Rainstorm over a River Village

Under a threatening sky, trees sway in the wind and a boatman navigates a ferry on choppy waters; a passenger huddles inside. In the distance a small village is buffeted by the storm. With his brush held at an angle Tanomura Chikuden (1777–1835), who painted this scroll, applied dark, wet ink in a staccato rhythm over watery gray ink, creating patches of dense foliage. The painting is almost completely covered with blue-gray and coal-black washes; areas left unpainted suggest the heavy moisture of rising mist. Chikuden also composed and inscribed the short colophon:

A small boat—a leaf on the water—
retums home.
Like mountains, fierce waves rise up.
Who would think life's hardships
Could be more defeating than a rainstorm
Over a river village.[1]

Chikuden was one of the great nanga painters and the most scholarly of his generation. His artistic name, "Chikuden," is another reading of "Takeda" (bamboo field), the name of his birthplace in Bungo Province (Ōita Prefecture). Chikuden's life and career exemplify the spread of the concept of the bunjin (literatus) to small provincial towns far from Edo or Kyoto. As the son of a clan physician, Chikuden was trained in his father's profession, but his artistic talent and a predilection for scholarship led him in another direction. He first studied painting with minor local artists. In 1798, he left his post as physician to serve as a professor in the clan school. The same year he was commissioned to compile a history of Bungo, an assignment that allowed him to travel extensively and to examine art collections within the province.

In 1811 and 1812, the farmers of Bungo revolted against the harsh taxation system. On both occasions Chikuden advised that the clan government adopt drastic policy reforms. When his recommendations were rejected, he resigned on the pretext of ill health, as he had suffered from chronic ear and eye ailments from his late teens.

After his resignation, travel became a way of life. Chikuden's many trips across the Inland Sea to meet with nanga artists in Kyoto and Osaka were a source of artistic inspiration, and journeys over turbulent rivers and bays became a frequent theme. In 1827, the year he spent nearly ten months in Nagasaki, he painted several scenes of rainstorms.[2] In this he set himself apart from other nanga artists, who created imaginary landscapes or copied pictures of a China they had never seen.

Chikuden's career has been divided into three phases.[3] Until 1812, when he resigned his post as professor, he focused on bird-and-flower paintings in polychrome. After 1820, hemp-fiber texture strokes, indicative of the nanga manner, begin to appear in his work.[4] In Nagasaki and thereafter, he produced many paintings that describe stormy journeys and wind-whipped trees. The Burke Rainstorm closely resembles some of his Nagasaki-period works both in composition and in painting and calligraphy styles. A portion of the poem is also identical to one that Chikuden composed during the Nagasaki period.[5]

Chikuden wrote a treatise on painting, the Sanchūjin jōzetsu (Superfluous Words by a Mountain Hermit).[6] He also wrote commentaries on a number of nanga artists and bunjin whom he met in Kyoto and Osaka. The Chikuden-sō shiyū garoku (Records of Paintings by Chikuden's Teachers and Friends) includes accounts of the lives of 104 artist-friends and comments on their work. Chikuden's portraits of his friends are full of warmth, reflecting not only an intimate acquaintance but also a deep affection.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] Translation after Stephen D. Allee.
[2] Suzuki Susumu 1963, figs. 34, 36.
[3] Sasaki Kōzō 1983, pp. 27–39.
[4] Yoshizawa Chū 1978.
[5] Ibid., fig. 37.
[6] See Tanomura Chikuden 1916, pp. 139–59; and Taketani Chōjirō 1975.

Signature: Chikuden-sei

Marking: Collectors' seals: Densha-ji, Jinsei Koraku-ji

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.

Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Flowing Streams: Scenes from Japanese Arts and Life," December 21, 2006–June 3, 2007.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 280, cat. no. 357.