was a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
painter and calligrapher born in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...
during the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
. Together with
Yosa Buson
was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art, working with haibun pros ...
, he perfected the ''bunjinga'' (or ''
nanga'') genre. The majority of his works reflected his passion for classical Chinese culture and painting techniques, though he also incorporated revolutionary and modern techniques into his otherwise very traditional paintings. As a ''bunjin'' (文人, literati, man of letters), Ike was close to many of the prominent social and artistic circles in Kyoto, and in other parts of the country, throughout his lifetime.
Life
Ike no Taiga was born into a poor and socially humble family; his father was a farmer on the outskirts of Kyoto. The family moved into Kyoto proper some years before Taiga's birth, possibly to escape famine. His father found work at the silver mint, which granted his family some small degree of wealth, but he died when Taiga was three years of age. Taiga's widowed mother somehow managed to afford to provide him with good teachers, in all the classical Japanese and Chinese disciplines. At age six, he began receiving instruction in calligraphy and religious matters at the
Manpuku-ji
is a Buddhist temple located in Uji, Kyoto. It is the head temple of the Japanese Ōbaku Zen sect, named after Wanfu Temple in Fujian, China. The mountain is likewise named after Mount Huangbo, where the Chinese temple is situated.
History ...
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
temple. He would continue to foster strong connections with this temple for the remainder of his life.
By age fourteen, Taiga was a professional artist and distinguished calligrapher. He ran a small fan-painting shop in Kyoto, and engraved artists' and collectors'
seals as well. It was an encounter with
Yanagisawa Kien, a major social and artistic figure of the time, that initiated Taiga's introduction to the world of the ''bunjin''.
Chinese painter Yi Fujiu (J: I Fukyū or Yi Hai, 1698-1740?), whose main activity was selling horses in Nagasaki, taught Chinese literati painting that soon became the main model for Ike no Taiga, as reported in the ' (''A Painting Manual of Landscapes by Yi Fujiu and Ike no Taiga'') published in 1803.
[Marco, Meccarelli. 2015.]
"Chinese Painters in Nagasaki: Style and Artistic Contaminatio during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868)"
Ming Qing Studies 2015, Pages 175-236.
Taiga studied painting and calligraphy under Kien beginning in 1738. He became quite fond of the eccentric, but ancient, practice of painting with fingertips and fingernails, and became close friends with two other ''bunjin'' students,
Kan Tenju and
Kō Fuyō. By the age of twenty (1743), Taiga fully considered himself a member of the literati, and took the name "Ike," shortened from his family name "Ikeno" (池野), in emulation of the Chinese tendency for single-character names.
Taiga returned to Kyoto and to his fan shop in the early 1740s. Though the ''bunjin'' lifestyle dictated an avoidance of commercialism, Taiga had no other source of income and so he continued to sell his works and various artistic services, much like his contemporary and friend
Yosa Buson
was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art, working with haibun pros ...
. He married an artist and tea house proprietor in 1746, who went by the
art-name (''gō'')
Gyokuran. The pair quickly became well-renowned in the social circles and artistic community of Kyoto. Two years into his marriage, Taiga set off on a series of journeys, another major element of the ''bunjin'' lifestyle. He sought to commune with nature, to glean inspiration for his art, and most of all, to simply become a more cultured and experienced individual. After travels through
Kanazawa,
Nikkō
is a city located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 80,239 in 36,531 households, and a population density of 55 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It is a popular destination for Japanese and ...
, and
Mount Fuji, Taiga stayed for a time in
Edo. There, he produced paintings and calligraphic pieces, and also learned about
Dutch art
Dutch art describes the history of visual arts in the Netherlands, after the United Provinces separated from Flanders. Earlier painting in the area is covered in Early Netherlandish painting and Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting.
The his ...
from a number of ''
Rangaku
''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: /Shinjitai: , literally "Dutch learning", and by extension "Western learning") is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of West ...
'' (Dutch learning) scholars, including
Noro Genjō.
Taiga would continue to travel and to climb mountains for much of the rest of his life, often accompanied by ''bunjin'' colleagues. For a time, he took on the ''gō'' of Sangaku Dōja (三岳道者, "Pilgrim of the Three Peaks"). He would often collaborate with his colleagues on joint works of art during this trips; the ''Jūben jūgi-jō'' (''Album of Ten Conveniences and Ten Pleasures'') was created in 1771, as the result of one of these collaborations. The ''Jūben jūgi-jō'', illustrated by Taiga and Yosa Buson, and containing text by Chinese writer
Li Yu (1611-c.1680), acclaims and celebrates a life of simple pleasures and communing with nature. The book is widely regarded today as providing an exemplary insight into the ''bunjin'' philosophy.
Another artist who would have a dramatic influence on Taiga a little later in life, after his return to Kyoto, was
Hakuin Ekaku
was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as the reviver of the Rinzai school from a moribund period of stagnation, focusing on rigorous training methods integrating meditation and koan practice.
Biog ...
, who stayed briefly at Taiga's home in 1752. Though they met only briefly, Taiga began to use elements of Hakuin's personal style, and he soon afterwards sought out many of Hakuin's disciples, working with them and inscribing one another's works.
Some of Taiga's works have been classified
National Treasures by the Japanese government.
References
Sources
*Rosenfield, John M. (1999). ''Extraordinary Persons: Works by Eccentric, Nonconformist Japanese Artists of the Early Modern Era (1580–1868) in the Collection of Kimiko and John Powers''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Art Museums.
External links
Ike Taiga exhibition description at the Philadelphia Museum of Art''Bridge of dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art'' a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Ike no Taiga (see index)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taiga, Ike
Japanese painters
1723 births
1776 deaths