A Garden of Celebrated Japanese and Chinese Paintings (Wakan meigaen} 和漢名画苑
Ooka Shunboku 大岡春卜 Japanese
Not on view
Shunboku was a predominantly self-taught painter and entrepreneur, best known for the various series of woodblock-printed books in which he reproduced Chinese and Japanese paintings by famous artists. These multi-volume ehon, or picture books, served as manuals to artists like Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) and Kimura Kenkadō (1736–1802), the latter of whom was also a well-known collector. Shunboku’s books stimulated their interest in China’s Ming-dynasty painters, some of whose compositions could be found in the collections of Japanese monasteries and were thus accessible for study.
This set of six volumes shows that Shunboku wished to disseminate images of Japanese masterworks as well as Chinese. It includes reproductions of kasen-e—imaginary portraits of poets like Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and Ono no Komachi—by Tosa school artists, scenes from The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), and illustrations from the Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari) attributed to Tosa Mitsuoki (1617–1691).
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