Kendi

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Kendi in the Cultural Context of Southeast Asia

Dawn F. Rooney

QUOTE
©　Dawn F. Rooney

Introduction

The kendi is a well-known form in the Southeast Asian repertoire of vessels, and it has played a significant role in the rituals and daily life of the region since ancient times. Made of precious metal such as gold, silver or bronze, the kendi and its precursor, the kundika, appear in sculpture and painting as an attribute often held in a hand of the Hindu gods Brahma and Shiva, Maitreya the future Buddha and the compassionate Avalokitesvara (in Mahayana Buddhism). It was used as a ritual container for holy water, collected from sacred rivers and blessed by the gods, in the coronation ceremony of a king, who cleansed himself with the water as a symbol of purification.

The renowned ceramic centres in Thailand, China, Japan and Vietnam produced ritualistic kendi made of fired clay and covered with an unctuous greenish glaze or painted with symbolic motifs. It was so revered in Indonesia and the Philippines that it served as furniture accompanying the dead to their grave. The kendi was treasured enough in these two countries to become an heirloom that was passed down through the generations. The decorated ceramic form of the kendi even attracted the European market, and was depicted in Dutch and German still life paintings, and copied in Delftware. At the other end of the spectrum, the kendi made of unglazed fired clay has a long, continuous history of use as a humble, utilitarian vessel that was ideal for its cooling properties and for its portability, such as carrying water when travelling from village to village or for a longer journey by boat.

Despite its widespread popularity, versatility and longevity, the history of the kendi is fraught with unanswered questions, lacunae in knowledge of development and distribution, and the lack of a standardised definition of the form, which gives rise to misconceptions.
The kendi is defined in this article as a vessel with a round body, tall neck, mouth, a spout on the shoulder and a flat base. The two openings make the kendi suitable for both pouring and drinking liquids. It is distinguished from other pouring vessels such as a jug/pitcher or flagon by the absence of a handle. The presence of a spout on the shoulder places it in the broader typology of a spouted vessel. To drink from a kendi, grasp the neck with one hand; place the other on the base for support if desired; hold the vessel away from the body, point the spout towards the mouth and slowly tilt it to start the water flowing. As the lips never touch the spout, the kendi is a hygienic and convenient communal drinking vessel.


Kundika: a prototype for the kendi
'Kendi' is a Malay word derived from the Sanskrit name 'kunda,' which came from 'kundika' a particular form of Indian vessel used as a container for liquids in both Hindu and Buddhist ceremonies. It has an oval- or globular-shaped body, a tall neck with a small mouth separated by a circular flange and a cup-shaped spout (often with an attached lid) on the shoulder. Although both vessels have two openings in the same positions, they function in reverse of each other. Liquid is poured into the kundika through the spout and out by the mouth; whereas the kendi is filled from the mouth and the liquid is poured out the spout.
Other differences between the kundika and the kendi, are the length of the neck and the shape of the spout. Nevertheless the linguistic link, stylistic similarities and common function support the kundika as a prototype for the kendi.

The kundika was probably transported from India to Southeast Asia in the first wave of contact between the two regions along with Buddhism and Hinduism. Although it is unknown how the transmission took place, a generally accepted hypothesis is that around 2,000 years ago sea routes between India and China were established for trade. Ships initially plied the coastline between the two destinations because of limited shipbuilding techniques and navigation skills and a lack of knowledge about the cycle of the monsoon. Stopovers at coastal ports were necessary to replenish supplies of water and fresh food and they often lasted six months waiting for the monsoon to change direction and bring favourable winds to continue the voyage.

Such long lapses in port gave rise to intermarriages between foreign men and native women. Indian ideas infiltrated the local culture and gradually spread inland to the river valleys where early kingdoms of Southeast Asia - Srikshetra by the Irrawaddy; Dvaravati in the Chao Phraya basin; and Champa and Funan in the Mekong delta-formed.

Although elaborately modelled metal and richly glazed ceramic kundika were products of the Tang Dynasty (618-906). A tenth century ink drawing from Cave 17 at Dunhuang, showing a kundika beside a meditating monk, testifies to the presence of the form in northwest China at that time, and suggests that it was a ritual vessel associated with Mahayana Buddhism. (End Note i) Not surprisingly, the kundika was also produced in Japan and Korea where the same strain of Buddhism as in northwest China was practised. Within Southeast Asia, the kundika is far rarer but it does appear in scenes carved in relief on the walls of the ninth century Mahayana Buddhist temple of Borobudur in central Java. The Buddha sits cross-legged with a kundika on his left, and devotees present offerings on his right (Plate 1).

Little evidence exists to support either the wide or extended use of the kundika in Southeast Asia; by the end of the first millennium its successor, the kendi, was the preferred form of spouted vessel. The popularity of one type over the other is probably related to the different function of the vessels. The kundika was made of precious metal and used as a container for holy water in rituals and ceremonies associated with deities and royalty, whereas the function of the kendi as an unglazed drinking vessel had a broader use that extended to everyone, not just the elite. It could be produced economically from local materials, and thus met the daily needs of the people.


Problems of origin, influences and sources
Identifying the origin of and influences for the kendi is plagued by several problems. India has long been considered the source for the form, and China for the potting technology. One scholar, at least, has challenged the idea of the kendi having an Indian origin. Drawing on ethnographic, archaeological and religious data, she has questioned whether or not an etymological link is sufficient evidence to assume that the form itself originated in India. (EN ii) And the argument against China as a source for the potting technology is that earthenware kendi, reflecting skilful manipulation of the material and a clear understanding of the technology, was produced in Southeast Asia before the arrival of Chinese ware.

Primary sources are limited. Stone inscriptions refer to silver and gold kendi-like forms but since precious metal is easily melted and reused, material evidence of these sumptuous vessels has not survived. Also, translations of the Sanskrit inscriptions may have resulted in different interpretations of the forms. Southeast Asian textual sources are rare, which leaves only foreign accounts, and these are apt to be viewed from the perspective of the author's own culture, thus rendering a distorted account. Carvings on stone reliefs are another valuable source of information. The reopening in 1991 of the historical site of Angkor, in northwest Cambodia, a kingdom who's power extended over most of mainland Southeast Asia between the ninth and the mid-fifteenth centuries, allows firsthand study of the extensive carvings in relief on the temples. While accessibility to this corpus of visual references adds another dimension to our knowledge, it should be used judiciously because it is not possible to determine from the carvings the material of which the vessels were made.

The majority of forms carved on the walls of the temples at Angkor appear to be made of metal based on stylistic features such as an angular profile, sharp junctures at the neck, multiple flanges around the mouth rim and a predominance of ridges. However, similar Khmer kendi in glazed stoneware are also known. Additionally, the carvings are not clearly defined, either through intent, erosion, or perhaps a lack of completion, which makes exact identification of the form difficult to determine. Lastly, the wares themselves are a source of study, including shards from controlled excavations. Even surface finds such as hundreds of spouts found at a possible kiln site near Bagan in Myanmar (formerly Burma) can provide an indication of potting, clay, form, surface treatment, etc. (Plate 2).


Indigenous kendi
If not India or China, where does one look for sources of the kendi's origin and influence? An indigenous Thai origin, where kendi-like vessels of the prehistoric period and early Dvaravati culture (500-700) are known, has been suggested. (EN iii) Searching further, it is evident that the unglazed kendi was produced extensively at early sites in the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, yet little research has been conducted or attention given to this aspect of the total kendi production. Conversely, considerable research has been undertaken on the later glazed kendi that was made as trade ware, and which has been found in excavations of habitation and burial sites in Southeast Asia. The results of this research have helped to establish a chronology and to determine a distribution pattern for the glazed kendi. When our knowledge of the glazed form is juxtaposed with the lack of information on the un-glazed kendi, the disparity between the two reveals a lacuna that needs addressing before we can achieve an understanding of the complete history of the kendi in Southeast Asia.

Fortunately, efforts are underway with recent archaeological work and new discoveries at various sites. A cache of unglazed buff-coloured kendi found recently in Sisophon Province, northwestern Cambodia, near the border of Thailand and dated to around the sixth century by the National Museum of Phnom Penh, revealed a previously unknown form (Plate 3). (EN iv) Although the site has already been looted, a substantial number of kendi were retrieved and can at least provide stylistic comparisons.

Archaeologists are re-investigating the ancient Indian-influenced site of Oc Eo in the Mekong Delta (today Vietnam) and the University of Hawaii/East-West Center and the Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh have conducted research at the site of Angkor Borei in Takeo Province, southern Cambodia since 1995. Both sites date from 100 to 550 and research shows that Oc Eo and Angkor Borei are linked by a network of canals. (EN v) Kendi with a globular body and fine textured paste that fired to a buff colour have been retrieved as surface finds at Angkor Borei and post-date the third century. (EN vi)

A rare, sophisticated form, the so-called 'white kendi', was produced in the Ban Kok Moh kilns at Santingpra in peninsular Thailand between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries. A fine-textured white clay from local quarries was used for the low-fired, unglazed earthenware. A round ody with a short foot and flat base supports a tall neck with a flange at the mouth and a long, tubular spout on the upper part of the body. (EN vii) The high aesthetic and technical standards of this type of kendi suggest it was made for a discriminating market, perhaps the Kingdom of Srivijaya in Indonesia. The discovery of a canal linking the Ban Kok Moh kiln site to the Gulf of Thailand has been discovered and suggests it may have been used to transport ceramics for export to Srivijaya. White kendis have been found in Central and East Java.

Excavations at Trowulan in Indonesia, which was probably a major centre of the powerful Majapahit Kingdom (1293-c. 1520) that ruled in East Java, Madura and Bali in Indonesia, confirm a locally produced kendi with thin walls, a round body with a smooth burnished surface, a neck sufficient for grasping and a narrow and a conical spout that ends in a pointed tip. Another kendi excavated at the same site is the forerunner to the so-called mammary spout of the sixteenth century that draws its inspiration from the female breast and symbolises fertility.

At approximately the same time as the white ware of southern Thailand was in production, the kendi form appeared in the repertoire of vessels produced under the direction of the Khmer Empire, which by the eleventh century had extended its territorial boundaries over much of northeastern Thailand. Stone reliefs at the Bayon, the state temple built by Jayavarman VII, in the late twelfth to early thirteenth century, depict a kendi that swells from a narrow base on a low pedestal to a broad shoulder with a slightly curved neck placed upright on the shoulder; a tiered flange on the mouth and lid. The position, held close to the body, signifies a gesture of respect used for presenting objects to kings and gives insight to the function of the Khmer kendi as a ceremonial vessel (Plate 4).


Imported trade wares
Along with the indigenous production of the kendi in southern Thailand and the glazed Khmer form, the export of Chinese ceramics to Southeast Asia was increasing rapidly, and reached a steady level in the tenth century. Between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, Chinese glazed stoneware produced in Guangdong and Fujian provinces was exported in quantities to ports of the Nanhai ('the South Seas'), the Chinese name of what is known today as Southeast Asia. Although the Chinese kendi has been found in abundance in the Philippines and Indonesia, it is uncommon in China. It seems likely, therefore, that it was made in China mainly for commercial purposes and specifically as an export item for the Southeast Asian market.

As the Majapahit Kingdom was flourishing, China underwent a decline in the southern maritime trade to Southeast Asia due to the move of the capital back to the north by the powerful Mongols (Yuan Dynasty, 1280-1368). The Thais and the Vietnamese quickly recognised the vacuum created in the market, and they began to export fine-quality glazed stoneware to markets that were formerly dominated by China. A typical kendi of the Si Satchanalai (Sawankhalok) kilns in north central Thailand has a graceful, sloping profile, a tall, cylindrical neck with a flange near the mouth and a mammary spout on the shoulder (Plate 5). Quantities of Thai and Vietnamese ceramics have been excavated from fifteenth and sixteenth century burial sites in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, production of the glazed kendi for the Southeast Asian market continued in China and Japan. The form of this phase of production is characterised by exaggerated appendages on the neck, such as a lip turned back like a collar, animal-shaped bodies and a so-called onion-shaped spout. Many kendi of this period made in China were fitted in Indonesia on the mouth and the opening of the spout with carved silver or brass mountings for decoration.


The Metal Connection
Comparative examples of metal and ceramic kendi leave little doubt of a close relationship between the two materials. Each probably influenced the other at various times, dictated by the availability of material and the economics of production. A limited supply of metal, for example, may have caused production to turn to ceramic as an alternative. Reliefs on temple walls testify to the use of the kendi in temple rituals and therefore suggest its importance as a vessel, regardless of the material (Plate 6). Precious metals were highly revered in the ancient societies of Southeast Asia. Craftsmen of the region mastered the manipulation of the material, producing kendi of exceptionally beautiful form (Plate 7). John Guy presents a convincing argument for a continual reliance of ceramic on metal, and cites the kundika-kendi as a model example of the cross over between the two materials. (EN viii)


Conclusion
In conclusion, an examination of the research on the kundika/kendi type of spouted vessel in a Southeast Asian context reveals an imbalance. More work is needed to determine the history of the unglazed kendi. There is growing evidence to support a Southeast Asian origin of the form, although the region's debt to at least some input from India and China must be acknowledged. Even if scholars may not agree on the origin of the kendi, it seems likely that the metal form of the kundika was transferred from India to Southeast Asia in the beginning centuries of this era along with the transmission of Buddhism and Hinduism, and was used as a ritual vessel until the end of the first millennium when the kendi became the dominant form of spouted vessel in the region.

The concentration of research on the kendi as trade ware has overshadowed the important development of the unglazed version of the form in Southeast Asia in the first millennium, and thus presented an unbalanced view of the total evolution. The possibility that local centres producing a low-fired, earthenware spouted vessel may already have been operating by the time the kundika reached Southeast Asia needs further examination. It seems clear, however, that from early times two streams of development for the spouted vessel in Southeast Asia were taking place and with continuing research on the early sites we move closer to an understanding of the total evolution of the kendi in a Southeast Asian cultural context.

•

Photographs by Dawn Rooney
Drawings by Pattanapong Varanyanon


An art historian specialising in Southeast Asia, Dawn Rooney is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical and the Royal Asiatic Societies in London and an advisor to the Society for Asian Art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Dr. Rooney, who has lived in Thailand for the past three decades and is the author of eight books on the culture of the region, including a definitive guide to Angkor. She was awarded a Scholar in Residence at The Rockefeller Foundation Study Center in Bellagio, Italy in 2002 where she wrote her latest book, Thai Buddhas (Bangkok, River Books, 2003). Dr. Rooney's current project is to preserve her research material on Southeast Asia through the creation of an online digital archive, generously funded by the James H,W. Thompson Foundation.

Select Bibliography
Adhyatman, Sumarah, 'Kendis, Jars and Other Ceramics: Their Role in Indonesia,1 Paper presented at a conference, Asian Ceramics: Potters, Users, and Collectors,' The Field Museum, Chicago, 7-9 October 1994.

_______ , Kendi, Traditional Drinking Water Container, Jakarta, The Ceramic Society of Indonesia, 1987.

Bhumadhon, Phuthorn, 'Ceramics of the Dvaravati Period in Early Thailand, 6th to 10th Centuries, A.D.' Paper read at the Field Museum's and ACRO's Asian Ceramics Conference, May 1996.

Brown, Roxanna M., The Ceramics of South-East Asia: Their Dating and Identification, 2nd edition, Singapore, Oxford University Press,
1988.

_______ , ed., Guangdong Ceramics from Butuan and other Philippine sites, Manila, the Philippines, Oriental Ceramic Society of the Philippines & Oxford University Press, 1989.

Fisher, Robert E., Buddhist Art and Architecture, London, Thames and Hudson, 1993.

Guy, John, 'Southeast Asian Glazed Ceramics: A Study of Sources,' in New Perspectives on the Art of Ceramics in China, George Kuwayama,ed., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 98-114.

Higham, Charles, Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia, Bangkok, River Books, 2002.

Honda, Hiromu and Noriki Shirnazu, The Beauty of Fired Clay: Ceramics from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Introduction by Dawn F. Rooney, Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1997.

Indrawooth, Phasook, 'Kendis from Peninsular Thailand, in Muang Boran Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan-Mar 1984.

Kendis: A Guide to the Collections National Museum Singapore, 1984.

Luce, G.H., Old Burma - Early Pagan, Ascona and New York, 1969-70, vol. I.

Nugrahani, D.S., 'Exploring Indonesian Kendi,' TAASA Review, Australia, vol. 5, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 6-7.

Ridho, Abu, White Kendis; Sumarah Adhyatman, Burmese Ceramics Bulletin, Jakarta, The Ceramic Society of Indonesia, May 1985, pp. 42-52.

Rooney, Dawn F., Khmer Ceramics, Singapore, Oxford University Press, 1984.

_________, Folk Pottery in South-East Asia, Singapore, Oxford University Press, 1987.

Sakai, T., The Origin of the Kendi PouringVessel, A Preliminary Note on Its Typological Study,' Journal of East-West Maritime Relations, vol 2,1992 (NB: Waseda University]

Singh, R C. Prasad, 'Spouted Vessels in India,' Potteries in Ancient India, B. P. Sinha, ed, Patna, Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, Patna University, 1969, pp. 118-123.

Soegondho, Santoso, Earthenware Traditions in Indonesia: From Prehistory until the Present, Jakarta, Ceramic Society of Indonesia, n. d..

Spinks, Charles Nelson, The Ceramic Wares of Siam, Bangkok, The Siarn Society, 1965.

Stark, Miriam, 'Pre-Angkor Earthenware: Ceramics from Cambodia's Mekong Delta,' UDAYA Qournal of Khmer Studies), April 2000, pp. 69-89.

Sweetman, John and Nicol Guerin, The Spouted Ewer and its relatives in the Far East, An Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition in the Barlow Gallery. University Library, Falmer, Brighton, University of Sussex, 1983.



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Endnotes
i Fisher (1993) Thames and Hudson, pit 95, p. 103.

ii Nugrahani (March 1996) 'Exploring Indonesian kendi', TAASA Review, vol.5, no.l, pp.6-7).

iii Bhumadhon (May 1996).

iv Personal conversations with the Director, October 2001.

v Higham (2002) River Books, p.236.

vi Stark (April 2002), p.79.

vii For examples of Satingpra-type ware, see Guangdong Ceramics, pit 150-4.

viii Guy (1992)

PHOTOS are on this original page
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Arts and Crafts

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A question of intention

QUOTE
©　Japan Times, C. B. LIDDELL

New works ask 'What's art and what's craft?'

How valid is the distinction between crafts and arts? A number of recent exhibitions, most notably "Roppongi Crossing" at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum and "Space for Your Future" at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tokyo, have confronted us with this question, one that is of great relevance to Japanese art.

Back in the late 19th century, when Japan first encountered Western styles of art, the nation's artistic and intellectual elite cheerfully embraced a division between the two categories of creativity. But nowadays the hierarchy that once placed artists comfortably above craftsmen is starting to look shaky, with curators constantly blurring the lines between the two classes, almost as if they were jubilantly overturning a cruel system of aesthetic apartheid.

Encouraged by this curatorial trend, the Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, is the latest to challenge the dichotomy with "The Power of Crafts — Outlook for the 21st Century," the second of a two-part exhibition of crafts commemorating the 30th anniversary of its foundation. While the first part chronicled the gallery's history, the current exhibition, which runs till Feb. 17, attempts to set an agenda for the future, positing a borderless world where creators move effortlessly between the old categories.

In the exhibition's catalog, curator Masahiro Karasawa seems almost to be penning a manifesto. "A byproduct of that concept (the differentiation between art and craft) is the arts' snobbish sense of superiority over the crafts, which we must recognize once again as the purely alien, Western phenomenon it is," he writes, adding a strain of national assertiveness to an international debate.

The exhibition then is an attempt to embody a philosophy of aesthetic creation that emphasizes materials and working methods over the ideas, visions, or concepts of form that have traditionally dominated Western notions of art. "Our work is less based on form (meaning the artistic will). Rather, it evolves from the very physiology of the clay, and the processes by which the object is constructed," said the founder of the Sodeisha group, potter Kazuo Yagi (1918-1979), whom Karasawa sees as a forefather of this philosophy. Some of the works in the exhibition bear out this hands-on or materials approach more obviously than others. Oni Hagi (Devil Hagi), a late-career approach to Hagi-ware pottery by 98-year-old Miwa Jusetsu that blends various clays with coarse materials such as sand and a mottled white glaze, gives off the warmth that down-to-earth, handmade objects have.


Oni Hagi


Aki Rusu's "Latent Heat Effect" (2003), a sculpture of partially melted and twisted sheets of metal has a similar rawness — but without any of the warmth or beauty.

A different aspect — that of precision production — can be seen in Takashi Ikura's pristine porcelain carvings with their graceful Art Deco-style curves, or Yoshiaki Taguchi's lacquered ornamental boxes with their rich, stylized designs. Here, rawness, accident and the chances of human touch have gradually been pared away by timeless techniques to create objects that, for all their beauty, are in accord with the age of the machine and quality control.

To understand what all these diverse works have in common, it is necessary to revisit the history of Europe's division of the arts and crafts. Before the Renaissance, European artists were regarded as mere craftsmen; through the religious content of their works and some skillful PR from self-aggrandizers such as Giorgio Vasari, though, they succeeded in raising their status. They did this by identifying themselves with the spiritual side of a Christian dualism that emphasized the difference between body and mind, flesh and soul. It is for this reason that Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, the great artists of the high Renaissance, and most great artists since, have been regarded as almost demigods.

This association with the mind and the "spiritual" faculties of thought, vision and conceptualization, which later took on a secular aspect, is what underpins the division between the arts and crafts in the West. This is what was awkwardly transplanted to Japan, a country whose animist tendencies still rebel at the idea of separating spirit from body or dividing artistic vision from the materials shaping it.

While art has typically been guided by a vision or message, craft remains close to function. Though it's unlikely that you would use Miwa's Oni Hagi tea bowls for actual tea, or Taguchi's ornamental boxes for storing CDs, they nevertheless draw strength and beauty from the mere suggestion of utility; in fact, they celebrate touch instead of sight, the characteristics of the blind.

What unites the objects at this exhibition is Karasawa's notion of creativity without the intrusive vision of the artist. Just as such visions or messages provide the DNA of art, decorative or utilitarian functions and manufacturing traditions provide the genetics of crafts. Without such DNA — such limitations — to guide them, both art and crafts become self-indulgent and can lose themselves in an amorphous, almost cancerous wilderness. A large bronze work by Masayuki Hashimoto, "Orchard: Sunlight Penetrating Fruit, Fruit in Sunlight Filtering Through Leaves " (1978-88), is a case in point. Ten years in the making, "Orchard" has pride of place at the exhibition because it is a perfect example of Karasawa's central concept: The perfect cross-border raider, it neither offers a craft-like function nor an art-like concept.

As if it were some great monster, "Orchard" emerges from its materials to the accompaniment of a million unthinking blows that effectively reduce the artist to an unthinking slave to its creation. The piece represents the very antithesis of art as the willful or inspired communication from the human mind; the technique of the artist — hammering almost incessantly — and the resistance of the material — the plates of bronze — meet in a deep dark place where organic metallic forms slowly arise from a titanic, blind struggle that lacks any kind of vision.

In a contemporary art scene more focused on producing "product" than giving physical expression to spiritual or mental capabilities, an attention- grabbing piece like "Orchard" may have its worth. But the picture it presents of an artist dehumanized — no longer thinking, seeing or projecting, but existing as a mere tool of the materials — hardly inspires.

"The Power of Crafts — Outlook for the 21st Century" is at the Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

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開館30周年記念展 II　
工芸の力―21世紀の展望
The Crafts Gallery 30th Anniversary Exhibition II
The Power of Crafts:Outlook for the 21st Century
http://www.momat.go.jp/CG/30th_II/index.html

National Museum of Modern Art

A Look into the Diverse Styles in Modern Craft

Crafts Gallery collects and displays Japanese and foreign craft works dating from the Meiji period to the present day. The genres covered include textile, ceramics, glass, lacquer, wood, bamboo and metal work, dolls, industrial and graphic design.

Modern Japanese craft works are extremely diverse. These are elaborate works carrying on in the traditional technique, works which continue in line with tradition while also employing new creativity and methods of expression unrestricted by conventional means, and works which might be mistaken for contemporary art at first sight.
http://www.momat.go.jp/english/craft/index.html


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Miwa Jusetsu
三輪壽雪（みわじゅせつ)　



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Hokusai and Siebold

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Hokusai and Siebold

QUOTE
©　C. B. LIDDELL, Japan Times,Dec. 20, 2007

A FOREIGN COMMISSION
Hokusai's 'Dutch' courage


By C. B. LIDDELL


It might sound a corny to say that artists live through their works, but in the case of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), whose lengthy life story is mired in muddles, myths and myriad name changes, it is his art that speaks with the clearest voice and that provides the scale with which to weigh the words describing his life.

This not only gives art historians and academics something to do, but also opens up and clarifies story lines in the life of the artist routinely hailed as Japan's greatest. The exhibition "Siebold & Hokusai and his Tradition" at the Edo-Tokyo Museum until Jan. 27, 2008 is a case in point.

It centers around a highly likely, though unconfirmed, meeting of the great artist with Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), a German who served as physician to the Dutch trading post in Nagasaki from 1823 to 1829, the year he was expelled from the country accused of spying. (Siebold later became known for his books on Japanese flora, fauna, and ethnography.)

The exhibition is divided into two parts. The first, "Siebold and Hokusai," curated by Dr. Matthi Forrer of Holland's National Museum of Ethnology, uses works from that collection and Bibliotheque nationale de France to make the case for the meeting. Most of the works are drawn from a series of hand paintings originally commissioned in 1822 by two Dutch traders from the colony at Nagasaki who visited Edo (present-day Tokyo). The paintings were received four years later by Siebold and the colony's CEO, Kapitan Willem de Sturler.

Intriguingly, a version of this meeting seems to have been recorded — although with some confusion over dates and details — by Edmond de , the late 19th-century Japanese-art enthusiast. In his 1896 book "Hokusai," he mentions an apparent row over money between Hokusai and a doctor from the Dutch colony.

"Hokusai applied all his care and expertise to painting the four scrolls, which were finished at the time when the Dutch would depart" Goncourt writes. "And when Hokusai delivered his paintings, the kapitan gladly paid the agreed sum of money, but the doctor, pretending that his salary was lower than that of the kapitan, only wanted to pay half the money."

Whatever the details, the result was that Siebold and de Sturler ended up with several dozen paintings on Dutch and Japanese paper that later found their way into two respective collections.

The brief that Hokusai was given was apparently to depict normal people, objects and various scenes designed to satisfy foreign ethnological curiosity. As a consequence, some of the paintings, such as the realistically detailed "Various Implements Used with Firearms," look as if they belong in a catalog.




"Women Drivers" (1824-26), painted for a commission from Dutch traders
BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE, PARIS

Others, such as "Women Divers," a painting in sumi ink and pigments, which imaginatively follows mermaidlike ama — female divers — down to the seabed, show much more artistic interpretation. This work in particular has a surreal, dreamlike quality that must have impacted powerfully on the 19th-century European consciousness.

The exhibition also points to the influence of Western art on Hokusai. "New Year's Day at Kasumigaseki" shows an obvious use of vanishing point, while even in "Running Horse Riders," where the background is sketchy, Hokusai applies perspective to the horsemen whizzing by to help create a strong realistic sense of centripetal dynamism.

We can infer from Hokusai's often quoted summation of his lengthy career that the Dutch commission came at an important point in his career.

"Little of what I painted before my 70th year was truly worth of note," he wrote in the colophon of his ukiyo-e (genre painting) series of woodblock prints "One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji" when he was 75. This was no idle sophism, as most of the major series of prints for which he is remembered were produced after this commission, coming at a time when Hokusai's career had entered artistic doldrums; he was spending less time on his art and more writing senryu, the Japanese equivalent of the limerick.

It may be possible, then, that the paintings the kapitan paid for, and that Siebold haggled over, acted as a spur to shake Hokusai free from a case of "artistic block."

Whether this is true or not, the exhibition makes great efforts to show that many of the elements from these paintings later surfaced in his major print series, many of which can be seen in the second part of the exhibition. The horses and riders from "Running Horse Riders" with their billowing garments and characteristic headgear, were later transposed with some changes to "Sekiya Village on the Sumida River," one of the classic scenes from "The Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji" (1831-34) that can also be seen at the exhibition.




Sudden Rain in the Countryside (above) inspired the later work "Ejiri in Suruga Province" (below) from "The Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji."
NATIONAL MUSUEM OF ETHNOLOGY, LEIDEN



This attention to detail makes this one of the most educational exhibitions on Hokusai in a long time. And in its central thesis that a tight-fisted German doctor helped spur a talented Japanese artist to a new lease of life, it is certainly one of the most daring.

"Siebold & Hokusai and his Tradition" is at the Edo-Tokyo Museum till Jan. 27, 2008; For more information, call (03) 3626-9974 or visit www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp


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© ...//www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/










江戸東京博物館：特別展｜北斎-ヨーロッパを魅了した江戸の絵師-

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©　www.oranda.or.jp/


Von Siebold, Hokusai and his tradition
Tokyo, Nagoya, Hagi December 04, 2007-May 18, 2008

Exhibition of works by Hokusai from the Von Siebold collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden


04 December – 27 January 2008
Tokyo: Edo-Tokyo Museum

09 February – 23 March 2008
Nagoya: Nagoya City Art Museum

05 April – 18 May 2008
Hagi, Yamaguchi: Hagi Urakami Museum

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Tokyo Art Beat



According to recent research, Dutch traders who stayed in Nagasaki between 1818 to 1839 commissioned paintings from Edo artisans including Hokusai on a regular basis and brought works back to their home country.

©　www.tokyoartbeat.com/


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Le Edo-Tokyo Museum consacre une exposition aux relations entre le peintre Katsushika Hokusai et Philipp Franz von Siebold, médecin à la factorerie hollandaise de Deshima à Nagasaki. Ce dernier a acquis un nombre important de peintures d’Hokusai et de son école, lors de ses visites à la cour du Shogun entre 1823 et 1829. Quinze font actuellement partie de la collection Siebold du musée national d’Ethnologie de Leiden, co-organisateur de l’exposition.

Vingt-cinq autres ont été données à la BnF en 1855, lors du décès de Sturler.
Ces peintures, les premières de cet artiste à atteindre l’Occident, apportent une compréhension singulière de l’œuvre entière d’Hokusai. Toutes sont visibles dans l’exposition.



©　chroniques.bnf.fr


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HOKUSAI and DARUMA

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Tokugawa Art

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A taste for blood, arts and culture

TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE

QUOTE
©　Japan Times, Nov. 22, 2007

By MICHAEL DUNN
Special to The Japan Times

One haunting image that lingers in the mind after seeing the exhibition "Legacy of the Tokugawa — The Glories and Treasures of the Last Samurai Dynasty" at the Tokyo National Museum is a carved-wood statue of Ieyasu (1543-1616), the first of the Tokugawa shoguns, now the deity of the Shiba Tosho-gu shrine next to Tokyo Tower.

PHOTOS

Tokugawa Ieyasu's Shida no Gusoku or "fern" armor
COURTESY OF KUNOZAN TOSHO-GU SHRINE MUSEUM, SHIZUOKA PREFECTURE

Princess Chiyo's Trousseau (1693)
COURTESY OF TOKUGAWA ART MUSEUM, NAGOYA


As Japanese artisans had long mastered the art of portrait sculpture, we can assume that it is true to life. The warlord is seated in a full court costume tinted with sober colors, looking straight ahead with the cool, penetrating expression of a man you most definitely would not want to cross.

Quite a few did during his lifetime, and they all met their ultimate fate — either in war, at the hands of executioners or by ritual seppuku on his orders. Their list is long, and it was by vanquishing them all that Ieyasu achieved total control over a country that had endured centuries of internecine wars. The statue was carved in 1601 and, according to one of his descendants, served as an alter-ego with which Ieyasu argued and debated on strategy and policy for the last decade and a half of his life — it even accompanied him into the field of battle.

Though he was ruthless in practice, Ieyasu showed deep respect for scholarship and religious ethical teachings, and well understood the civilizing role of culture in a noble warrior's life. After his victory in the Battle of Sekigahara (1601), he proceeded to establish a system of control based in Edo (present-day Tokyo) that was only challenged by Toyotomi Hideyori (1593-1615), the son of the great warlord Hideyoshi (1536-1598), at Osaka Castle in 1614. There Ieyasu won his last battle, besieging the castle and annihilating the Toyotomi clan and all its supporters. He left the heads of thousands of samurai mounted on planks along the road from Kyoto to Fushimi as a warning, but also suffered injuries himself that led to his death in 1616.

His legacy of power-control and administration was perpetuated by successive generations of the Tokugawa clan, keeping the nation at peace for a quarter of a millennium until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, a remarkable accomplishment that — correct me if I am wrong here — must be a record unequaled by no other country in history.

Apart from favoring those who had supported him with special privileges, Ieyasu installed the brilliant system of sankin-kotai, which obliged all regional daimyo to spend alternative years in Edo, leaving key family members behind whenever they returned to their home fiefs. By always having members of every daimyo family close by as de facto hostages, the policy not only thwarted any antigovernment mischief, but also kept the regional lords financially stretched by having to maintain both a castle in their home fief and a suitably impressive palace in Edo.

Keeping up with the Maeda — one of the most prestigious daimyo clans — became a full-time preoccupation.

The shoguns enjoyed colossal wealth generated from both their own vast landholdings and from a taxed share of the rice-yield from the fiefs of all regional daimyo. How they used this in their public and private lives is shown in this superb exhibition, with many objects being displayed for the first time.

The first section emphasizes the military nature of shogunal authority with examples of armor, ferocious helmets, matchlock firearms (copied from examples found with a couple of shipwrecked Dutch sailors during the 16th century), splendid banners and parasols that identified who was who on the battlefield, and — that iconic symbol of the samurai and implements of violent death — razor-edged swords (see accompanying article by Yoko Haruhara). From the shogun down to the lowest foot-soldier, all were trained to use these whenever necessary, and those holding the right to bear arms formed the highest-ranking social class.


Tea and swords for the Shogun In complete contrast, the second section displays objects demonstrating the high prestige and cultural level of the shogun's family, including paintings and tea-ceremony utensils. Noh drama, too, was considered a suitable entertainment for the shogun's family and prestigious visitors, and fine examples can be seen of lacquer-decorated hand drums, costumes and masks.

The Tokugawa Shoguns chose to marry princesses of the Imperial family or the daughters of prestigious families in the old capital of Kyoto, thus elevating their status to match their power and distancing themselves from regional daimyo who might still have harbored less-than-loyal feelings. Therefore the third section of the exhibition shows the elegance of the cloistered women's quarters of the Edo Castle.

Armies of craftsmen produced lavish silk costumes for the inhabitants and luxurious accouterments for everyday life. Gold lacquer predominates in trousseau sets, the paraphernalia of personal grooming, and objects for court games and pastimes. Many display the circular Tokugawa crest as part of the decorative design, much as old European families flaunted heraldic crests to demonstrate rank and exclusivity. Everything is of peerless quality, but one senses that, no matter how comfortable, the lives of the palace women were so burdened with mannered protocol that it was probably not much fun. There was certainly no escape.

Even though the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns worked well for so long, its inflexibility contributed to the dynasty's downfall. The country could no longer isolate itself from the technical superiority of the West when the Americans arrived in 1854, brandishing the latest cannons as a hint for the country to open itself to international commerce. Soon the shogun, daimyo and samurai relinquished their power and Japan started its race to become a major industrialized power. Looking at politics today — and what passes for democracy — there are surely some who would see merit in reinstating them.

"Legacy of the Tokugawa — The Glories and Treasures of the Last Samurai Dynasty" is showing till Dec. 2 at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park; open 9:30 a.m.- 5 p.m. (closed Mon.); admission ¥1,500. For more information call (03) 5777-8600 or visit
www.tnm.jp

http://www.tnm.jp/jp/servlet/Con?pageId=X00/processId=00


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Tokugawa Ieyasu

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Kano Eitoku

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. Kano 狩野派 the Kano School of Painters .
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Kohoogen 古法眼 Kohogen, see below.


KANO EITOKU
狩野 永徳（かのう えいとく Kanoo Eitoku)

天文12年1月13日（1543年2月16日） - 天正18年9月4日（1590年10月12日)




QUOTE
©　Japan Times, Nov. 8, 2007
KANO EITOKU
Momoyama luster slides into view

By MICHAEL DUNN

"In the houses of the lords and nobles these paintings and the doors of the rooms have a background richly painted in gold, and on this gold they paint the picture in various suitable colors.'' (This Island of Japon. Joa~o Rodrigues' account of 16th-century Japan. Translated and edited by Michael Cooper).

The Kyoto National Museum's "Kano Eitoku, Momoyama Painter Extraordinaire" show provides a rare chance to see many of the works of Eitoku (1543-90) still in existence. This master of late 16th-century painting is well-known as the creator of monumental, grand-scale works on folding screens and fusuma (sliding-doors) that furnished the palaces and castles of the nobility and warlords.

Eitoku's bold, powerful designs and lavish use of gold leaf expressed the vigor of his time and underscored the megalomania of his patrons. Unintentionally, they also reflected hubris before the fall. Many of these buildings were soon destroyed in the course of civil war and much of what is left of Eitoku's prodigious output has been preserved in the care of temples.

Eitoku learned his skills from his grandfather, Kano Motonobu (1476-1559), who had raised the family school of painting to a position of prominence and influence among the political and religious power brokers of Kyoto. Although profoundly influenced by his illustrious tutor, Eitoku persevered to develop his own distinct style, becoming an outstanding exemplar of the Kano School. His career matured with the commencement of Japan's Momoyama Period (1573-1615) when competing warlords were vying with each other not only on the battlefield but in building spectacular castles and cultivating ostentatious lifestyles. These feudal warlords (averaging 170 throughout Japan at any one time) controlled specific fiefs throughout the country with private armies of samurai warriors, supported economically by a share of their territory's rice harvest.

Military values included not only fighting skills but cultural pursuits, including the noh drama, classical poetry and the tea-ceremony that was becoming something of a cult among the elite. The mark of the warlord — and of all high-ranking samurai — was to be as much at home slicing enemies in battle as arranging wild flowers in a tearoom.

This artistic renaissance spawned a tremendous demand for all manner of artisans, and the Momoyama Period stands out for excellence in painting, architecture, garden design, ceramics, textiles and lacquerware.



One of Eitoku's first important projects — completed when he was just 23 years old — was the painting of sliding doors in the abbot's quarters of Jukoin Temple in the Daitoku-ji complex of Kyoto. Twelve of the total of 16 door-panels can be seen in this exhibition. Four of them depict a bird that seems to be gesturing with its wing, perched on an ancient winter prunus, while three ducks float by on a nearby stream flowing between rocks and dwarf bamboo. The eight other doors show a continuation of the stream with cranes and a giant pine, all painted in ink with a faint gold wash.

You would think such large paintings would overwhelm a small Japanese tatami room, but the effect is more like gazing out of a great window.

Eitoku's ability attracted the attention of regional daimyo and later the country's all-powerful rulers. The daimyo Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536/7-98), both commissioned monumental screen paintings to furnish their new castles at Azuchi, Shiga Prefecture, and Osaka, but these were burned to the ground in the final struggle for power before peace reigned. Tradition has it that Eitoku died in his 40s because of the enormous workload and brutal deadlines he endured to fulfill orders from rulers who could not be refused.


Oda Nobunaga, by Eitoku

The unyielding character of his patrons is immediately apparent in portraits he made of Oda, seated in full court costume, stern-featured with mustache and tuft of hair under his lower lip, and eyes cold but missing nothing.

An even more chilling portrait shows Toyotomi seated in a court costume so voluminous that his hands are miniaturized out of all proportion, his reptilian eyes set in a gaunt, lined face like the noh mask of a warrior-ghost.

An example of the large-scale painting that decorated the castles of these formidable lords is the famous "Cypress Tree" eight-panel screen from the Tokyo National Museum. This depicts just the middle section of an aged tree, painted in bold brush strokes on a background of gold-leaf clouds — a composition that is startling to those more familiar with European paintings where such a tree would be shown in context with earth below and the sky above. Eitoku has here conceived an effect that is extraordinarily powerful, and by cutting off the top and bottom sections of the tree, the image of weight and age is all the more effective. Overwhelming though this picture appears today, what would we give for just a glimpse of recorded "great paintings" of pine and prunus trees extending for up to 60 meters in length?

But famous though he is for these exuberant screens and sliding doors, Eitoku was equally a master of fine, detailed paintings such as is seen on fans. Until the modern period, there was no dividing line between art and craft in patrons' minds, and artists were just as likely to be commissioned to produce summer fans, (much like a new line in fashion today), as they were to decorate building interiors. And just like modern fashions, the fans were likely to be thrown away at the end of the season. A few that have survived show beautiful, miniature ink paintings of birds, early autumn fruits, boats on a misty lake, some decorated with a blush of gold dust or an inscribed poem — so continuing the tradition of the painting of the Muromachi Period (1338-1573), in which the Kano School had been born.

Another contrast to the flamboyant and decorative is seen in Eitoku's genre paintings, which are of historic interest for their depiction of everyday life.



A pair of screens on view here, commissioned by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru in 1565, depict a view of Kyoto as if seen at a 45-degree angle from an airplane. Details reveal the Gion Festival with attendant celebrants, the business activities of merchants and the calm courtyards of temples and private dwellings. Another six-panel screen shows Hideyoshi's lavish and richly furnished Jurokadai palace/castle, also known as Kurakutei.

We can only imagine what masterpieces of Eitoku's hand met their end in flames and what he might have produced had his life been longer. But at least this exhibition can provide us with a glimpse of Momoyama splendor.

"Kano Eitoku, Momoyama Painter Extraordinaire," runs until Nov. 18 at the Kyoto National Museum; 527 Chayamachi, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto-shi; tel: (075) 541-1151;

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　© Kyoto National Museum


The Momoyama Period (1573-1615) spans less than a half a century in terms of Japanese art history, yet no other era has displayed such extravagance in art and architecture. The large, lavish bird-and-flower paintings in bright colors on gold ground that decorated the monumental castles and stately residences of the warlords, genre paintings that capture people's daily lives in detail, and ink paintings on folding screens with powerful brushwork amaze their viewers even today, after more than four hundred years. Perhaps this can be attributed to the ostentatious personalities of the powerful rulers Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and energetic milieu of the Momoyama period.

The producers of these captivating paintings belonged to the Kano school. Its founder Kano Masanobu (1434-1530?) and his successor Motonobu (1476-1559) actively strengthened the school's position, but with the appearance of the prodigy Eitoku (1543-1590), the paramount position of the Kano school became unshakable. By creating the screen paintings for the monumental castles of Nobunaga (Azuchi Castle) and Hideyoshi (Osaka Castle and Jurakudai), Eitoku came to dominate the nation's painting scene in both name and reality. At the same time, his dynamic, opulent style greatly influenced masters of other schools such as Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610) and Kaiho Yusho (1533-1615). In this respect, the Momoyama period could be deemed the age of Eitoku.

Kano Eitoku, Momoyama Painter Extraordinaire presents approximately seventy objects, including Eitoku's masterpieces as well as newly discovered paintings and works that will be publicly shown for the first time. Highlights of his ink paintings include the National Treasure sliding-door panels Birds and Flowers and The Four Accomplishments (both from Juko-in Temple) and the Important Cultural Property Immortals and Lofty Scholars (Kyoto National Museum). His amazing, energetic brushwork surpassed the previously existing boundaries of ink painting to show the zealousness of this genius painter.


Azuchi Castle

Equally impressive are the large-scale screen on gold ground Chinese Lions (Sannomaru-Shozokan (The Museum of the Imperial Collections) and National Treasure screen Cypress (Tokyo National Museum). Perhaps many viewers may identify the proudly striding lions with flowing manes and tails and the cypress with its bold, extending branches to images of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.

In contrast to these tours de force, Eitoku also created delicate, detailed genre paintings such as the National Treasure Scenes in and around Kyoto (Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum), which Nobunaga is said to have presented to the warlord Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578), and the recently discovered Scenes of Amusement around Kyoto. The animated lives of the figures appearing in these genre paintings shed light on life in the Momoyama period as Eitoku's perceptive observations are recalled in these masterpieces. This first major retrospective on Eitoku also covers portraits of the rulers and warlords, who patronized this artist, such as his Portrait of Oda Nobunaga (Daitoku-ji), as well as his rare letters and his reduced-sized drawings (shukuzu). This is an opportunity not to be missed to explore the works of this master painter.

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Tokyo National Museum




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. Kano Motonobu 狩野元信 Kanō Motonobu .
1476―1559）
Artist name : Kohoogen, Kohōgen こほうげん (古法眼)
Son of Kano Masanobu 狩野正信 (? 1434 - 1530)

In the late Muromachi period, the artist Kano Motonobu (Kanoo Motonobu 狩野元信1476-1559) introduced a combination of monochromatic Zen art with its strong ink brushstrokes with the more delicate lines, but vivid colors of the native Yamato-e. In the following Momoyama period his grandson, Kano Eitoku (Kanoo 狩野永徳1543-90) brought the style fo full frutition.
The sliding doors and screens of this era are mostly executed on a gold foil background and they are considered the golden age of Japanese painting.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


古法眼出どころあはれ年の暮　
Kohoogen dedokoro aware toshi no kure

Matsuo Basho uses only a few words:

the artist name of the painter
where from pity
end of the year

I can only give some paraverses of this hokku:

a Kohogen (painting)
such a pity (to think) where it might have come from -
end of the year

Kohoogen
where might the painting have come from?
end of the year


Written in 貞亨元年 or later, Basho age about 41.

During a Year-End market, this painting was presented for sale and Basho is deeply sympathetic with this special painter and his work, instead of being in a palace or temple, now here in the cold winter air.
His work can be seen at temple 大徳寺 Daitoku-Ji and other temples in Kyoto.


Kohoogen's painting :
Sad to guess who sold it !
The end of the year.
Tr. Oseko


hoogen 　法眼 "Buddha eye", "eye of the Buddhist law"
Second-highest title of a Buddhist priest.

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Motonobu had painted a horse for a ema 絵馬 votive tablet at the 草観音堂 Asakusa Kannon in Edo.
It was so real that people began to gossip.
This horse walked off its painting every night and ate the grass in the temple compound.
The people were worried about this monster-horse and asked 左甚五郎 Hidari Jingoro, a famous wood carver, for help. So he painted a chain for the horse and after that, all was quiet.

. Legends and Tales from Edo 江戸の伝説 .


Hachiman Jinja 八幡神社 Hachimn Shrine, Gero, Gifu and the ema of a horse
. Legends from Gero Onsen 下呂温泉 Gero Hot Spring Spa .


Shiga no Yakushi 志賀の薬師 Yakushi from Shiga village
and ema of a horse
. Legends about Yakushi Nyorai 薬師如来 .


- - - - - and 13 more legends to explore
- source : yokai database -
(38 legends about 狩野)


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Kano Yukinobu - Kiyohara Yukinobu 清原 雪信
(1643 - 1682)
寛永20年（1643年）? - 天和2年4月29日（1682年6月5日）

She was the daughter of Kusumi Morikage 久隅守景, a painter of the Kano School and the only accomplished woman painter 閨秀画家 of the Kano line during the Edo period.
Her father was a student of Kano Tanyuu 狩野 探幽 Kano Tanyu (1602 - 1674).
Her mother was a nice of Tanyu.
She married Kiyohara 清原氏平野伊兵衛守清, another famous member of the Kano school.
She often signed like this : 清原氏女雪信筆 and her seal read 清原女.



quote
In spite of social limitations, women artists flourished in Japan during the Edo period (1600-1868). These artists were not members of the nobility, although some court and high-ranking ladies did painting and calligraphy.

The most famous studio in the 17th century was the Kano School, and Kiyohara Yukinobu, the daughter of one of school's masters, was its most famous female painter. Yukinobu received formal training in the popular traditional Chinese techniques for doing landscapes, flowers, birds, and humans, especially beautiful and gentle goddesses often seen in Buddhist art.
Not only did her work contain beautiful flowing lines, but she was able to paint intricate designs on garments that were very pleasing She was also talented at doing yamato-e, a Japanese art style used to paint portraits and tell stories in pictures.
source : adventuresinthearts.com



雪信が蝿打ち払う硯かな
yukinobu no hae uchi-harau suzuri kana

Yukinobu
shooing flies off
the inkstone
Tr. Robin D Gill

- MORE - Robin D Gill - Comments of Facebook -

. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

. WKD : inkstone 翡翠硯（すずり） suzuri .

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. Kano Kazunobu 狩野 一信 .
1816 - 1863

. Kano 狩野派 the Kano School of Painters .

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