Momoyama genre painting

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Screen with weavers (detail)

Momoyama genre painting ( Japanese 桃山 風俗 画 , Momoyama fūzoku-ga ) describes the Japanese genre painting of the Momoyama period . It is painting on screen with scenes from everyday life, which were created between 1550 and 1650. Most of the artists are unknown, but a number of adjustable screens can be assigned to the Kanō school , and occasionally also to a specific member of this artist family.

Overview

When the armed conflicts ( Sengoku period ) in the country came to an end with the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi , the sword nobility and the monastery lords built large palaces, which were lavishly decorated with pictures of the classical schools. At the same time, the merchants, who were making good profits from the flourishing trade and who could afford large houses, began to develop an interest in adjustable screens. They preferred topics that directly depict everyday life and local nature, without the reference to Chinese culture that is common in aristocratic circles. The artists who worked for the bourgeois world mostly remained anonymous.

Themes of Momoyama genre painting

Cityscapes

Views of the three large cities of Edo , Osaka and Kyōto and their immediate vicinity around 1600 are called in Japan Rakuchū - Rakugai zu ( 洛 中 洛 外, ), about "inside and outside of the settlement". In the narrower sense, Miyako , i.e. Kyōto, was meant. These views were made as pairs of screens and are lavishly painted on a gold background.

  • Kyōto (left screen)

  • Detail from the left screen: Hana-no-gosho

  • Kyōto (right screen)

Folk life and landscapes

This topic includes craftsmen, fishermen at work. Landscapes are also depicted - without any mythological background - occasionally as a pair of screens with the sun on the right (first) screen and the moon on the second.

  • Screen with weavers

  • Screen pair: landscape summer with sun (right) and winter with moon (left)

  • Screen landscape with moon (detail)

Namban display screens

In the period between 1560 and 1630 the Jesuits missionary in Japan conveyed European art. Examples of images of saints and screens of this art have survived time. The screens with representations of the Portuguese and Spanish in Nagasaki are also counted in this direction.

  • Ships off Nagasaki (Kanō School)

  • Screen, cutout

  • Screen, detail

  • Screen, detail

  • Western knights

Aristocracy and festivals

While the sword nobility had mainly surrounded themselves with pictures in the Chinese painting tradition up to the Momoyama period, they now also collect pictures in which he himself appears, but not as a warrior, but as a private person who enjoys everyday life.

  • Adjustable umbrella pair
    Honda Heihachirō and companion

  • Maple festival screen

  • Hikone a

  • Hikone b

Remarks

  1. ↑ Palace of the Ashikaga shoguns in the Muromachi period.
  2. ^ A pair of screens owned by the Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum ( National Treasure ).
  3. ↑ Two-part screen, MOA art museum .
  4. ↑ Owned by Kongo-ji Temple.
  5. ^ Suntory Art Museum .
  6. ^ A pair of screens from the Tokugawa Art Museum .
  7. ↑ Kanō Hideyori, before 1600. Tokyo National Museum ( National Treasure )
  8. ↑ A panel from the eight-part Hikone screen ( national treasure): At the Sugoroku game.
  9. ↑ A panel from the eight-part Hikone screen.

literature

  • Yuzo Yamane: Momoyama Genre Painting . Weatherhill / Heibonsha, 1973. ISBN 0-8348-1012-3 (en)
  • Tsugiyoshi Doi: Momoyama Decorative Painting . The Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art, V.14. John Weatherhill, 1977 ISBN 978-0834810242 (en) [not used here]

Web links

Commons : Paintings of the Azuchi – Momoyama period  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files