Yamaguchi Soken

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A Kyōto Geisha

Yamaguchi Soken, also called Takejirō (Japanese:山口 素絢; 1759, Kyōto - 22 November 1818, Kyōto) was a Japanese painter of the Shijō school. He was one of the "Ten Great Ones" (応門十哲; a reference to the Ten Great Disciples of Confucius), taught by Maruyama Ōkyo.[1]

Life and work[edit]

He was the son of a kimono merchant. As a result, he came to specialize in pictures of women, and his skill at painting them became proverbial. He also created landscapes, pictures of birds and flowers and what, in Western art, would be known as genre scenes. Many of these represent the life and customs of Kyoto in a light and witty way.

He also produced illustrated books; including Yamato jimbutsu gafu (大和人物画譜; roughly "Japanese Portrait Gallery", 1800) and Yamato jimbutsu gafu kōhen (大和人物画譜 後篇; roughly, "Human Figure Drawing", 1804), as well as a medical text translated from the Dutch.

Among his best known works are the fusuma (sliding door) paintings he designed together with Matsumura Keibun, entitled "Summer to Autumn; flowers and birds" (春秋花鳥図, 1813), which are currently held at the Nezu Museum. Other pieces of his work are held in the permanent collections of the British Museum,[2] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[3] the University of Michigan Museum of Art,[4] the Honolulu Museum of Art,[5] the Brunnier Art Museum,[6] the Brooklyn Museum,[7] the Johnson Museum of Art,[8] the Harvard Art Museums,[9] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[10] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[11] the Minneapolis Institute of Art,[12] the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery Collection,[13] and the Seattle Art Museum,[14] among others.

He was interred at the Dannō-Hōrin-ji [ja], a Jōdo-shū temple in Kyōto.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The others were Genki, Nagasawa Rosetsu, Yamaato Kakurei (fl.1790-1820), Mori Tetsuzan [ja], Yoshimura Kokei [ja], Oku Bummei [ja], Gessen, Nishimura Nantei [ja], and Watanabe Nangaku [ja].
  2. ^ "drawing | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  3. ^ "Yamaguchi Soken | Soken Picture Album: The Plant Section | Japan | Edo period (1615–1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  4. ^ "Exchange: Japanese Beauty in a Red Maple Leaf Robe". exchange.umma.umich.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  5. ^ "Woman Reading a Letter, Modern Reproduction, from the series Home Life In Tokyo, from the series Home Life In Tokyo". art.honolulumuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  6. ^ "Iowa State Collections - Iowa State University". umsm003.its.iastate.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  7. ^ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  8. ^ "Dojoji Engi (illustrations to the Legend of Dojoji)". emuseum.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  9. ^ Harvard. "From the Harvard Art Museums' collections Soken gafu, Kusabana no bu (Album of Drawings by Soken, Section on Plants and Flowers)". harvardartmuseums.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  10. ^ "Mount Fuji | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  11. ^ "Soken gafu sôka no bu". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  12. ^ "Working Girls, attr. Yamaguchi Soken ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art". collections.artsmia.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  13. ^ Artstor. "Artstor". library.artstor.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  14. ^ "Works – Yamaguchi Soken – Artists – eMuseum". art.seattleartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.

Sources[edit]

  • Tazawa, Yutaka: "Yamaguchi Soken". In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981, ISBN 0-87011-488-3.
  • Laurance P. Roberts: "Soken". In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976, ISBN 0-8348-0113-2.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yamaguchi Soken.
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