11/19/24 - Tosa and Rinpa

  • Court aristocrats (men) indicated by non muscular build (not warriors), pale faces, and fancy garments

  • There is color in this painting rather than just monochrome

  • Yamato-e (Japanese paintings depicting Japanese themes)

  • Landscape is integral to the painting (takes up half the composition)

  • Rock is textured with color, not brushstrokes

  • Natural elements of river, rocks, flowers, but no sense of towering peaks or mist

  • Proportion of figures to natural elements is to scale, nature doesn’t overwhelm

  • Multi-planked bridge over a river

  • Tosa school image

  • Depicts scenes from the Tales of Ise

    • Stories composed in 10th century during Heian period

    • Main character is on an outing with his attendants in the country side. they stop at this sight and see the irises which prompts him to compose a love poem. “Familiar as the comfort of a well-worn robe Is my beloved [in the capital] Oh! How this distant journey fills my heart with regret”

    • This is not about virtue an morality unlike warrior paintings

  • Brushstroke and color

  • Commissioned to wealthy merchants (nobles pictured in the painting though)

  • No ink outlines emphasizing shapes like 1st painting

  • Splotchy/watercolor look unlike 1st painting

  • Similarities to last one: courtly subjects, landscape elements, Yamato-e, format (album leaf) Album leaf is an unbound book

  • Artist: Tawaraya Sotatsu (1570-1643)

  • Which, I wonder, is higher-This water or the fall of my tears As I wait in vain, Hoping today or tomorrow To rise in the world

  • Rinpa painting

Kano school

  • Project Confucian and moral values through Chinese themes

  • No need for emotions that distract from Confucian morality

  • Needed to project an aura of authority and benevolence

Tosa/Rinpa

  • Depictions of court custom, ritual, and pageantry

  • Captures emotions found in Heian period literature and poetry

  • Caters to a new gen of aristocrats (Tosa) and wealthy merchants (Rinpa) who wished to participate in the high culture of the court


Think about differences between Kano, Tosa and Rinpa and discuss them in presentation