Matsumura Goshun

Hibiscus and gray heron on a stump (1782)

Matsumura Goshun ( Japanese 松 村 呉 春 ; * April 28, 1752 ( traditionally : Hōreki 2/3/15); † September 4, 1811 (traditionally: Bunka 8/7/17)), also Matsumura Gekkei ( 松 村 月 渓 ), was a Japanese painter of the Edo period and founder of the Shijō school. He was the protégé of the artist Yosa Buson (1716–1784), a master of Japanese literary painting.

Life

Goshun was born the eldest of six brothers into a family of high government officials of the Imperial Mint ( kinza 金 座 ). His parents wanted him to be educated on the basics of Chinese and Japanese cultures, such as classical history and literature, the arts of calligraphy and painting, and poetry writing. Therefore, his training in these arts began at a young age. His early teachers were masters of literary painting ( bunjinga 文人画 ) who had devoted themselves to studying classical Chinese painting styles. Goshun also turned to this style of painting, he also developed an interest in haiku poetry, which he refined especially during his studies with his teacher Yosa Buson (1716–1784).

He was not immediately successful as a painter, but Buson helped him stay afloat by placing him as a literature teacher for wealthy provincial merchants who wanted to surround themselves with the aura of culture in order to improve their status. In 1781 his life took a dramatic turn. His wife and father died that year and Buson, himself terminally ill, was apparently unable to continue to support his student. In the course of this, Goshun left his home in the Shijō district of Kyoto and moved to Ikeda near Osaka . During this time he continued to paint in Buson's style, but was still not successful enough to finance himself.

Around 1787 it became clear that he had to join another group of artists, and he joined the circle around Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795) to work on screens for the Daijō-ji, a temple in Hyōgo . Later events reinforced Goshun's connection with Ōkyo when both lived in the same temple for a time after a fire that raged in Kyoto. Obviously, a good professional collaboration turned into a good friendship during this time. Around 1789 Goshun moved back to the Shijō district of Kyoto and from then on used elements of vonkyo's style in his painting. Ōkyo never regarded Goshun as his student, although Ōkyo is listed in the records of the Daijō-ji Goshun as the best student. When he offered to officially join the school and be trained as an apprentice, Ōkyo declined. He preferred the two to remain on the same level as friends, thus giving Goshun the opportunity to develop his own unique mix of Ōkyo school and literary painting styles. When Ōkyo died in 1795, Goshun founded his own, the Shijō school, in which he worked and taught until his death.

Style development

In the early years Goshun was clearly influenced by the literary painters and there especially by Buson's training. His compositions mainly bear the characteristics of Chinese painting of the Southern School, which were known in Japan through painting tracts and through Chinese originals in Japan. His time in Ikeda (around 1785) can be seen as the maturity of this early phase of his style development.

After his time with Ōkyo (after 1787), his painting style changed completely when, under the influence of the Maruyama school, he took over and developed elements of Ōkyo's decorative techniques.

However, his style can only be regarded as mature after Ōkyo's death (1795), as he was able to consolidate his painting techniques within his own school without being influenced by other masters. He seems to have given up Buson's literary painting in this phase of his life, although after his return to Kyōto he was traded as his rightful successor for a few years.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cleveland Museum of Art - Seventy-two Peaks Against the Blue Sky (Matsumura Goshun) ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ CMA Exhibition Feature: Focus: The Art of Matsumura Goshun ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Remarks

1. ↑ Standard sources (e, g. Akiyama: Japanese Painting. Skira 1977, Roberts: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill 1976 or Tazawa: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha 1981) list the artist under Goshun , his full name in Chinese fashion , with reference to its Japanese name Matsumura Gekkei .

literature

• Addiss, Stephen : Zenga and Nanga: Paintings By Japanese Monks and Scholars . New Orleans museum of Art, 1976.
• Cunningham, Michael R .: Byōbu: The Art of the Japanese Screen . Cleveland Museum of Art, 1984.
• Deal, William E.: Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan . Oxford University Press US, 2007, ISBN 0-19-533126-5 .
• Mason, Penelope E .: History of Japanese Art . Prentice Hall, New Jersey 2004, ISBN 0-13-117601-3 .

Web links

Commons : Matsumura Goshun  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Matsumura is the family name, Goshun the first name.