Theramin: link
[[Image:Hyônen zu by Josetsu.jpg|thumb|300px|''Catching catfish with a gourd'' (Hyōnen-zu) by [[Josetsu]] ]]
is a [[hanging scroll]] painting by the 15th century artist . The painting was made c.1415 and is held by [[Taizō-in]], a sub-temple of the [[Myōshin-ji]] complex of [[Zen Buddhist]] temples in [[Kyoto]]. It is one of the earliest ''[[suiboku]]'' (ink wash) paintings in Japan and was designated as a [[National Treasure of Japan]] in 1951. The painting is accompanied by many inscriptions, and may be considered an example of ''[[shigajiku]]'' (a "poem-and-painting scroll").
Josetsu was born and trained as an artist in China but settled in Japan. He was one of the first ''suiboku'' painters working in Japan in the [[Muromachi period]].
This ink on paper painting depicts an old man in ragged clothes holding out a [[Calabash|bottle gourd]] (''hyōtan'') beside a narrow winding stream, with a stand of bamboo in the foreground to the left and mountains rising through mist in the background to the right. The man is apparently attempting to catch a [[catfish]] (''[[namazu]]'' or ''ayu'') that is swimming past.
The work was inspired by a riddle set by [[Ashikaga Yoshimochi]], the fourth ''[[shōgun]]'' of the [[Ashikaga shogunate]]: "How do you catch a catfish with a gourd?" The full scroll measures , with long inscription above the painting recording the shōgun's rhetorical question and also that Josetsu drew an answer, and naming 31 leading Zen monks who each provide a written response to the shōgun's question. The work may have been commissioned for the ''tangen'', the shōgun's private Zen chapel, at his new .
Catching a slippery catfish fish with an unsuitable utensil such as gourd would be so difficult as to be almost impossible, but illustrates the impossibility of using logical rationalisation to understand [[Zen]]. It can be viewed as Zen humour, or as a [[kōan]] in an unusual visual form designed to provoke the viewer into new ways of thinking or seeing. It may also play on traditional Japanese beliefs that both the gourd and the catfish have magic powers, according to which the gourd is said to be able to control snakes, and the catfish to predict earthquakes.
The work inspired popular ''[[otsu-e]]'' imitations in following centuries, often showing a money attempting to catch a catfish with a gourd. Catfish paintings or ''[[namazu-e]]'' became popular after the [[1855 Edo earthquake]], with an example made by [[Kunisada]] in 1857 showing a monkey catching a giant catfish with a gourd.
<gallery>
File:Hyonen zu by Josetsu0.JPG|Full scroll with inscriptions
File:Kunisada, Hyotan namazu.jpg|[[Kunisada]]'s print of a monkey, ''Catching a Catfish with a Gourd'' (Hyotan namazu), 1857
</gallery>
==References==
* [https://ift.tt/34CGNwG 不思議な絵 ―如拙筆「瓢鮎図」], ("Mysterious Paintings - "Hyonenzu", by Josetsu"), Kyoto National Museum (in Japanese)
* [https://ift.tt/34CGO3I Hyonenzu “Catching a Catfish with a Gourd” (Ink Painting, National Treasure)], taizoin.com
* [https://ift.tt/37FXTve Japanese Zen Buddhism and the Impossible Painting], Yukio Lippit, p.4-9
* [https://ift.tt/38xy8MS From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen: A Remarkable Century of Transmission and Transformation], Steven Heine, p.237-240
* [https://ift.tt/38J4XH5 China and Japan through the Artistic Prism of Josetsu: “Catching a Catfish with a Gourd”], Lee Jay Walker, Modern Tokyo Times, 23 May 2015
[[Category:1410s paintings]]
[[Category:Japanese paintings]]
[[Category:National Treasures of Japan]]
[[ja:瓢鮎図]]
is a [[hanging scroll]] painting by the 15th century artist . The painting was made c.1415 and is held by [[Taizō-in]], a sub-temple of the [[Myōshin-ji]] complex of [[Zen Buddhist]] temples in [[Kyoto]]. It is one of the earliest ''[[suiboku]]'' (ink wash) paintings in Japan and was designated as a [[National Treasure of Japan]] in 1951. The painting is accompanied by many inscriptions, and may be considered an example of ''[[shigajiku]]'' (a "poem-and-painting scroll").
Josetsu was born and trained as an artist in China but settled in Japan. He was one of the first ''suiboku'' painters working in Japan in the [[Muromachi period]].
This ink on paper painting depicts an old man in ragged clothes holding out a [[Calabash|bottle gourd]] (''hyōtan'') beside a narrow winding stream, with a stand of bamboo in the foreground to the left and mountains rising through mist in the background to the right. The man is apparently attempting to catch a [[catfish]] (''[[namazu]]'' or ''ayu'') that is swimming past.
The work was inspired by a riddle set by [[Ashikaga Yoshimochi]], the fourth ''[[shōgun]]'' of the [[Ashikaga shogunate]]: "How do you catch a catfish with a gourd?" The full scroll measures , with long inscription above the painting recording the shōgun's rhetorical question and also that Josetsu drew an answer, and naming 31 leading Zen monks who each provide a written response to the shōgun's question. The work may have been commissioned for the ''tangen'', the shōgun's private Zen chapel, at his new .
Catching a slippery catfish fish with an unsuitable utensil such as gourd would be so difficult as to be almost impossible, but illustrates the impossibility of using logical rationalisation to understand [[Zen]]. It can be viewed as Zen humour, or as a [[kōan]] in an unusual visual form designed to provoke the viewer into new ways of thinking or seeing. It may also play on traditional Japanese beliefs that both the gourd and the catfish have magic powers, according to which the gourd is said to be able to control snakes, and the catfish to predict earthquakes.
The work inspired popular ''[[otsu-e]]'' imitations in following centuries, often showing a money attempting to catch a catfish with a gourd. Catfish paintings or ''[[namazu-e]]'' became popular after the [[1855 Edo earthquake]], with an example made by [[Kunisada]] in 1857 showing a monkey catching a giant catfish with a gourd.
<gallery>
File:Hyonen zu by Josetsu0.JPG|Full scroll with inscriptions
File:Kunisada, Hyotan namazu.jpg|[[Kunisada]]'s print of a monkey, ''Catching a Catfish with a Gourd'' (Hyotan namazu), 1857
</gallery>
==References==
* [https://ift.tt/34CGNwG 不思議な絵 ―如拙筆「瓢鮎図」], ("Mysterious Paintings - "Hyonenzu", by Josetsu"), Kyoto National Museum (in Japanese)
* [https://ift.tt/34CGO3I Hyonenzu “Catching a Catfish with a Gourd” (Ink Painting, National Treasure)], taizoin.com
* [https://ift.tt/37FXTve Japanese Zen Buddhism and the Impossible Painting], Yukio Lippit, p.4-9
* [https://ift.tt/38xy8MS From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen: A Remarkable Century of Transmission and Transformation], Steven Heine, p.237-240
* [https://ift.tt/38J4XH5 China and Japan through the Artistic Prism of Josetsu: “Catching a Catfish with a Gourd”], Lee Jay Walker, Modern Tokyo Times, 23 May 2015
[[Category:1410s paintings]]
[[Category:Japanese paintings]]
[[Category:National Treasures of Japan]]
[[ja:瓢鮎図]]
from Wikipedia - New pages [en] https://ift.tt/2WDHIs3
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment