Choi Baek - Saihaku

Date of birth and death unknown. Painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. Northern Song bird-and-flower painting reached its peak during the reign of Shenzong, and together with Ai Xuan, he is one of the most representative bird-and-flower painters of the Shenzong Painting Academy. He was born in Haoliang (northeast of Fengyang County, Anhui Province). His courtesy name was Zixi. At the beginning of the Xining era (around 1070), Shenzong offered to make him an academician at the Painting Academy, but he declined. However, he was engaged in painting related to the Academy, and produced large-scale wall screens for the palace, such as painting bamboo on the Purple Emperor's Hall Screen. He excelled in Taoist and Buddhist paintings of demons, Hotei, and arhats, but he also excelled in flowers, birds, and bamboo, and was particularly skilled in waterfowl such as geese. The flower and bird paintings at the Painting Academy inherited the decorative Huang style, but Cui Bai seems to have brought a change to the Painting Academy's style by depicting beach flowers, wild bamboo, and fish in the water in a style known as the Xu style. According to the Catalogue of Public Property of Butsuji-an, Cui Bai paintings were introduced to Japan during the Kamakura period, but his original works are not known today, and only a few works, such as "Double Pleasures" and "Bamboo and Gulls" (National Palace Museum, Taipei), give a glimpse of his style.

[Shinya Hoshiyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生没年不詳。中国、北宋(ほくそう)の画家。北宋の花鳥画は神宗朝に最高潮に達したが、艾宣(がいせん)とともにその神宗画院の花鳥画を代表する。濠梁(ごうりょう)（安徽(あんき)省鳳陽(ほうよう)県北東）の出身。字(あざな)は子西。煕寧(きねい)の初め（1070ころ）神宗が画院学芸にしようとしたが辞退したという。しかし画院関係の画作に従事し、紫宸殿屏(ししんでんへい)に竹を描くなど官衙(かんが)宮殿の壁屏の大画面制作を行っている。鬼神、布袋(ほてい)、羅漢(らかん)など道釈画をよくしたが、また花鳥、竹を得意とし、とくに雁(がん)など水鳥に優れていた。画院の花鳥画は装飾的な黄氏体(こうしたい)を継承していたが、崔白は徐氏体といわれる没骨(もっこつ)風の描写で汀花(ていか)、野竹、水魚などを描いて、画院の画風に変化をもたらしたらしい。『仏日庵(あん)公物目録』によれば、鎌倉時代に日本にも崔白画が伝来しているが、現在彼の真筆は知られず、わずかに『雙喜図』『竹鴎図』（台北・故宮博物院）がその作風をうかがわせている。

［星山晋也］

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