Hidari Jingorō

Sleeping Cat (Nikkō)

Hidari Jingorō ( Japanese 左 甚 五郎 ) was a Japanese architect and carver in the early 17th century.

Live and act

There are no reliable contemporary sources to prove the existence of Hidari Jingorō. After all, the Empekiken-ki (遠 碧 軒 - 記), written in 1660 by the historian Kurokawa Dōryō (黒 川 道 祐; 1621–1693), reports that Hidari Jingorō was a student of Kanō Eitoku and that he renewed for 1607 Kitano Shrine Carvings based on Eitoku's designs. The report adds that he was particularly good at carving with his left hand. In the Jinrin-Kummō-zui (人 倫 訓 蒙 図 彙) it is written that a woodcarver, called Hidari, lived in the Tenshō era (1573–1592). It is believed that this refers to Hidari Jingorō.

The Kinsei-kiseki-kō (近世 奇跡 考), written by Santō Kyōden in 1804 , contains a genealogy of the Hidari family of wood carvers. According to this source, Jingorō was born in 1594 and died in 1634. His child name was Tonematsu. The record also states that he became a student of Yusa Yoheki in Fushimi, Yamashiro Province , where he learned to decorate architectural details. There he is said to have taken the name Hidari Jingorō because he was left-handed. He was actually a wandering carver, but stayed in one place longer if necessary. This Hidari Jingorō here may not be the same as the one mentioned in Empekiken-ki, but the cross-reference does give an idea of ​​how a woodcarver worked in the late 16th century.

It is possible that "Hidari Jingorō" has developed into an attribution for excellent carvings, as in the case of the famous "sleeping cat", the Nemuri-neko at Tōshōgū in Nikkō , which is so realistic that it scares all mice even while sleeping , or with the ascending and descending dragons that adorn the entrance to the small Tōshōgū in Ueno Park in Tōkyō.

literature

• Tazawa, Yutaka: Hidari Jingorō . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Hidari Jingorō . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .