious Brush


For eight weeks, Japan’s most famous tiger is on show in Zurich. Te legend states that Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754– 1799) painted this monumental tiger in a single night in the year 1786, together with its counterpart, a dragon, on the sliding door panels (fusuma) of the Zen temple Muryo ji in Wakayama prefecture, Kansai region on Honshu. Now the entire temple’s painted walls and a number of other works by Rosetsu are on show – for the first time outside Japan. Renowned as one of the most


eccentric and imaginative artists in early modern Japan, Nagasawa Rosetsu produced visually exciting, classification-defying works during his brief career. His highly dynamic and


individualistic paintings were


created with vigorous brushstrokes and sometimes even with his fingers in a method called shitoga (using fingers and hands rather than brushes). However, Rosetsu also created more delicate compositions that were painted with fine brushes in a rich colour palette that are replete with energy, wit, which still retain huge appeal for a modern audience. Rosetsu, who came from a low-


ranking samurai family, gained his reputation among art circles in the imperial capital Kyoto and its neighbouring regions with his untamed personality and his unusual talent. He is often seen as the least well-known of the three Edo period (1603-1868) eccentric painters (kijin), the others being Soga Shohaku and Ito Jakuchu. Perhaps this is because his achievements have failed to eclipse the popularity of the most important works of his teacher, Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795). However, as a student, he was to become known as one of the best disciples of Okyo.


Rosetsu mastered the superlative realism of his


teacher that combined the indefinite spatial articulations of traditional Japanese painting and went on to develop his own unique style. Okyo’s new school of painting was in direct contrast to the established schools of the time: the Kano, Rimpa, and Tosa styles that originated in the Muromachi, Momoyama and early Edo periods. Te new painting styles that developed can be loosely classified into two categories: the individualist or eccentric style and the bunjin-ga, literati painting style. Tese individualist painters were influenced by non-traditional sources such as Western painting perspectives and scientific studies of nature and who frequently portrayed unexpected themes, or techniques, to create unique works


reflecting their own


unconventional personalities. Te Maruyama school believed in


and taught direct observation of nature and encouraged a sense of realism in painting.


A fusion of Western


naturalism and the Eastern decorative style of the Kano School. Te first master, Maruyama Okyo, who also


founded the school, was dedicated to these principles and created pictures sketched from life rather than copying past masterpieces (which the Kano School encouraged – it was the


‘establishment’ school and considered the most famous and influential school of Japanese painting). Te Maruyama artists’ works were filled with what they saw around them – birds, fish, monkeys, flowers, and plants in every stage of growth and season; they also paid attention to the weather, be it the moodiness of rain, or the atmosphere of a cloudless moonlight night. However, Rosetsu, took a strikingly different path to subject matter than the other pupils of Okyo and turned away from his master’s more disciplined and studied approach to composition and started to develop his own individual, freer style. It seems by 1781 whilst continuing


to work under the auspices of Okyo’s school, he established his own studio and managed to cultivate his own benefactors, whilst continuing to work under Okyo.


Tiger and Sparrows by Nagasawa Rosetsu, circa 1792-1794, detail from a set of eight sliding panels, ink and light colour on paper, Yakushiji, Nara. Nara City Designated Cultural Property


From 1786, when Rosetsu left


Kyoto to produce screen paintings for Buddhist temples, this spontaneity and freer expression can be seen in his works, in direct contrast to Okyo’s careful pseudo-realism. By the time he returned to Kyoto, the elements of an eccentric


style had become well established in his own painting style.


At this point in his career, most of his important commissions came from Zen temples. Gregg Baker, the London dealer, comments on this period in Rosetsu’s life: On Okyo’s recommendation Rosetsu left for southern Kii Province (now Wakayama Prefecture) in 1786 and stayed for a year at the Muryo-ji, Sodo-ji and Joju-ji temples of the Zen Buddhist sect. Rosetsu created over 140 wall and screen paintings during this short period of time, most of which have been designated Important Cultural Properties. He was in his mid-thirties when he executed these works yet they survive in these temples to this day, they are, without exception, paintings.


very ambitious Rosetsu was an Dragon (1786) by Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799), detail from a set of six sliding panels, ink on paper, Muryo-ji, Kushimoto. Important Cultural Property ASIAN ART SEPTEMBER 2018


extraordinarily versatile artist, at times close to the suiboku (literally water and ink) style of the Muromachi school of painting, and at others borrowing themes from ukiyo-e masters and painting famous Bijin (beauties). He often combined the bold composition of the Rimpa School with the humour of Zenga, frequently using a flat brush, or holding the brush in a slanting position, using different tones of ink in the same broad stroke. Occasionally the artist worked in a sort of Western technique called doro-e, a thick paint mixed with Chinese white, byobu (screens) commonly appear in pairs, each screen consisting of two or more, folding screens. Te exhibition has a diverse range of Rosetsu’s works from scrolls depicting birds and flowers in brilliant polychrome pigments to large-scale sliding doors (fusuma) made for temples, as well as byobu, with works depicting fantastic landscapes, bizarre


Chicken and Roses (1786) by Nagasawa Rosetsu, from a set of eight sliding panels, ink and light colour on paper, Muryo-ji, Kushimoto. Important Cultural Property


Monkey on a Rock, by Nagasawa Rosetsu, circa 1792-1794, detail from a framed panel, ink and colour on gold ground. Private Collection, Japan


Cranes Flying Past Mount Fuji (1794) by Nagasawa Rosetsu, hanging scroll, ink and light colour on silk. Private collection, Japan


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