Kimura Kenkadō and the Representation of Things
木村蒹葭堂の表象をめぐって

NAKATANI Nobuo (Kansai University, Osaka, emeritus) 中谷伸生(関西大学名誉教授)

Kimura Kenkadō (1736-1802) was interested from an early age in the study of natural and manmade products (bussangaku), especially plants (honzōgaku). He collected widely and studied this subject formally under a few teachers over his life. He edited the book Nippon sansai meisan zue (Illustrated Guide to Notable Products of Japan's Mountains and Seas, 1799).

He did many sketches of plants that are scientifically realistic rather than artistic. The impact of the Shen Nanpin (Shen Quan) school of painters on Kenkadō was considerable, pushing Kenkadō towards realistic representation in painting, although this is only one influence on his development as a painter. The Qing artist Nanpin (1682-1760) came to Japan in 1731 and stayed for about 20 months. He had one disciple Kumashiro Yūhi (1712-1773), who had the disciple Mori Ransai (1740-1801. Ransai then was influential in spreading this Nagasaki style to Osaka and Edo. His Ransai gafu (Ransai's Picture Album, 1778) had considerable impact. Ransai is known to have modelled many of his works on other paintings, rather than sketching from life. These two strands of representation, modelling on earlier paintings and sketching from life, continued throughout his lifetime.

Kenkadō also pursued literati (bunjin) ideals in some of his paintings. Some of his landscape paintings in Chinese style have been criticized as being amateurish. Some scholars, however, make a case that Kenkadō was aiming to follow in the Chinese literati tradition rather than the Japanese one. They argue that his freer style, with strong, bold strokes, shows Kenkadō's deliberate individuality in the spirit of Chinese literati. Late in life Kenkadō returned to the realistic style of Nanpin as well as to the scientific style of honzōgaku. His was a life of continual searching and exploration.

木村蒹葭堂は若い時分から物産学、とりわけ本草学に関心をもっていた。蒹葭堂の収集は幅広く、生涯幾名かの師について本格的に物産学および本草学を学んだ。この分野において蒹葭堂の編になる書に『日本山海名産図会』(1799 年)がある。

蒹葭堂は多くの植物のスケッチをおこなったが、それらは芸術的というよりも科学的に写実的なものである。長崎の沈南蘋派の蒹葭堂へのインパクトは大きく、そのため蒹葭堂の画が写実へと向かったふしがある。南蘋は享保 16 年(1731)に日本に到達し、20 か月ほど滞在した。その弟子熊代熊斐の弟子が森蘭斎で、蘭斎は南蘋派の様式を大坂、そして江戸へ広めるのに大きな影響力をもった。『蘭斎画譜』(1778 年)は特筆すべきものである。蘭斎の画は写生よりも既存の作品をもとに制作されたことで知られる。「写生」と「写生的絵画の写し」というふたつの作画アプローチが並行して存在した。

蒹葭堂はまた、文人的理想を絵画を通じて追求した。蒹葭堂の中国風山水図は素人ぶりである と批判されたこともある。しかし、蒹葭堂が目的としたのは中国的な文人の伝統の踏襲であって、日本的なそれではなかったとする研究者もある。蒹葭堂の力強く大胆な筆致をもつ自由なスタイルは、中国の文人精神に連なる個人主義を意図的に示したのではなかろうか。晩年の蒹葭堂はふたたび南蘋風の写実様式、そして本草学の科学的様式へとかえった。常に探究を絶やさなかった一生であった。

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