Shijō school

The Shijō school (Shijō-ha) was a school of Japanese painting founded in late eighteenth-century Kyoto by Matsumura Goshun, a former student of the great realist Maruyama Ōkyo, and named for Shijō - 'Fourth Street' - where its artists kept their studios. One of several schools that made up the larger Kyoto school, it drew its patrons from the merchant families of Kyoto and Osaka and from the capital's old artisan and aristocratic circles. Stylistically it reconciled two rivals: Ōkyo's direct, observed realism and the expressive Chinese-inspired lyricism of the nanga painters. Shijō works aim at the inner spirit of the subject rather than exact likeness, often with a note of playfulness and humor. Favored motifs are tranquil landscapes, birds and flowers, animals, and themes from Chinese poetic and Confucian lore.

Defining characteristics

• Observed naturalism - direct study of plants, animals, and landscapes in traditional ink and pigment
• Soft, atmospheric brushwork with misty gradation instead of hard outlines
• Emphasis on the subject's inner spirit over exact likeness
• A gentle playfulness and humor absent from the more rigid Kanō and Tosa lineages
• Favored motifs: birds and flowers (kachō-ga), monkeys and other animals, tranquil landscapes
• Lyrical synthesis of Chinese poetic themes with Kyoto merchant taste

Key figures

• Matsumura Goshun (1752-1811) — Founder of the school, reconciling Maruyama realism with nanga lyricism
• Matsumura Keibun (1779-1843) — Goshun's half-brother and inheritor of his studio; renowned for bird-and-flower painting
• Mori Sosen (1747-1821) — Osaka painter of animals, above all his celebrated Japanese macaques
• Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) — Lacquer artist and painter closely associated with the school

Example works

• Bird paintings, Naginata-hoko float ceiling (Gion Matsuri) — Matsumura Keibun (1829)
• Go Keibun gafu (Keibun's Art of Painting) — Matsumura Keibun (1830)

Sources

• Shijō school - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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