Ito Jakuchu

Japanese: 伊藤若冲 - いとう・じゃくちゅう

Year of death: September 10, 1800 (October 27, 1800)
Year of birth: 8th February 1716 (1st March 1716)
A painter from the mid-Edo period. His given name was Rujun, and his pen name was Keiwa. He was also known as Tobeian and Beito-o. He was born as the eldest son of a vegetable wholesaler in Nishiki-koji, Kyoto, but he was devoted to painting and Zen, and after receiving the title of "Jakuchu" (a lay Buddhist practitioner), he handed over the family business to his younger brother at the age of 40 to focus on painting. He was not satisfied with the Kano school painting style that he first learned, and after copying Chinese paintings from the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties that were handed down in old temples in Kyoto, he seems to have come to regard life-like sketching as an absolute necessity. The background to this is the growing empirical spirit of the time, as seen in the popularity of botany, but his actual works were also greatly influenced by the detailed flower and bird paintings of Shen Nanpin, which were popular at the time via Nagasaki, and ink paintings related to the Obaku sect, and he is highly regarded for creating fantastical, expressive works by deforming existing forms. He spent about ten years in his forties completing the work, and the 30 scrolls of "Colored Pictures of Animals and Plants" (presented to the Imperial Family in 1889) that were donated to Shokoku-ji Temple along with the three "Shaka Triad" scrolls are representative works of his distinctive, dark-coloured flower-and-bird paintings. His "Sliding Doors with Cacti and Chickens" (1790, owned by Saifuku-ji Temple, Osaka) is also a masterpiece, with exaggerated chickens and cacti skillfully arranged on a screen covered in gold leaf. In addition to being friends with Baiso Kenjo, he also associated with Baisao and Obaku monks, and was a devout believer throughout his life. He remained single throughout his life, retiring to Sekiho-ji Temple in Fukakusa in his later years. His paintings on the sliding screens of the Daishoin (1759) of Rokuon-ji Temple (Kinkaku-ji Temple), ink paintings such as "Vegetable Nirvana" (Kyoto National Museum), and stone statues at Sekiho-ji Temple that depict the life of Shakyamuni, show an exquisite harmony between his faith and his eloquent sense of form. He probably learned and invented a special woodblock printing technique similar to rubbings through the Obaku sect.

(Yasuhiro Sato)

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

Japanese:

没年：寛政12.9.10(1800.10.27)
生年：享保1.2.8(1716.3.1)
江戸中期の画家。名は汝鈞。字は景和。斗米庵,米斗翁とも号す。京都錦小路の青物問屋の長男として生まれたが,絵画と禅に傾倒し,「若冲」の居士(在家の仏道修行者)号を得たのち,40歳で家業を弟に譲って画業に専念した。最初に学んだ狩野派の画法に飽き足りず,京都の古寺に伝わる宋,元,明の中国画を模写した果てに,実物写生を絶対視するに至ったらしい。その背景には,本草学の流行にみられるような時代の実証主義精神の高まりがあるが,実際の作品には,当時長崎経由で流行した沈南蘋の細密な花鳥画や黄檗宗関係の水墨画などの影響も大きく,むしろ既成の形態をデフォルメすることで幻想的,表現的な作品を生んだ点が高く評価される。40歳代の約10年を費やして完成し,「釈迦三尊像」3幅とともに相国寺に寄進した「動植綵絵」30幅(1889年に皇室に献納)がその特色をよく示す濃彩花鳥画の代表作であり,「仙人掌群鶏図襖」(1790,大阪西福寺蔵)も,金箔を貼りつめた画面に形態を誇張した鶏とサボテンを巧みに配置する傑作である。梅荘顕常と親交があったほか,売茶翁や黄檗僧たちとも交わり,信仰の念は生涯厚かった。独身を通し,晩年は深草の石峰寺に隠棲した。鹿苑寺(金閣寺)大書院の障壁画(1759)や「野菜涅槃図」(京都国立博物館蔵)などの水墨画,釈迦の一代記を表す石峰寺の石像群には,彼の信仰心と飄逸な造形感覚との絶妙な調和がみられる。拓本に似た特殊な木版画技法も黄檗宗を通じて習得,考案したものであろう。<参考文献>辻惟雄『若冲』

(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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