Sumiyoshi Gukei

Sumiyoshi Gukei ( Japanese 住 吉 具 慶 , real name: Sumiyoshi Hirozumi ( 住 吉 広 澄 ); born 1631 ; died April 23, 1705 ) was a Japanese painter and second head of the Sumiyoshi school of the Edo period .

life and work

Views in and outside the capital (detail)

Tsurezuregusa (detail)

Sumiyoshi Hirozumi was the eldest son of the founder of the Sumiyoshi School, Sumiyoshi Jokei . In 1674 he took the Buddhist vows and took the name Gukei . He received the rank of Hokkyō.

In 1685, after the death of his father, he moved to Edo and became the official painter of the shogunate, Oku-eshi ( 奥 絵 師 ), and thus secured the position of the Sumiyoshi family for the future. So he and his successors - together with the Tosa School , which worked for the imperial court in Kyoto - became the leading representatives of the Yamato-e style in the Edo period. In 1692 Gukei received the rank of first Hogen.

As from the narrative picture scrolls, including the "Story of Tōshōgū" ( 東 照 宮 縁 起 絵 巻 , Tōshōgū engi emaki ), a transfiguration of the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu in the possession of the Nikkō Shrine, which he created together with his father, and the "History of Hachiman Shrine in Hakozaki ”( 箱 崎 八 幡 宮 縁 起 絵 巻 , Hakozaki Hachiman-gū engi emaki ), Gukei sought a return to the classic Yamato-e, to which he also added a new note. His best works include the “Views in and Outside the Capital” ( 洛 中 洛 外 図 , Rakuchū rakugai-zu ) owned by the Tokyo National Museum and the scroll “Capital” ( 都 鄙 図 巻 , Tohi zukan ) owned by the Kombu-in, Nara. His personal style as a genre painter is shown in the painted screen pair "Spring and autumn in the meadows and fields" ( 春 郊 放牧 田園秋 色 図 , Shunkō hōboku den'en shūshoku-zu byōbu ) owned by the Enshō-ji ( 圓 照 寺 ) in Nara. The picture folder "Tsurezuregusa" should also be mentioned.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hokkyō ( 法 橋 ) and Hōgen ( 法眼 ) were honorary titles, originally for higher priests, but later also for scholars and artists.

literature

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

Web links

Commons : Sumiyoshi Gukei  - 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 . So Sumiyoshi is the family name, Gukei the first name.