Tokiwa Mitsunaga

Tokiwa Mitsunaga ( Japanese 常 磐 光 長 ; active around 1173) was a Japanese Yamatoe style painter during the late Heian period .

life and work

Tokiwa Mitsunaga was an active painter at the imperial court during the late Heian period, at the time of Emperor Go-Shirakawa , who died in 1192. In 1173, together with Fujiwara no Takanobu , he designed paper-covered panels for the Saishōkō-in (最 勝 光 院), a temple founded by Go-Shirakawa's daughter Kenshummon-in (建 春 門 院; born 1157). These pictures are said to have been taken during actual trips by the imperial family to Hirano, Hiyoshi and the Kōya Temple . On the instructions of the emperor, he took part in the production of about 60 picture scrolls depicting the "annual festivals" (年 中 行事, Nenjū gyōji), as they took place in Kyoto. Today only copies of some of these works, made by Sumiyoshi Jokei, exist .

A scroll that documents the style of these traditional fragments and whose painterly design can be attributed to Mitsunaga with good reason is called “Ban Danagon ekotoba” (伴 大 納 言 絵 詞). It is about the events of the Great Minister Ban, depicted in extended scenes with more realistically painted people and their surroundings. The scroll is owned by the Idemitsu Art Museum and is registered as the National Treasure of Japan . Other possible works are:

• 地獄草紙(Jigoku zōshi): Roll with hell representation in Nara National Museum , Tokyo National Museum and the Seattle Art Museum,
• 餓鬼 草紙 (Gaki zōshi): picture scroll with starving devils, in the Tokyo National Museum and in the Kyoto National Museum ,
• 病 の 草紙 (Yamai no zōshi): picture scroll with sick people, in a private collection and
• 吉 備 大臣 入 唐 絵 巻 (Kibi daijin nyūtō emaki): picture scroll with Minister Kibi entering China at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston .

Mitsunaga is considered to be the most important painter of the 12th century in Japan and, together with Tosa Mitsunobu and Tosa Mitsuoki , is one of the "Three Masters of the Tosa School " (土 佐 三 筆, Tosa Sampitsu).

Pictures (from the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba)

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literature

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

Web links

Commons : Tokiwa Mitsunaga  - 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 Tokiwa is the family name, Mitsunaga the first name.