was a Japanese painter of the

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

and

Nanpin school The Nanpin school (南蘋派 ''Nanpin-ha'') was a school of painting which flourished in Nagasaki during the Edo period. Etymology The school takes its name from Nanpin, the art name of Chinese painter Shen Quan (1682–1760), an artist who pa ...

s. Originally from

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

, he spent some time in

, where he studied under the Chinese painter Song Ziyan, who was known as Sō Shigan in Japanese. The name Sō Shiseki is an

art-name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. Th ...

, derived from an imitation of his master's name.Morse, Anne Nishimura et al. (eds.) ''MFA Highlights: Arts of Japan''. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 2008. p. 201. Shiseki's

bird and flower painting Bird-and-flower painting, called () in Chinese, is a kind of Chinese painting with a long tradition in China and is considered one of the treasures of Chinese culture. The was named after its subject matter. It originated in the Tang dynasty w ...

s and other works display the use of a combination of broad calligraphic brushstrokes for branches, tree trunks and rocks,

ink wash Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...

and color for flower petals and leaves, and much finer brushstrokes for the fine details of feathers and flowers to produce a very detailed and lifelike, realistic depiction. Returning to Edo, Shiseki became a prominent representative and teacher of the Nagasaki school in that city, teaching

Shiba Kōkan , born Andō Kichirō (安藤吉次郎) or Katsusaburō (勝三郎), was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the Edo period, famous both for his Western-style '' yōga'' paintings, in imitation of Dutch oil painting styles, methods, and themes ...

among others. He was close with such ''

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 Wester ...

'' scholars as

Hiraga Gennai was a Japanese polymath and ''rōnin'' of the Edo period. Gennai was a Pharmacology, pharmacologist, student of ''Rangaku'', physician, author, painter and inventor well known for his ''Elekiter, Erekiteru'' (electrostatic generator), ''Kandan ...

and

Sugita Genpaku was a Japanese physician and scholar known for his translation of ''Kaitai Shinsho'' (New Book of Anatomy) and a founder of ''Rangaku'' (Western learning) and ''Ranpō'' (Dutch style medicine) in Japan. He was one of the first Japanese scholars ...

, and expressed an interest in

Western painting The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from antiquity until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and Classical modes of production, after ...

. Rather than his stylistic choice coming straight from European painting, however, scholar Meccarelli thinks Shiseki matured

’s “flora and fauna decorative painting”.Marco, Meccarelli. 2015.
"Chinese Painters in Nagasaki: Style and Artistic Contaminatio during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868)"
Ming Qing Studies 2015, Pages 175-236. His style is indeed more focused on details, also lending credence to the legacy left by botanic manuals and scientific treatises. He composed a number of books, and

woodblock printed Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...

volumes of his artworks were produced as well.

References

External links

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 Sō Shiseki (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shiseki, So 1715 births 1786 deaths 18th-century Japanese painters Nanpin school Nagasaki school

See also

References

External links