Ikeno Taiga (1723-1776) |
Many others marveled at the works produced by Kien, who helped bring the Nanga, or Southern Chinese, style to Japan, laying the foundation for other artist to follow in his footsteps. The person attributed to popularizing the Nanga style throughout Japan is one of Kien’s former students, Ike Taiga. Although both Kien and Taiga were considered eccentrics, they were able to capitalize on the stability of the time, along with the increasing education levels, and the increasing interest in Chinese studies, to successfully catalyze the Nanga style within Japan. |
Bibliography
Stanley-Baker, Joan. The transmission of Chinese idealist painting to Japan : notes on the early phase (1661-1799) / by Joan Stanley-Baker. Ann Arbor : Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1992.
Jungman, Burglind. Painters as Envoys; Korean Inpsiration in Eighteenth-Century Japanese Nanga. Princeton University Press, 2004.
Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art. (second edition) Pearson Education Inc. 2005
David Pollack, The Transmission of Chinese Idealist Painting to Japan. Notes on the Early Phase (1661-1799), by Joan Stanley-Baker
Monumenta Nipponica > Vol. 49, No. 1 (Spring ,1994), pp. 89-95
Melinda Takeuchi, Ike Taiga: A Biographical Study. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies > Vol. 43. No. 1 (Jun. 1983), pp. 141-186
As Joan Stanley-Baker explains, “Finger painting cannot be learned merely by looking at finished examples. It is even difficult to do with textbook in hand.” This would have to mean that artists needed to be taught by those whom had already mastered the skill of painting with fingers. This becomes a problem for those like Kien, who live in Japan during a period of isolation. Kien was able to overcome this, however, by traveling to Nagasaki, the southern island of Kyushu, which was one of the few ports open to outsiders. It was here that Kien, and other artists from both Japan and Korea, were believed to have learned the skill of finger painting through Chinese practitioners, possibly even Gao himself. Kien quickly mastered this newly acquired skill, and was able to impress others with his “unusual” abilities. One of his friends, Yanada Zeigan (1652-1757) refers to the finger painting of Kien (shown on right) in a kanshi (Chinese-style poem), called On Viewing Koriyama Yanagi Kobi (Kien) Finger Painting Bamboo:
Using his fingers like a brush, he works at ink bamboo.
Like lightning, his hand flips back and forth,
With index and third fingers flying like shuttles.
In an instant (he has) created splendid bamboo. (Stanley-Baker, 86)
So why, then, was it possible for Japanese artist, such as Kien, to become influenced in what seemed like splinter in hand of the mainstream art coming from China? Well, as Gao Bing describes of his grand-uncle’s work, “The essence of what the brush failed to convey, his finger was able to transmit; but what his finger could achieve, the brush (of others) failed to match. The brush excels primarily in the fine workmanship whereas fingers express the spirit (xieyi).” (Stanley-Baker, pp80-81) The combination of its rather simplistic nature, along with ability to reach the core of the human spirit, spoke loudly to the hearts and minds of the Japanese people; allowing this rather unorthodox practice of painting with fingers, the ability to develop and grow within Japan.
Gao Qipei (1683-1774)
Originated by Gao Qipei (1683-1747) in China, the short-lived experiments with finger painting were received poorly by those in China who had been accustomed to the typical brushwork paintings. The idea of creating artwork done with both finger and nail went in direct opposition to the brush-supreme view of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Chinese idealists. This idea was so ingrained in the minds of Chinese people, that any attempt to depart from the notion of not using a brush was doomed to fail.
Yanagisawa Kien’s (1704-58) “Bamboo” is an exquisite example of Japanese finger painting in Tokugawa Japan during the Edo period (1600-1867). During this time of isolation, when Japan was “closed-off” from the outside influences of the world, artists such as Kien strove to find alternative methods of creating art, and relished in the refreshing outside influences that would rarely make it to Japan.
Yanagisawas Kien came from a prominent family in the Koriyama prefect, of what is now Nara. He became skilled in the 16 noble accomplishments needed to become a successful samurai, but became more interested in other forms of art. Kien began learning Chinese Confucianism under Ogyu Sorai, and was strongly influenced by Chinese paintings during the Ming Dynasty. It is that fascination with Chinese art and society that eventually let to Kien’s work in finger painting.