CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 21 



At one time in his later years Kenzan had a kiln set up in a humble 

 cottage at Rokkenbori, in Yedo. Whenever invited he would pay his 

 respects to his patron Prince, often in his working clothes, soiled with clay. 

 At one time, seeing the unsightly habiliments of the artist, the Prince pre- 

 sented him with a suit of fine silk. Putting it on, the honored craftsman 

 returned home and at once resumed his work without a thought of his 

 costly garment. This one fact shows how indifferent he was to worldly 

 vanities and how devoted he was to his occupation. * * * 



Kenzan died in the third year of the Kwampo Era (1743 A. D.) at the age 

 of 81. At the time of his death he was absolutely penniless, so that his 

 Imperial patron is said to have graciously provided his funeral expenses. 

 On one side of his tomb was carved a verse to the following effect: 



Sorrows and pleasures once passed, leave naught but dreams. 



In most of his pottery works he signed himself Shisui Kenzan, or Shisui 

 Shinsei, or simply Kenzan. Then, too, his talent was not limited to that 

 particular industry only; indeed, his genius revealed itself also in callig- 

 raphy, painting, and literature. Next to ceramics, painting was his chief 

 accomplishment, he having most favorably handled flowers and birds, and 

 sometimes even landscapes. His style favored that of Koyetsu and Sotatsu 

 more than that of Korin, for he seems to have laid great stress on the power 

 of touch, and to have preferred a bold, unconventional tone to beauty of 

 coloring. This fact is clearly proved by the vigorous designs on his pottery. 

 His paintings show nothing of the crudity and blemishes of the so-called 

 "porcelain painters" of later ages. Truly Kenzan deserves a place in the 

 ranks of first-class painters. * * * 



Although Kenzan belonged to the school which bears the name of his 

 illustrious brother, he, unlike Korin, who affected beautiful coloring, took 

 to ink sketches of classic simplicity, which taste may be accounted for by 

 his intense devotion to religion and the Chanoyu ceremony, both of which 

 have a recognized quieting influence upon the hearts of their devotees. 

 Still, Kenzan 's pictures were not always in black and white. On the 

 contrary, they sometimes were illuminated in a splendor of colors. The 

 Kokka. 



YEITOKU KANO. Bom 1545. Died 1593. 



A noble example. How simple are the elements that compose this 

 pictiue; the great pines, the mountains, the snow; but what a sense of 

 vastness, of majesty, of solitude ! A certain solidity of effect allies such work 

 as this to the masterpieces of Europe ; and in its own kind I do not know 

 where we shall find painting to surpass it, whether in Japan or in the West. 

 Binyon. 



Yeitoku Kano is considered an artist of extraordinary power. He studied 

 art under his father Naonobu and his grandfather Motonobu. At the bid- 

 ding of Nobunaga Oda, whose patronage he enjoyed, Yeitoku decorated the 

 walls and paper doors in the Ando castle mth paintings. Subsequently he 

 did likewise, at the request of Taiko, to the gilded walls in the Juraka and 



