handscroll;
painting
- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.208
- Description
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Painting, handscroll. Forty reduced-size copies (shukuzu) of paintings, including Daruma, birds, flowers, landscapes, dragons, tigers and portraits. Inscribed and sealed.
- Production date
- 17thC(mid)
- Dimensions
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Height: 30.30 centimetres
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Width: 411.10 centimetres
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- Curator's comments
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Tan'yu dominated and revolutionised painting in the period from the 1620s until his death in 1674. One of his many functions as chief painter-in-attendance to the Shogunate was to appraise paintings brought for his inspection by members of the military aristocracy. Many handscrolls and albums survive from the end of his career that collect together 'reduced-size sketches' (shukuzu) of the items he was shown, with brief notes on the owner and what Tan'yu thought of the painting. (Label copy, TTC 2000)
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Hizo Nihon bijutsu taikan Vol 2
The dates on surviving 'shukuzu' (reduced-size copies) by Tan'yu (1602-74) nearly all lie within the Kanbun era (1661-73), i.e., the last years of the artist's life. Tan'yu undoubtedly did such paintings in his earlier life too, but they were probably destroyed in the great fires of 1656 and 1657, so that in the ensuing years he had to devote all the more energy to the form.
His preoccupation with the 'shukuzu' doubtless indicates how important the form was for him. 'Shukuzu' were, of course, useful in furthering his own creative activity. They also provided handy references to paintings that he had been asked to appraise, in much the same way as photographs are used today. And, thirdly, they provided useful materials in the education of his students. Creative activity, connoisseurship, and education were the three basic functions facing Tan'yu as an official painter to the shogunate; 'shukuzu' were an indispensable aid in all three activities.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2000 24 Mar-24 Sep, London, BM, Japanese Galleries, 'Japan Time' [two different sections]
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings belonging to Arthur Morrison was purchased by Sir William Gwynne-Evans, who presented it to the British Museum in 1913.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1913,0501,0.208
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.567 (Japanese Painting Number)
