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22. Tani Bunchô (1763-1840), Kameda Bôsai (1752-1826) & Yoda Chikkoku (1790-1843)
Nanga
Shôchiku, Pine and bamboo
Signed: Bunchô, Chikkoku, Bôsai /Bôsai .. dai
Seals: Bunchô gain, Ryokan, Chôkô no ki, Minamoto Yûgi
Technique: sumi and some brown (right) on grey washed silk, 99.8 x 36.6
Mounting: ocre silk 181.5 x 47.2
Condition: right bottom roller crooked, otherwise good

1. 翠竹依庭留鳳集,喬松繞户待鸞翔
A full bunch of green bamboo stands in the garden and phoenixes come together on it,
the lofty pine tree wraps itself around the entrance and waits for the luan bird to hover.


2. 百竿高節拂雲齊,千畝誰人羨渭溪。
Hundred bamboos: the high stakes strike through the clouds,
Thousand mou on Land: Everyone admires the flow of the river Wei.


A stanza from a verse by the Song poet Zhu Shuzhen (1135-1180) By Bôsai

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望[而]視之,有如偃蓋,其中有物,或如青牛,或如青羊,或如青犬,或如青人,皆壽萬歲。
Long for it and see it: it's like a canopy in which there are all kinds of things like the green rhinoceros, the green sheep, the green dog and also green people, all are incredibly old.

A quote from the Bao Buzi, the handbook of the Taoist by Ge Hong (283-343). It is about the pine becoming very old, furthermore it is magic language. By Bôsai


Bunchō was the eldest son of Tani Rokkoku (1729-1809), a retainer of the Tayasu daimyō family and a well-known poet. From the age of ten Bunchō took painting lessons with the Kanô painter Katô Bunrei (1706-82). After about ten years of Kanô training, around the year of Bunrei’s death he started to experiment in a wide range of other styles. He was taught the decorative Chinese painting style of Shen Nan P’in by Watanabe Gentai. The Yuan and Ming styles as well as the European styles he learned from Kitayama Kangan (1767-1801), the Sesshû style from Sakurai Sekkan (1715-90) (Sesshû XII) and Maruyama-Shijô painting from Watanabe Nangaku (1767-1813). From Go Shun, whom he met a couple of times travelling the Kansai region, he picked up the Buson style.

In 1792 Bunchō was appointed personal attendant to Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758-1829), the head of the shogunate’s Council of Elders, and accompanied him on his travels from 1787 to 1793. In 1794 Bunchô organized probably the first exhibition of contemporary painting in Edo, just like Minegawa Kien (1734-1807) had organized his Shin Shoga Tenkan* in Kyoto. In 1812 Sadanobu retired. After his employer’s death in 1829 Bunchō took the tonsure and was appointed on’eshi (distinguished painting master) by the Matsudaira family and he was generously awarded a yearly stipend of 150 koku. in 1837 he received the honorary rank of hôgen.
Bunchô was a wealthy man who was hardly able to satisfy the demand for his paintings.

Reference:
Tochigi 1979
Rosenfield B.91
Berry & Morioka ’08 p. 301-02
Roberts p. 10
Araki p. 204 ff.

Bôsai was one of the important literati figures in Edo. His painting, which he pursued as a hobby, was much influenced by Yüan art. He was better known as a Confucian scholar and a writer than as an artist.
Bôsai studied under Inoue Kinga. He established his own school and became very famous. Later in life he ceased studying and teaching and spent the rest of his days composing poetry and drinking sake.

Reference:
Addiss 1984
Setagaya 1998
Roberts p. 9
Araki pp. 2698-2699
Rosenfield B.34 (# 147)

Chikkoku was a pupil of Tani Bunchô.

Reference:
Roberts p. 13
Araki p. 640

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