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 founder of the

Hasegawa school The Hasegawa school (長谷川派, ''-ha'') was a school (style) of Japanese painting founded in the 16th century by Hasegawa Tōhaku and disappeared around the beginning of the 18th century. The school painted mostly ''fusuma'' (sliding doors), ...

. He is considered one of the great painters of the

Azuchi–Momoyama period The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600. After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobuna ...

(1573-1603), and he is best known for his folding screens, such as ''

Pine Trees A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garde ...

'' and ''Pine Tree and Flowering Plants'' (both registered National Treasures), or the paintings in walls and sliding doors at Chishaku-in, attributed to him and his son (also National Treasures).

Biography

Hasegawa Tōhaku, born in 1539 in Nanao,"Suiboku-ga."
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. December 10, 2009 a town in

Noto Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the northern part of Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, including the Noto Peninsula (''Noto-hantō'') which is surrounded by the Sea of Japan. Noto bordered on Etchū and Kaga provinces to the so ...

(in the vicinity of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) to a noted local family of cloth dyers, although evidence shows that Tōhaku's original family name was Okumura and that he was adopted into the Hasegawa family.HASEGAWA Tohaku (1539–1610)
Mibura-Dera Temple Website. December 10, 2009 Tōhaku started his artistic career as a painter of

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

paintings in his home province of

Noto Noto ( scn, Notu; la, Netum) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and i ...

. By the age of 20 Tōhaku was a professional painter, and by his thirties had moved to

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 ...

to study under the prestigious

Kanō school The is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many di ...

, then headed by Kanō Shōei.Ishizawa, Masao, et al. The Heritage of Japanese Art. 1st ed. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1982 The Kanō school was well known at the time for their large bold paintings that decorated the castle walls of many a wealthy warlord patron. These were often ink on white paper or gold-leaf decorative wall panels that served a dual purpose of reflecting light around the dim castle rooms as well as flaunting the castle owner's abundant wealth to commission such extravagant pieces. Many of Tōhaku's earlier works are in the style of the Kanō school, such as his ''Maple, Chishaku-in'' painted in 1593. At the same time he also studied the older

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

, Yuan and

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

s' styles of ink painting by examining scrolls from

Mu Qi Muqi or Muxi (; Japanese: Mokkei; 1210?–1269?), also known as Fachang (), was a Chinese Chan Buddhist monk and painter who lived in the 13th century, around the end of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). Today, he is considered to be one o ...

and

Sesshū Tōyō (c. 1420 – 26 August 1506) has been regarded as one of the greatest painters in Japanese history. Sesshū was a Zen-Shu priest painter of the Muromachi period in Japan, prominently recognised for his art of sumi-e (black ink painting). Initi ...

, which he is believed to have gained access to in his time at the

Daitoku-ji is a Buddhist temple, one of fourteen autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. It is located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The "mountain name" ('' sangō'') by which it is known is . The Daitoku-ji temple complex today covers more ...

temple in Kyoto. After a period of time in Kyoto, Tōhaku developed his own style of which in many ways departed from the bold techniques indicative of the Kanō school, and called back to the minimalism of its predecessors. The works of

in particular influenced Tōhaku's redirection of artistic style as Tōhaku also studied under Sesshū's successor, Toshun for some time. Tōhaku was in fact so much enamored with the techniques of Sesshū that he attempted to claim rights as his fifth successor, though he lost in a court battle to

Unkoku Togan Unkoku Togan (雲谷等顔, 1547–1618) was a Japanese painter. He was born into a privileged family in Nagasaki, the second son of Hara Naoie, lord of Nokomi Castle in Hizen province. Starting as an artist of the Kanō school, Togan's wor ...

. Still, the influence of Sesshū is evident in many of Tōhaku's mid to late works, such as his , which were declared a

national treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scien ...

are argued to be the first paintings of their scale to depict only pine trees as subject matter. The school founded by Hasegawa Tōhaku is known today as the

. This school was small, consisting mostly of Tōhaku and his sons. However small, its members conserved Tōhaku's quiet and reserved aesthetic, which many attribute to the influence of Sesshū as well as his contemporary and friend,

Sen no Rikyū , also known simply as Rikyū, is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on ''chanoyu,'' the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of '' wabi-cha''. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspects ...

. It is suspected that these simple aesthetics protested the usage of intimidation and wealth rampant in the Kanō school. Tōhaku's most noted contemporary was

Kanō Eitoku was a Japanese painter who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japanese history and one of the most prominent patriarchs of the Kanō school of Japanese painting. Life and works Born in Kyoto, Eitoku was the grandson of Kanō Moto ...

, who often competed with Tōhaku for the patronage of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

. After Eitoku's death in 1590, Tōhaku stood alone as the greatest living master of his time. He became the official painter for Hideyoshi, and produced some of his greatest and most elegant paintings under his patronage. He and his

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or ...

produced the wall and screen paintings in Shoun-ji (temple), commissioned by

in 1593. The paintings were moved to Chishaku-in (temple), Kyoto and have survived. At the age of 67, Tōhaku was summoned to Edo and granted the priestly title of by the

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

.Webb, Glenn T. "Hasegawa Tohaku". Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. 1st ed. 1983. There he stayed for the remainder of his life.

References

External links

* The paintin
''Old Trees and Monkeys''
at the Kyoto National Museum.
''Momoyama, Japanese Art in the Age of Grandeur''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Hasegawa Tōhaku. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasegawa Tohaku 1539 births 1610 deaths Japanese painters Buddhist artists