(
Oda Tōyō since 1431, also known as
Tōyō,
Unkoku, or
Bikeisai) (1420 – 26 August 1506) was the most prominent Japanese master of
ink and wash paintingInk and wash painting is an East Asian type of brush painting also known as wash painting or by its Japanese name sumi-e . Ink and wash painting is also known by its Chinese name shui-mo hua...
from the middle
Muromachi periodThe was a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1336 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji...
. He was born into the
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
Oda family (小田家), then brought up and educated to become a Rinzai Zen Buddhist priest. However, early in life he displayed a talent for visual arts, and eventually became one of the greatest Japanese artists of his time, widely revered throughout Japan and China.
Sesshū studied under Tenshō Shūbun and was influenced by
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
landscape painting. In 1468–9 he undertook a voyage to China, where too he was quickly recognized as an outstanding painter. Upon returning to Japan, Sesshū built himself a studio and established a large following, painters that are now referred to as the
Unkoku-rin school—or "School of Sesshū". Although many paintings survive that bear Sesshū's signature or seal, only a few can be securely attributed to him. His most well-known work is a very large landscape scroll,
Landscape of the Four Seasons (
Sansui Chokan), which has been described as probably the best Japanese ink painting in history.
Biography
Sesshū was born in Akahama, a settlement in
Bitchū Provincewas a province of Japan on the Inland Sea side of western Honshū, in what is today western Okayama Prefecture. Bitchu bordered Hōki, Mimasaka, Bizen, and Bingo Provinces....
, which is now part of western
Okayama Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Okayama.- History :During the Meiji Restoration; Bitchū Province, Bizen Province and Mimasaka Province were combined to form Okayama Prefecture.- Geography :...
. His family name was Oda, but his original name is unknown. He received the name Tōyō in 1431, when he was enrolled at the Hōfuku-ji, a Zen temple in
Sōjais a city located in Okayama, Japan.As of 2003, the city has an estimated population of 56,755 and the density of 295.20 persons per km². The total area is 192.26 km²....
. Kanō Einō's
History of Japanese Painting (
Honchogashi), a 17th century source, contains a well-known anecdote about the young Sesshū: apparently the future painter did not study Zen with enough dedication, preferring instead to spend his time drawing. Once, he was punished for disobedience and tied to a pillar in the hall of the temple. After a while, a priest came to see him and jumped up with surprise—there was a mouse very close to Sesshū's foot. However, it was actually a picture which Sesshū had painted with his tears. Although the story is famous, its authenticity is questionable. At any rate, during his early studies Sesshū would've received instruction not only in religion, but also
calligraphyCalligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of writing . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
and painting.
Around 1440 Sesshū left Bitchū for
Kyotois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area....
, a large city which was then the capital of Japan. He lived as a monk at
Shōkoku-ji, formally identified as , is a Buddhist temple in northern Kyoto, founded in 1382 by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.-Buddhist center:In 1383, the Zen master was designated by Yoshimitsu as founding abbot, however, Myoha insisted that the official honor be posthumously accorded to his own teacher,...
, a famous Zen temple. There, Sesshū studied Zen under Shunrin Suto (（春林）), a famous Zen master, and painting under Tenshō Shūbun, the most highly regarded Japanese painter of the time. Shūbun's style, like that of most Japanese Zen painters, was inspired by
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
painters such as
Xia GuiXia Gui was a Chinese landscape painter of the Song Dynasty. Very little is known about his life, and only a few of his works survive, but his generally considered one of China's greatest artists. He continued the tradition of Li Tang, further simplifying the earlier Song style to achieve a more...
,
Guo XiGuo Xi Chinese landscape painter from Henan Province who lived during the Northern Song dynasty. One text entitled "The Lofty Message of Forest and Streams" is attributed to him. The work covers a variety of themes centered around the appropriate way of painting a landscape...
, and others. There are no surviving works by Sesshū from this period, but even his late work shows similar influences. Sesshū spent some 20 years in Kyoto, and then left for
Yamaguchi Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Yamaguchi located in the center of the Prefecture: The largest city, by contrast, is Shimonoseki.- History :...
to become chief priest of Unkoku temple. It was around this time that he started calling himself
Sesshū ("snow boat").
Yamaguchi was where many Japanese expeditions to China started, and perhaps Sesshū's choice of the city was dictated by a wish to visit that country. He secured an invitation from
Ōuchi familyThe ' was one of the most powerful and important families in Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 12th to 14th centuries descended from the Korean Baekje Dynasty's Royal family...
, the lords of Yamaguchi and one of the most powerful families in Japan, and joined a trading trip; in 1468 he landed in Southern China. His duties were to buy Chinese works of art for wealthy Japanese patrons, and to visit and study at Chinese Zen temples. Although the artist himself was disappointed in the art of
Ming dynastyThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
, which deviated very far from Song models, he was very taken with Chinese nature and temples. He was quickly recognized as an important painter, and a contemporary source indicates that he may have received a commission from the Imperial Palace at
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
. Whether this is true, or whether he accepted is unknown; the best surviving works of the period are four landscape scrolls currently in the collection of
Tokyo National MuseumEstablished 1872, the , or TNM, is the oldest and largest museum in Japan. The museum collects, houses, and preserves a comprehensive collection of art works and archaeological objects of Asia, focusing on Japan. The museum holds over 110,000 objects, which includes 87 Japanese National Treasure...
.
Sesshū stayed in China until 1469. Because of the
Ōnin WarThe ' was a civil war from 1467 to 1477 during the Muromachi period in Japan. A dispute between Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen escalated into a nationwide war involving the Ashikaga shogunate and a number of daimyo in many regions of Japan....
, he could not stay in Yamaguchi, and settled instead in
Ōita Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. The prefectural capital is the city of Ōita.- History :After the Meiji Restoration, Bungo and southern Buzen Provinces were combined to form Ōita Prefecture: These provinces were divided among many local daimyo and thus a large castle town never...
in
Kyūshūor Kyushu is the 3rd-largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include Kyūkoku , Chinzei , and Tsukushi-no-shima...
, where he built a studio,
Tenkai Zuga-rō. He occupied himself with painting and teaching, and frequently made trips to various areas of Japan. On one of such trips, in 1478, Sesshu went to Masuda, Shimane, on invitation from Kanetaka Masuda, the lord of
Iwami ProvinceIwami was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Shimane Prefecture. Iwami bordered Aki, Bingo, Izumo, Nagato, and Suō provinces.In the Heian era the capital was at modern-day Hamada....
. The painter entered the Sukanji (崇観寺）), made two Zen gardens there, and painted the portrait of Masuda Kanetaka, and
The Birds and Flowers of Four Seasons.
In 1486 Sesshū came back to Yamaguchi. Many of his extant works date from the last years of his life, including
Landscape of the Four Seasons (
Sansui Chokan, 1486),
Haboku-Sansui (1495), and others. One such work,
View of Ama-no-Hashidate (c. 1501–5), is a bird's eye view of a famous sandbar in
Tango Provincewas an old province in the area that is today northern Kyoto Prefecture facing the Sea of Japan. Tango bordered on Tajima, Tamba, and Wakasa provinces.At various times both Maizuru and Miyazu were the capital and chief town of the province.-Historical record:...
. To paint it, the artist, who was already well into his eighties, had to climb a tall mountain, so evidently he was still in good health. In 1506, he died, aged 87. A single self-portrait of Sesshū is known through a later copy made by a follower.
Paintings
Although numerous works from the period bear Sesshū's signature, name, or seal, only a few can be securely attributed to him. Many are either copies or works by the artist's pupils; and several painters, including
Hasegawa Tohakuwas a Japanese painter and founder of the Hasegawa school of Japanese painting during the Azuchi-Momoyama period of Japanese history.Tōhaku started his artistic career as a painter of Buddhist paintings in his home province of Noto, Japan. After moving to Kyoto around the age of 30, he developed...
, even used Sesshū's name for artistic reasons. Artists most influenced by Sesshū's approach to painting are referred to as belonging to the "School of Sesshū" (
Unkoku-rin school).
Perhaps the most important surviving work by the master is the so-called
Long Scroll of Landscapes (
Sansui Chokan): a 50-feet (15 meters) scroll depicting the four seasons in the sequence spring—summer—autumn—winter. As is usual for the period and the work of Sesshū's teacher Tenshō Shūbun, style and technique are heavily influenced by
Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
Chinese paintings, in particular the works of
Xia GuiXia Gui was a Chinese landscape painter of the Song Dynasty. Very little is known about his life, and only a few of his works survive, but his generally considered one of China's greatest artists. He continued the tradition of Li Tang, further simplifying the earlier Song style to achieve a more...
. However, Sesshū alters the Chinese model by introducing more pronounced contrast between light and shadow, thicker, heavier lines, and a flatter effect of space. There are two other large landscape scrolls attributed to Sesshū. The smaller "Four Seasons" scroll (
Short Scroll of Landscapes) exhibits qualities similar to those of
Sansui Chokan, only featuring somewhat more free technique.
View of Ama-no-Hashidate, painted shortly before the artist's death, is a radical departure from the Chinese tradition: the painting presends a realistic bird's eye view of a particular landscape.
Other famous works by Sesshū include the Buddhist picture
Huike Offering His Arm to Bodhidharma, painted in 1496 and designated as
National Treasure of JapanThe Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the government of Japan designates the most precious of the nation's cultural properties as National Treasures...
in 2004, and a pair of decorative screens depicting flowers and birds.
List of selected works
Landscapes
- Landscape of the Four Seasons, four landscape scrolls (before 1469; Tokyo National Museum)
- Landscapes of Autumn and Winter, two hanging scrolls (c. 1470–90; Tokyo National Museum)
- Short Scroll of Landscapes (c. 1474–90; Kyoto National Museum)
- Long Scroll of Landscapes (Sansui Chokan) (c. 1486; Mori Collection, Yamaguchi, Japan)
- Haboku-Sansui, "splashed-ink" technique scroll (1495; Tokyo National Museum)
- View of Ama-no-Hashidate (c. 1502–05; Kyoto National Museum)
Other
- Portrait of Masuda Kanetaka (1479; Masuda Collection, Tokyo)
- Huike Offering His Arm to Bodhidharma (Daruma and Hui K’o) (1496; Sainen-ji, Aichi, Japan)
- Flowers and Birds, pair of sixfold screens (undated; Kosaka Collection, Tokyo)
External links