Tosa Mitsuoki

Tosa Mitsuoki
土佐光起
Painting of Tosa Mitsuoki by Tosa Mitsunari in the Kyoto National Museum
edokoro azukari, Head Imperial Court Painter
In office 1654–1681
Preceded by	Tosa Mitsunori
Succeeded by	Tosa Mitsunari
Personal details
Born	(1617-11-21)21 November 1617 Sakai, Izumi
Died	14 November 1691(1691-11-14) (aged 73) Kyoto, Japan
Children	Tosa Mitsunari Tosa Mitsuchika
Parent	Tosa Mitsunori (father)

Tosa Mitsuoki (土佐 光起, November 21, 1617 – November 14, 1691) was a Japanese painter.

Tosa Mitsuoki succeeded his father, Tosa Mitsunori (1583–1638), as head of the

The court and political affiliated art school practices of historical Japan are far different than their contemporary counterparts in Europe and America, but more akin to a family craft, business, or workshop than academic institution where any person may apply and learn the trade.[7] Many practices flourished during the Edo period, imploring different understandings of Japanese customs and Chinese artistic learning.^[4] Each school's practice was a closely guarded secret traditionally passed down orally or in short written documents from master to student. Unfortunately due to a multitude of circumstances many of these documents being lost or destroyed, there exists a limited wealth of written documentation.^[4] What little scattered and incomplete documentation that still exists is in the form of personal diaries, nikki, lists, letters, and inscriptions on artworks themselves.^[7] For many art workshops, labor would be divided based on seniority and skill, with the head of the workshop acting as a quasi-middleman between the aristocratic commissioner and the various craftsmen employed by the workshop; fulfilling the role of commissioner, preservationist and restorationist, appraiser, and official channel of communications.^[4][7]

After Death

The later Tosa style of the eighteenth century showed very little strength or promise due to loss of patrons and overshadowing from the Kanō school. The school was affected by the growing popularity of the study of Japanese history and the rise of the imperial family. Around the nineteenth century, there was a distinct revival under two artist named Tanaka Totsugen and Reizei Tamechika who specialized in repeating Mitsuoki's work. Their work reaffirmed the Japanese spirit of Yamato-e, which they made many copies. Their art reflected political philosophy and sometimes had a historical connecting because several of the artists were also faithful to the imperial cause. The two artists were revivalists, and got so caught up in painting historical figures, that they overlooked the special greatness of the early artists who specialized in movement and realism. The most successful successors invented their own artistic style but kept the predecessors tradition of painting in strong color with an intense feeling of natural beauty.

Style

Mitsuoki reinvigorated the

It is easy to see the drastic shift of Mitsuoki's artistic practice when put in comparison with his father, Mitsunori, and fellow contemporary Kano-he artist,

Kano Tan'yu. Here we are better able to see how Mitsuoki uses void between defining figures, with tonal washes of color only being broken by equally formless instances of gold leaf hinting at an obscuring fog. Here, the fog's nature acts similar to the curtain and delineates the dreamscape of The Tale of Genji

from the viewer's reality much more effectively than the frame-like mist of Mitsunori's interpretation. Mitsuoki's space is voluminous, much like that of Kano Tan'yu's Phoenixes by Paulownia Trees. The sparseness of objects grounding Mitsuoki's space invites the viewer to wonder among the ambiguous vastness of the space; where as Mitsunori's work does not cause this sharing of reality and treats the viewer as if they are watching through a window. Mitsuoki's clouds feel as though they could be dispersed and reveal hidden figures.

Tosa Mitsunori	Tosa Mitsuoki	Kano Tan'yu

One of the best Yamato-e painters of the time was Mitsuoki. His paintings reintroduced subject matter into the arts. His urbanized surroundings heavily influenced his style, with a wide angle of art ranging from "Quails and Flowers", to tree and scenery paintings on gold leaf screens. Mitsuoki reinstated the Tosa school style by incorporating the space and light touch somewhat similar to the earlier Song dynasty and Yuan dynasty (AD 960–1279) Chinese court paintings. He also put greater stress on ink brushwork. Mitsuoki had a style that was decorative, refined, and precise all at the same time, and throughout his career he maintained a consistent delivery. The birds and the landscapes were soft and delicate lines formed some inspiring pieces filled with beauty. His light-hearted linework, originality of design, and excellent execution, Mitsuoki combined tones which were bright without hardness, sometimes with touches of gold forming a harmony of color that was hard to find in his era. He became one of the most renowned Japanese exponents of bird-and-flower (kachō) painting in the Chinese court manner and is especially noted in his precise depictions of quail. His flower pieces were elegant, and given some tender sediment. Mitsuoki's sternness of his older style, never lost its dignity, but gained gentleness and tranquility. The Emperor, nobles and rich families collected and preserved his books.

Works

Title	Technique	Format	Dimensions(cm)	Signature	Year	Current location	image
Quail and Millet[14]	Ink and Color on Silk	Hanging scroll	124.14 × 69.85 × 2.54 cm	Tosa sakon shogen Mitsuoki	17th Century	Dallas Museum of Art
Ono no Komachi[15]	Ink and Color on Silk	Hanging scroll	73.3 x 31.3	Tosa sakon shogen Mitsuoki	17 Century
Ishiyama-dera engi emaki		4 parts			1655-81	Ishiyama-dera
Song of Twelve months[16]	Ink and color on silk	2 part scroll	Volume 1 29.0x665.0 Volume 2 29.0x663.5		1664-68	Tokyo National Museum
Egrets and Cotton Roses[17]	Ink and Color	Hanging scroll	118.5 × 56.3	Tosa sakon shogen Mitsuoki hitsu	17th Century	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Portrait of Hojo Ujinaga[18]	Ink and Color on paper	Hanging scroll	127.2x56.4		1670-81	Detroit Institute of Arts
Toyotomi Hideyoshi portrait	Ink and color	Hanging scroll	75.2x31.5	Tosa sakon shogen Mitsuoki hitsu	17th Century	Taigan Historical Museum, Sun Collection[19]
Sakaorimiya Renga		Scroll		Tosa sakon shogen Mitsuoki hitsu	17th Century	Yamanashi Prefectural Museum[20]
Genji Monogatari Folding Screen[21]	Ink and Color	6 panel folding screen	100.7x286.0 (panel)		17th Century	Tokyo National Museum
Mushrooms Skewered on Bamboo Twig[22]	Ink and Color on Silk	Hanging scroll		Tosa sakon shogen Mitsuoki hitsu	17th Century	British Museum
Yashima Uji River Hejian screen[23]	Ink and Color	6 panel folding screen	155.1x365.4 (panel)		17th Century	Tokyo National Museum
Album of Thirty six Immortal Poets[24]	Ink and Color	booklet	17.5x15.4 (panel)		17th Century	The University Art Museum - Tokyo University of the Arts
Flowering Cherry and Autumn Maples with Poem Slips[25]	Ink and color, Gold and Silver	2 x 6 Panel Folding screens	144x286 (panel)	Tosa sakon shogen Mitsuoki hitsu	1654-81	Art Institute of Chicago

The Tosa School

The Tosa school, in its own history, expressly stated that the school founded in the ninth century owed nothing to the influence of China. But the style of the Tosa school looks like it was greatly influenced by Chinese painting. Apart from religious subjects, it occupied a special position in art specializing in the taste of the Court of Kyoto. Quails and Peacocks, cherry tree branches in flower, cocks and hens,

If the past works of the Tosa school and Kanō school are closely observed, there is clear proof that both of the traditional schools have a similar way of handling their draftsmanship. Both were patronized from the Japanese courts around the same time period, and specialized in Yamato-e and ukiyo-e paintings. At the same time, they both served different uses within the Edo court. Kanō painters were usually commissioned to paint the screens and hanging scrolls displayed in official audience halls and other public spaces in shōgun and daimyō residences where men gathered and intermixed. The courtly style of the Tosa artists, on the other hand, was usually deemed more appropriate for the decorations of the private rooms occupied by women and children and for the albums and scrolls that were often included in weddings. However, there was a clear stylistic relationship among the members of the two schools. Not just the artwork was similar between the Tosa school and the Kanō school, the family line between the two has even been crossed at one time. The daughter of Tosa Mitsunobu married Kanō Motonobu. After the decline in popularity of the Tosa school during Mitsumochi's period (1496–1559), the Kano school overshadowed it and the Tosa school's artists usually worked under Kano school artists, sometimes helping sketch out final pieces for Kanō artists. The lack of innovation in the Tosa school style made a disconnection with the Japanese public because it did not capture the peoples hopes and dreams.

Arts in Edo during Mitsuoki's life

After Tokugawa Ieyasu established Edo, the city went into a long period of isolation. The third shōgun of Tokugawa, shut off Japan from the world to make his hold more secure, besides very limited contacts at the port of Nagasaki. Differences of opinion among the Christian missionaries who had been in Japan for nearly a century helped to bring about the exclusionist policy which at around 1637, closed Japan to all foreign interaction. During this time, Edo Japan flourished into a very political economic and artistic center of Japan. It slowly grew to be one of the largest cities of the world, and its art in many ways showed the spirit of the new and boisterous metropolis. This is when Edo saw an emerging middle class. Fortunately the activities of each class, as long as they did not seem to conflict with the prestige of the higher-ranked military clans, were allowed to develop their own social styles and culture. Before this, the arts were usually reserved for the upper class and the more fortunate courts. Artists were not under the Kyoto courts pressure to produce work only for the higher class. In the "floating world", artists were free to select their own style and even their own target audience. With this, arose new types of art appropriate to the interests of merchants and the middle class. Art was no longer reserved for the elite class, now it belonged to whoever could afford it. The Shōgun of Edo and the Kyoto court continued to support the Tosa school as well as the other prominent school of the time, such as the Kano school.

Ancestry

Fujiwara Yukimitsu (藤原 行光) (fl. 1352–1389) Founder of the Tosa-ha.
Fujiwara Yukihiro, Tosa Shogen (藤原 行広) (fl. 1406–1434)
Mitsunobu (光信) (1434–1525) 11th Generational Head of Family.
Mitsumochi (光茂) (1496 – ca.1559) 12th Generational Head of Family.
Mitsumoto (光元) (fl. 1530–1569) 13th Generational Head of Family.
Mitsuyoshi (光吉) (1539–1613) 14th Generational Head of Family.
Mitsunori (光則) (1583–1638) 15th Generational He ad of Family.
Mitsuoki (光起) (1617–1691) 16th Generational Head of Family.
Mitsunari (光成) (1646–1710) 17th Generational Head of Family.

Bibliography and references

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