Is it Possession or Appropriation? - Tokyo National Museum Special Exhibition "Yamato-e"

The final battle of the very first Star Wars film, Episode IV.

Luke Skywalker, piloting a Rebel X-wing fighter, flies at high speed to hit the exhaust port, which is only 2 meters wide and leads to the Death Star's central reactor, in order to fire a proton torpedo into it.

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The latter half of Section 3, Chapter 3 of the special exhibition "Yamato-e: The Beauty of the Dynasty Inherited" currently being held at the Tokyo National Museum.

The "selection and placement" of the exhibits here was like shooting through a 2-meter gap on the surface of a moon. (The Death Star is the size of a moon.)


The introduction to this exhibition states that it is a "comprehensive overview and look back at the grand and magnificent history of Yamato-e," and this is likely the core and the climax.
By the way, there are no changes to the works displayed in this latter half of Section 3 throughout the entire exhibition period.

There are three painters featured in this area.

And the relationship between these three is:

Yamato-e was primarily painted by court painters at the Imperial Court's painting bureau, and Tosa Mitsunobu held the position of Azukari (supervisor) of the court painting bureau.

On the other hand, Kano Motonobu was a painter at the Muromachi Shogunate's painting bureau, which patronized Zen Buddhism, so his work was based on Kanga (ink wash painting).

By arranging the Yamato-e of the Tosa school and the Kanga of the Kano school, this exhibition visualizes the process of trial and error in how they 'attempted to combine' and 'did combine' the Japanese and Chinese styles, which had each established their own unique styles through the Heian, Kamakura, and Nanboku-cho periods into the Muromachi period.

Paintings that make this possible are being gathered from across the country.

Only two of the works in this area are from the Tokyo National Museum's collection; the rest have been brought together from the Mitsui Memorial Museum (Tokyo), the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum (Hyogo), Kuwanomi-dera Temple (Shiga), the Suntory Museum of Art (Tokyo), and the Seikado Bunko Art Museum (Tokyo).

What exactly was this 'endeavor that aims for creation'? The exhibition sets its sights on that very point. I was left in awe of the editing power and depth of the Tokyo National Museum, as their discerning eye was flawless.

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First, the process by which Yamato-e painters (the Tosa family) attempted to incorporate Kanga.

No.208
◎ Shoko-ji Engi Emaki (Illustrated Handscroll of the Origins of Shoko-ji Temple), Upper Scroll 1487

A mixture of Kanga by Tosa Mitsunobu around the age of 54.
Mitsunobu was fond of renga poetry and reportedly interacted with the renga poet Shinkei, so Kanga must have been familiar to him. On the sliding door of a house in this handscroll, a monkey ink painting, similar to the monkey in Sesshu's 'Hawk and Monkey Screen,' is secretly depicted.
It feels like he is saying, 'I tried painting a little ink wash too.'

It shows Mitsunobu's personality, playfulness, and the ease that comes from his mastery of the brush.
Mitsunobu is attributed as the creator of the 'Hyakki Yagyo Emaki' (No. 190), and the large six-panel folding screen 'Pine Trees' (No. 179) is also attributed to his brush, so it is clear that he was adept at any subject, whether small paintings or large ones, people, yokai, or pine trees.

* Both 'Hyakki Yagyo Emaki' (No. 190) and 'Pine Trees' (No. 179) are on display for the entire duration.

No.209
◎ Kuwano-dera Engi Emaki (Illustrated Handscroll of the Origins of Kuwano-dera Temple), Upper and Lower Scrolls 1532

A mixture of Japanese and Chinese styles by Tosa Mitsumochi, Mitsunobu's son, around the age of 36.
In previous 'Yamato-e,' real landscapes were rarely depicted exactly as they were, but this handscroll uses a real-life panoramic view (a method similar to Kanga).

The story they wanted to tell in this handscroll is conveyed concretely, so I think this realism must have been new at the time.

There is a sense of stability in the depiction of the small pine needles and the way the buildings are drawn, and the incorporation of perspective feels truly like that of the direct lineage of the Tosa school.

However, perhaps because I am viewing it as an extension of Yamato-e, my first impression of the painting was that it was 'too explicit, leaving no room for the imagination to play.' (They probably weren't aiming for that, though.)

I felt that Mitsumochi himself, who painted it, must have also felt that 'something was different.'

Bringing the methods of Kanga into the format (vessel) of a handscroll seems to have been somewhat lackluster in terms of creativity.

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And then, the process by which Kano Motonobu of the Kanga school attempted to incorporate Yamato-e.

No.210
◎ Illustrated Scroll of Shuten-doji, Volume 1 An illustrated scroll of Yamato-e painted around 1522 when

Kano Motonobu was 46 years old.
Rather than a mixture of Japanese and Chinese styles, this is Yamato-e itself.

If the author's name were hidden, it is an illustrated scroll with lines and coloring so beautiful that one would think it was painted by a Yamato-e artist.

However, the thickness of the outlines of the figures might be where a bit of the Kanga style emerged.

However, I was startled to see the description of the painting mention that he "married the daughter of Tosa Mitsunobu."

I wondered if it was impossible for a painter from the Shogunate's painting bureau to master the Yamato-e techniques of the court painters and grasp their essence without marrying into the family.

Did Kano Motonobu go as far as marrying into the family to obtain "that"?

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Although the Imperial Court and the Shogunate were close during the Muromachi period, the fact that a Shogunate painter could marry into a court painter's family is proof that there were significant opportunities for interaction.

Perhaps the existence of Renga, which was very popular at the time, played a major role in the interaction between these two.

No.212
◎ Paintings of Zen Patriarchs (Former Daisen-in Hojo Wall Paintings) Circa 1513. This is likely an ink painting from when

Kano Motonobu was around 37 years old, before he had mastered the techniques of Yamato-e.Daisen-in is one of the sub-temples of Daitoku-ji, a place at the forefront of the Zen culture trend at the time.

The world of ink painted on the walls of the abbot's quarters is simply cool, and even the thin lines remain strong.

Rather than the impression of "a world I have never seen before" common in Kanga, it reminds me of the Yamato-e method of depicting human activities or arranging a story within a single painting.

I felt that rather than forcibly combining heterogeneous things, there was a sense here of continuing to seek new and rare things.

The figures are particularly impressive, and the depiction of the clothing fluttering in the wind reminds me of that of Soga Shohaku.

It shows the skill to paint like this, and the large gap in technique from the aforementioned "Illustrated Scroll of Shuten-doji" painted nine years later.

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This concludes the look at the intermingling of the Yamato-e and Kanga (Chinese-style painting) schools.

And here, looking back,
on the opposite side, two large six-panel folding screens are lined up.

No.206
◎ Folding Screens of Sun, Moon, Pines, and Cranes 16th Century

The artist is unknown, but it depicts Japanese landscapes on large screens typical of Kanga, using the painting techniques of Yamato-e.

It gives the impression of what it might look like if you added sun, moon, and cranes to Tosa Mitsunobu's gold-leaf 'Pine Trees' screen (No.179), and I feel a new frontier here.

One might say it was raised in a Kanga environment with the tradition of Yamato-e as its 'womb'.
It is curious that the colors are overall subdued, giving the impression of looking at an ink wash painting.

And as I watched the gold filling the margins, I thought that perhaps they discovered the total gold-leaf background during the phase transition from Yamato-e coloring to Kanga ink wash.

In other words, one could say they arrived at the total gold-leaf background after asking themselves what exactly makes something 'Yamato-e'.

It is as if the 'dazzle' of Yamato-e became a living spirit of 'gold' and possessed the ink wash painting.

This may be the result of the indifference of the Yamato-e painters of the time in a sense, but I even feel a desperate desire from 'Yamato-e' itself to 'discard its tired old self and be reborn as something new'.

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And then, a complete metamorphosis where the scenery changes once more.
Finally, we arrive here.

No.207
◎ Folding Screens of Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons 1550

Here, for the first time, I witnessed 'creation'.
Kano Motonobu at the age of 74, in his later years.

Creation is literally 'covered in wounds'.
The nausea-inducing wounds and pain that come when swallowing something alien.

The greatest enemy when facing something new is the experience within oneself.
Unless you discard Kanga once and for all, you can never fully incorporate Yamato-e.

Because Motonobu did that, he was able to make pure Kanga and pure Yamato-e coexist independently within his own body as a dual entity.

That is why it is impossible to just use Yamato-e as a reference. Reference alone cannot lead to creation.

All that remains is to integrate it without failure toward the painting one aims for.
Having said that, how difficult that is.

28 years after the 'Shuten-dōji Emaki', the 78-year-old Motonobu finally, finally.

The central nuclear reactor of this exhibition is undoubtedly this folding screen.
Just imagining that whether or not they could borrow this screen from the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum must have been the most important point in the planning stage of this exhibition gives me chills.

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Since the Kanga (Chinese-style painting) that Kano Motonobu originally mastered was something foreign, it fused with Yamato-e in a way that swallowed it up.
In a sense, it was an appropriation of 'Yamato-e' by Kano Motonobu.

Or perhaps that is not the case,
Should we say that the soul of 'Yamato-e' possessed a new vessel?

By replacing the very 'womb' itself, it is creatively renewed.
This is the true meaning of 'hanko-dattai' (replacing the bones and stealing the fetus—creative transformation).

I had felt that 'renewal' was a method of creative rebirth in Japan since ancient times, but to see it with my own eyes—there is no greater happiness.

Kano Motonobu's Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons Folding Screen was a 'reborn Yamato-e'.

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Even so, I wonder if the Yamato-e painters themselves could not have reached this point.

With that thought, I turned to the right and saw this painting.


No.211
Katata Folding Screen 1557

A sumi-e ink painting by Tosa Mitsunobu's son, Tosa Mitsumochi, at age 61.

The direct descendant of Yamato-e depicts Japanese scenery in ink.
The mist is incredibly good. It is a Japanese landscape completely different from Sesshu's.

The comfort of not being confronted with anything difficult.
You can empty your mind and surrender yourself to the scenery.

When I saw this painting, I thought that Tosa Mitsumochi must have surely seen Kano Motonobu's 'Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons Folding Screen'.

I can almost hear those words.

But somehow it feels light. There is no sense of being backed into a corner.
This feeling is similar to his father, Tosa Mitsunobu.

That's right. Yamato-e has 'brilliance,' but 'lightness' is also important.

This lightness was a sensibility inherited from the early Heian period, when Yamato-e was born.

The activities of the Japanese people descended lightly into Tosa Mitsumochi's 'Katata Screen,' and familiar landscapes descended with brilliance into Kano Motonobu's 'Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons Screen.'

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And here lies the reality of the 'creative-oriented activities' that Japan has been continuously engaged in since ancient times, in both their wild and harmonious spirits.

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