Soga Shohaku

Japanese: 曾我蕭白 - そが・しょうはく

Year of death: Tenmei 1.1.7 (1781.1.30)
Year of birth: 1730
A painter from the mid-Edo period. His real surname was Miura. His given name was Teruo. He had many pseudonyms, such as Jyosokuken, Ranzan, and Shiryu. He was born as the second son of his father Yoshiemon and mother Yotsu to a merchant family in Kyoto, and established himself as a painter in his late 20s. He is recorded as having studied under Takada Keisuke and also learned the painting techniques of the Soga and Unkoku schools, and his actual works support this. He used the strange figure painting "Toad Iron Fist" by the Yuan dynasty painter Gonki, which is kept at Chion-ji Temple in Kyoto, as a reference to create unique groups of figures with the expressions of madmen, the limbs of beasts, and the clothes of beggars. He also added deformations to traditional subjects in flower and bird paintings and landscape paintings, and was known for his bizarre style of painting, which made full use of outstanding techniques, from detailed coloring to rough ink paintings. He traveled to the Ise region (Mie Prefecture) at least twice, producing many works and anecdotes, and also leaving his mark in Banshu (Hyogo Prefecture). His method of portraying Zen saints and elegant literati as vulgar people through witty comparisons is a common idea in the literature of the time, and from the list of Confucian scholars and Zen monks and acquaintances such as Matsunami Seisai, it seems that his way of thinking and his rebellious behavior were influenced by the left-wing of Yangmingism at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which valued the spirit of "strangeness" and "madness." While he was close to Ike Taiga, the anecdote that he despised the paintings of Maruyama Okyo as "pictures" shows his literary orientation. Kyoto National Museum has entrusted him with his masterpieces, such as the "Group of Immortals Screen" (1764) and "Hanshan and Shide," which he painted for his family's Rinzai Zen temple, Koshoji, and the Mie Prefectural Museum of Art also has important works in its collection. In addition, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has many of Sohaku's paintings collected by Fenollosa and Bigelow, and although it is a mixture of good and bad, it is the largest collection in terms of both quality and quantity. <References> Yasuhiro Sato “Jakuchu and Shohaku”

(Yasuhiro Sato)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：天明1.1.7(1781.1.30)
生年：享保15(1730)
江戸中期の画家。本姓は三浦。名は暉雄。蛇足軒,鸞山,師竜など別号が多い。京都の商家に父吉右衛門,母ヨツの次男として生まれ,20歳代末には画家として立つ。高田敬輔に師事し,また曾我派,雲谷派の画法を学んだと記録され,実際の作品もそれを裏付ける。京都知恩寺に伝わる元代の画家顔輝の怪異な人物画「蝦蟇鉄拐図」などを参考にしながら,狂人の表情,獣の手足,乞食の衣を備えた個性的な人物群像を作り出したほか,花鳥画,山水画でも伝統的な題材にデフォルメを加え,細密な着色画から粗放な水墨画まで,卓抜な技法を駆使した奇怪な画風で評判をよんだ。少なくとも2度伊勢(三重県)地方を旅行し,多くの作品と逸話を生み,また播州(兵庫県)にも足跡を残した。禅宗の聖者や高雅な文人を機知的な見立てなどで卑俗な人物にやつす手法には当時の文芸と共通する趣向が働いており,交友のあった松波酊斎ら儒者や禅僧の顔ぶれからも,「奇」や「狂」の精神を尊ぶ明末の陽明学左派の思潮が,その発想法や無頼の行動に影響したらしい。池大雅に親しむ一方で,円山応挙の絵を「絵図」と蔑んだという逸話は彼の文人志向を示す。京都国立博物館に「群仙図屏風」(1764)や菩提寺の臨済宗寺院興聖寺のために描いた「寒山拾得図」といった代表作が寄託され,三重県立美術館も重要な作品を所蔵する。また,ボストン美術館にはフェノロサとビゲローが収集した多数の蕭白画が伝わっており,玉石混交とはいえ質,量ともに最大のコレクションである。<参考文献>佐藤康宏『若冲・蕭白』

(佐藤康宏)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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