Kose no Kanaoka

Kose no Kataoka

Kose no Kanaoka ( Japanese 巨 勢 金 岡 ; active in the 9th century ) was a Japanese court painter and founder of the Kose School during the Heian period .

life and work

Kose no Kanaoka was active as a painter in the later half of the 9th century when the Chinese influence on painting began to wane and a distinct Japanese style began to develop. Kanaoka treated both Chinese and Japanese subjects in his paintings. None of his work came to us, but some conclusions about his artistic activities can be drawn from preserved records. In the year 880, for example, he painted Confucius and his students, based on models from China. 885 he designed a screen with which the 50th birthday of the Prime Minister (Dajō Daijin) Fujiwara no Mototsune (藤原 基 経; 836-891) was celebrated. In 888, at the behest of the Emperor Uda, he painted a series of portraits of eminent Japanese scholars of the 9th century who had excelled at writing poetry in Chinese, a fashion of the time. In 895 he again designed a screen, this time for Dainagon Minamoto no Yoshiari (源 能 有; 845–897).

Kose was also gifted at landscaping. Around 870 he served as an overseer during the construction of the Shinsen'en (神泉 苑) garden in Kyoto, which was sponsored by the emperor. He was a close friend of the statesman, scholar and poet Sugawara no Michizane , at whose request he took over the painting of the Shinsen'en.

Kose no Kanaoka became the founder of a line of painters that was mainly carried by members of the Kose family. Kanaoka's own work may still have been under considerable Chinese influence, but his followers in the Heian period developed an increasingly Japanese style.

Remarks

1. ↑ Drawn by Kikuchi Yōsai

literature

• Papinot, Edmond: Kose-ryū . In: Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan. Reprinted by Tuttle, 1972 edition of 1910 edition. ISBN 0-8048-0996-8 .
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Kose no Kanaoka . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .

Web links

Commons : Kose Kanaoka  - 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, Kose is the family name, Kanaoka the first name.