Tosa Mitsumochi

Ashikaga Yoshiharu

Tosa Mitsumochi ( Japanese 土 佐 光 茂 ; active 1st half of the 16th century) was a Japanese painter of the Tosa school during the Muromachi period .

life and work

Mitsumochi was a son of Tosa Mitsunobu . As early as 1523 he received the position as head of the office for painting (宮廷 繪 所 預 り, Kyūtei e-dokoro azukari). Nine years later he rose to the rank of Vice Minister for Legal Affairs (刑部 太 夫, Gyōbu Teiyū). It is reported that Mitsumochi followed his brilliant father's style and that he created a large number of works for the court, the shogunate, and for eminent figures of the warrior class.

The works that no longer exist include the painted sliding doors (襖 絵, Fusuma-e) for the kogosho within the imperial court from 1543 (created together with Kanō Motonobu ), a portrait of Ashikaga Yoshiharu in 1550 and painted sliding doors for the Nijō palace of Ashikaga Yoshiharu 1569.

Mitsumochi's surviving works include the scroll on the story of Taima-dera "当 麻 寺 縁 起 絵 巻" (Taimadera engi e-maki) from 1531, which is in the possession of the temple, and the scroll on the story of Kuwanomi-dera in the city of Ōmihachiman "桑 実 寺 縁 起 絵 巻 “(Kuwanomi-dera engi e-maki) from 1532. Both scrolls are registered as an important cultural asset of Japan . - From them and a preliminary drawing for a portrait of Ashikaga Yoshiharu (足 利 義 晴 像) it can be concluded that he followed his father very much, both in terms of the choice of his motifs and the method of representation. Overall, his work is conservative, with attention to detail and a decorative touch.

photos

• 

  From the Kuwanomi Engi

literature

• Tazawa, Yutaka: Tosa Mitsumochi . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .

Web links

Commons : Tosa Mitsumochi  - 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 Tosa is the family name, Mitsumochi the first name.