Contextualizing Ito Jakuchu
Diana Rocklin

 

Ito Jakuchu was born in 1716 and although there is a considerable amount of information about his life in comparison to other painters in the Edo period, virtually nothing is known about his early years. There is information about his family lineage, however, and this information has been “of fundamental importance in understanding both the environment in which he was raised and related circumstances there were to exercise a significant influence on his personality and career as an artist” (Hickman, Sato, 17). Ito Jakuchu came from a family of greengrocers in Kyoto who “seem to have operated their business in this location of more than two centuries” (17). The family’s store, Masugen, was located in the Nishhike neighborhood. Nishiki can be translated into the word “brocade” which is an appropriate name for this district because it “evokes a sense of the diversity and abundance of the foods displayed” (17). The Ito family’s store was surrounded by color and the brimming popularity of the neighborhood. One can almost see the roots of the Nishiki neighborhood in Jakuchu’s colorful animal/amphibian paintings or extravagantly rendered vegetable paintings.

Another example of how outside influences appear in his wonderfully diverse body of work are his vegetable paintings (figure 4). These paintings were a product of the “resurgence of his artistic vigor as he entered” (Hickman 180) his older years. The bold, enlivened lines can be interpreted as a reference to another artist in the Kyoto area, Rosetsu, who often used bold, black subject matters (180). The vegetable genre is a departure from Jakuchu’s usual meticulous style but it is appropriate that he began such a bold and strong style towards as he reached his 80’s, as this shift can be interpreted as a symbol for the kind of life he chose to live. Just as Jakuchu was unafraid to change his career path and become a painter, he was unafraid to experiment with new artistic styles and break with tradition, truly classifying him as an eccentric.

Jakuchu was handed over his father’s greengrocer business when he was twenty-three years old when his father died. He worked as a greengrocer for approximately seventeen years but, as Hiraga Hakusan, who knew Jakuchu, noted “he led a very solitary life from his youth on” (18) and did not enjoy his life as a greengrocer. He turned to Buddhism to help relieve his monotonous life. For Jakuchu, Buddhism, “in one context or another, continued to provide him with the emotional environment and inspiration indispensable for both his well-being and his creative activity in subsequent years” (18). Although Jakuchu’s initial interest in Buddhism was in the Pure Land Buddhism tradition, he eventually switched to Zen Buddhism, through the influence of his close friend, Daiten. It is speculated that is was also through the help of Daiten (in addition to Jakuchu’s dislike of his profession as a greengrocer) that he took the tonsure.

Jakuchu’s approach to painting is an amalgamation of influences, which is why he is classified in the category of “eccentric painters.” One of the finest examples of his work, Insects, Reptiles, and Amphibians at a Pond from The Colourful Realm of Living Beings (see figure 1) incorporates the influences of the Kano and Rinpa schools. Jakuchu’s use of shaseiga, (as in figure 1), is a common thread through out his work. For example in Cocks and Hens (figure 3), Jakuchu’s meticulous attention to the details of the feathers and the forms of the birds make this work of art stunning. This work shows, once again, his love of naturalism to the “point of hyper-realism” (Mason 322). Unlike the amphibians painting, however, there is less flattening of the space (a Rinpa inspired influence) and more of an emphasis on the superimposition of one shape over another (322).


figure 3
Cocks and Hens
18th C. A.D, located at University of California, San Diego


figure 4
Nirvana of Vegetables
18th C. A.D, located at University of California, San Diego

figure 2
White Plum Blossoms in Moonlight
silk, ink and color, 31 in. wide55 in. long Edo period
Daiten’s role in Jakuchu’s life did not stop there, as it is believed that Jakuchu “benefited from his association with Daiten as a painter” (20). At the time Daiten and Jakuchu began their friendship, Jakuchu picked up the “distinctive appellation” of Jakuchu which can be translated as “’like a void”’(19). However he initially worked under the name Shunkyo, “a circumstance suggesting that he may have received instruction from Osaka Shumboku, an enterprising artist from Osaka with Kano-school training, who was particularly interested in Chinese paining of the Sung, Yuan, and Ming periods. The influence of the Yuan period can be seen in White Plum Blossoms in Moonlight (figure 2), an example of Jakuchu’s work on silk. There is a “high degree of technical proficiency” (43) required of such a genre as well as a strong sense of “individual conception” and skill (43). The blossoms are luminous and luxurious and the “conceptual origins of this traditional monochromatic subject” can be traced back to “Chinese prototypes of the Yuan period” (45). However, Jakuchu departs from this period with the addition of his “strong sense of expressive forms and inventive brushwork” (45).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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