38 
House & Garden 
THE HUMORISTS and LANDSCAPISTS 
of JAPANESE PAINTING 
What Matahei, Korin, Sosen, Yeisen and Buncho Accomplished 
W. G. BLAIKIE MURDOCH 
A Flower Study, by 
Matsumura Keibun. 
Early I9th Century 
T he Japanese 
portraitists and 
hieratic artists mostly 
painted on silk, but 
the historians, the hu¬ 
morists and the land¬ 
scapists generally 
worked on a thin, 
transparent paper, so 
absorbent that, be the 
brush pressed the least 
thing too heavily, the 
paint will at once 
spread in many unde¬ 
sired directions. Nor 
can work of this sort 
be altered by washing, ui oLiapuns, 
Western media, which difficulty proved grandly 
bracing to the Japanese, just as a difficult metre 
stimulates a poet’s ingenuity. “Why, this is 
not drawing but inspiration,” said Constable, 
on first seeing Blake’s sketches; and owing in 
some degree to that very difficulty in the means 
whereby they were fashioned, the 
best Japanese landscapes seem the 
inspirations themselves; a straight¬ 
forward reincarnation of what the 
artists felt. 
The genius of these men was for 
capturing the enchanted aspect 
which things present to eyes stirred 
momentarily by emotion : their art 
is great because rich in that mystery 
whose lack, as observed before, is 
frequently salient in the hieratic 
paintings. And, indeed, it is a lack 
of this sort, a want of aloofness, 
which is the most frequent weak¬ 
ness in all Japanese art other than 
landscape, the genre in particular 
being too often only a prodigy of 
skill in realism, a marvel of decora¬ 
tive ability. 
The Patronage of Hideyoshi 
It speaks eloquently for the dy¬ 
namite-like nature of strong per¬ 
sonality that such a wealth of fine 
painting should have been done in 
the time of the Ashikayas. Be¬ 
cause, despite their 
own love of art, their 
rule was really the 
antithesis of condu- 
cive to artistic 
achievement. Nearly 
each of them was sig¬ 
nally incapable of 
keeping the country 
free from fierce civil 
wars, and it was this 
chaos which gave 
Hideyoshi his chance, 
at the close of the 16th 
Century, enabling 
him to take the helm 
into his hands. In sharp contradistinction to 
most autocrats, he had a keen taste for art; and, 
when his fortunes were nearing their apogee, he 
marked the promise of a poor young artist, 
Sanraku, whom he asked one Yeitoku to take 
into his studio as a pupil, Hideyoshi himself 
paying the requisite fees. Afterwards, when he 
built his palace of Momo Yama at 
Kyoto, Sanraku was the man chiefly 
asked for decorations there, his out¬ 
standing exploit being some mural 
paintings of hunting scenes, splen¬ 
didly vitalised. And so great was 
the fame won by these works that, 
when Hideyoshi was dead, and all 
who had served him were regarded 
as traitors, Sanraku was pardoned. 
Art and the New Rulers 
Under the Tokugawas, Japan 
commenced to experience a welcome 
tranquility, among the results being 
that, whereas hitherto there had 
been few buyers of secular art save 
the nobility, for these alone had 
enough money, there was now a 
quick increase of- wealth with the 
trading classes, followed by much 
art patronage on their part. Hence 
there came into vogue the painting 
of pictures on screens, as too on the 
sliding doors hiding cupboards, or 
forming partitions between rooms, 
the usual medium for work of both 
The Romance of 
Genji Monogotari, 
by Oharugoko 
Realistic study of a 
heron executed by 
Tan-an 
‘Under the Blossoms,” a painting 
on silk by Chobunsai Yeishi 
Rabbits by Matsu¬ 
mura Keibun. Early 
19th Century 
‘‘Girls at Play,” a happy print by 
Eitaku Kobaiashi 
