Nanga
(Unfinished?) Mountain landscapeSigned: San'yô gaishi heidai
Seals: Jô in, Shisei, Tomotake
Technique: sumi on paper 130.2 x 32
Mounting: brown brocade 203 x 45.4
Box: Double box authorized in 1906 by Tanomura Chokunyû (1814-1907)
玉堂紀翁之畫。有前景干而圖不全。今應人索遠景朧弱、不適裏。却生全角經不可掩。山陽外史併題
A painting by the old gentleman Gyokudô Ki. The foreground is painted dry and the depiction not finished, which means when looking in the distance it becomes vague and indistinct which is not appropriate here. Viewed as a whole, this cannot be hidden.
数橡茅屋倚平坡 / 座領渓山楽如何 / 認得東鄰人未住 / 他年借與我儂麼。
A cottage with a thatched roof and horse chestnuts against a gently sloping hill;
Can you imagine a greater happiness than settling on a mountain stream?
It is clear that eastern of this someone else lives;
So why not rent it myself in the future?
Gyokudô was born in Bizen to the ancient samurai family of Ki. He served the Lord of Bizen from the Ikeda family.This position often gave him the occasion to travel to Edo where he learned to play the koto, studied painting, poetry and Chinese classics. In his lifetime, he was best known as a player of the qin. the Chinese seven-string zither. He painted powerful compositions of strong brushwork, but people came to appreciate his paintings after his death,
Reference:
Gyokudô 1956, Vol 1 & 2
Addiss 1987
Fukushima 1994
Okayama, 2006
Nihon bijutsu vol. 20
Roberts p. 38
San’yô was born in Osaka an intellectual family; where his father Rai Shunsui (1746-1816) was the Confucian teacher to the daimyô of Aki.
After his return to Aki San’yô excelled in both martial and cultural studies. Later in Edo in 1797 he became a student at the Shôheikô, the Neo-Confucian academy. He went to Kyoto, where he ruined his life and subsequently, his family forced him home and put him under house arrest until 1803. During his time of his detention he made a start with the Nihon gaishi, ‘his’ history of Japan, which he finished in 1827. In 1811 he started to travel as a bunjin bokkaku, ink-guest visiting his friends. Back in Kyoto he joined a conservative group of Neo-Confucians exalting old Japanese values. San’yô was a most important pivot in the bunjin network.
Reference:
Rosenfield ’99 B.75
Hempel p. 168 ff.
Roberts p. 138
Araki p. 149
Price: EUR 6,000 / USD 6,000
