Shijō school

*Shōka* arrangement by the 40th headmaster Ikenobō Senjō, from the *Sōka Hyakki*, by Matsumura Keibun and Yokoyama Seiki (1820)

The Shijō school (四条派, Shijō-ha), also known as the Maruyama–Shijō school, was a Japanese school of painting.

History

It was an offshoot school of the

Maruyama school of Japanese painting founded by Maruyama Ōkyo, and his former student Matsumura Goshun in the late 18th century. This school was one of several that made up the larger Kyoto school. The school is named after the Shijō Street ("Fourth Avenue") in Kyoto where many major artists were based. Its primary patrons were rich merchants in and around Kyoto/Osaka and also appealed to the kamigata

who were of the established aristocrat and artisan families of the Imperial capital during the late 18th/19th centuries.

Style

Stylistically, the Shijō style can best be described as a synthesis of two rival styles of the time.

Southern school of Chinese painting

. The artists of the Shijō school sought to reconcile the differences between these two styles, creating works that synthesized the best elements of both.

The school's style focuses on a Western-influenced objective realism, but achieved with traditional Japanese painting techniques. It concentrates less on the exact depiction of its subject, but rather on expressing the inner spirit and usually has an element of playfulness and humor compared to the Maruyama school. Popular motifs include tranquil landscapes, kachō (bird and flower), animals, and traditional subjects from Chinese poetic and Confucian lore, but there is generally little or no interest in legends, history, or classical literature.[1]

Artists

One of the most well-known Shijō artists in the West is Mori Sosen, who is known for his great number of paintings of monkeys. Shibata Zeshin is also closely associated with the Shijō school, though he worked in many other styles and mediums, most notably lacquer objects and lacquer painting.

References

^ Japanese Paintings and Prints of the Shijō School. New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1981.

Chibbett, David. The History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration. New York: Kodansha International Ltd, 1977.
Japanese Paintings and Prints of the Shijo School. New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1981.
Munsterberg, Hugo (1957). "The Arts of Japan: An Illustrated History." Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.
—. Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji Period from the Khalili Collection. London: The Khalili Family Trust, 2002.
Zeshin and Related Artists. London: Milne Henderson, 1976.

External links

Media related to Shijō school at Wikimedia Commons

[1] Japanese Paintings and Prints of the Shijō School. New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1981.