Tomioka Tessai

Born Kyoto, 1837; died Kyoto, 1924.

Japanese painter. He is generally considered to be the most brilliant exponent of literati painting (Nanga or Bunjinga; see Japan, §VI, 4(iv)(d)) after the Meiji Restoration (1868), and to be responsible for the modernization of the tradition and its integration into the contemporary Japanese painting movement of Nihonga through the introduction of new subject-matter and brush techniques, while also drawing on many other painting traditions such as Yamatoe (‘Japanese-style painting’; see Japan, §VI, 3(iii) and 4(ii)); O-tsue (‘O-tsu pictures’, popular Edo-period folk paintings from O-tsu); and the decorative Rinpa school (see Japan, §VI, 4(v)). The subject-matter of his paintings included landscapes, figures, animals, birds and flowers and, frequently, religious themes, a reflection of his deep commitment to both Buddhism and Shinto. Tessai is estimated to have produced more than 20,000 paintings and on one occasion executed 70 paintings in a single day. The largest collection of his works is owned by the Buddhist temple Kiyoshi Ko-jin Seicho-ji in Hyogo Prefecture, which maintains a public Tessai museum.

1. Training and early work, before c 1887.

Tessai was the second son of an affluent Kyoto merchant family. His father’s family had traditionally been involved in scholarly learning, especially the study of the syncretic doctrine of shingaku (‘heart learning’), which was popular among educated Edo-period townspeople; its moral teachings were rooted in Confucianism but it also combined the principles of Buddhism and Shinto. Tessai was influenced throughout his life on the one hand by his early exposure to philosophical studies and on the other by his mother, who came from a farming family and had a more simple, direct temperament.

Tessai suffered from congenital syphilis, which left him partially deaf and therefore unfit to become a merchant. At the age of six he was sent to a local terakoya (‘temple school’, popular school of the Edo period). While still a youth he may have served the Rikusonno- Shrine in Kyoto. He decided to become a Shinto priest and strove to learn more about the faith. He studied ancient Japanese classics under Nonoguchi Takamasa (1792–1871), a Loyalist (supporter of imperial restoration) and follower of Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843), an important leader in the Kokugaku (National Learning) movement. At the same time he also studied Chinese literature. About the age of 20 Tessai began to learn waka poetry (a 31-syllable classical form) from the nun O-tagaki Rengetsu (1790s–1875), a well-known potter and painter who also encouraged him to paint. In 1856, after his father’s death, Tessai became involved in the broadly based, humanistic Yo-meigaku (Chin. Wang Yangming) school of Neo-Confucian philosophy, which emphasized the unity of the three creeds of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism. Through his teachers Tessai came to associate with supporters of the Loyalist movement. In 1858 a number of his teachers and friends were arrested for their Loyalist sympathies, and in the following year he embarked on a series of journeys to elude the authorities. In 1861–2 he stayed in Nagasaki to learn about foreign countries from Dutch and Chinese residents there.

Tessai began his formal artistic training under the Chinese-influenced Kubota Setsuyo- (d 1860) and studied painting theory under Oda Kaisen (1785–1862), an eclectic painter working in the Maruyama–Shijo- (see Japan, §VI, 4(viii)) and literati styles. He also learnt Yamatoe from the Fukko Yamatoe (‘Yamatoe revival’) artist and Loyalist Ukita Ikkei. Tessai became acquainted with many other prominent scholars and artists of Kyoto and was particularly impressed by the literati painter and calligrapher Nukina Kaioku. While he was in Nagasaki, Tessai continued his education by meeting noted literati artists there and by viewing imported Chinese paintings.

Few of Tessai’s early paintings have survived, but they were largely pure ink landscapes following the conventional literati painting styles and composition of his contemporaries, particularly Fujimoto Tesseki (1817–63), Yasuda Ro-zan (1830–82) and Yamanaka Shiten’o- (1822–85). His monumental pair of screens, Mountain Landscape (1875; Kansas City, MO, Nelson–Atkins Mus. A.), is a fine example of his orthodox Chinese-influenced painting style. The tight composition is dominated by a repetition of sharply pointed mountain forms, delineated by Tessai’s typical firm, dry brushstrokes. Although Tessai’s artistic intent was scholarly, he often injected humour into pictures, as in Blind Men Criticizing Beauty (1884; Yasugi, Shimane Prefect., Adachi A. Mus.), which shows blind men admiring paintings and other art objects.

In 1862 Tessai returned to Kyoto where he opened his own school of philosophy and soon found he was also in demand as a painter. He continued to associate with Loyalist supporters, many of whom, like Fujimoto Tesseki, subsequently lost their lives for the cause. By travelling on foot through most of Japan during the first three decades of the Meiji period, Tessai pursued his scholarly interest in history and observed at first hand many famous scenic spots. He was appointed to official positions at several Shinto shrines, including the Iso no Kami Shrine in Yamato Province (now Nara Prefect.), and helped in the restoration of many others.

Tessai settled permanently in Kyoto in 1881, still attempting to earn a living as a teacher. When this proved unsuccessful, because of a waning public interest in Confucian-influenced classical learning, he turned increasingly to painting. He was involved in the organization of the Kyo-to- Bijutsu Kyo-kai (Kyoto Art Association, est. 1890) as an exhibition judge and contributor to its journal, the Kyo-to- Bijutsu Zasshi (‘Kyoto art magazine’). Except for his enthusiastic participation in exhibitions sponsored by the Nihon Nanga Kyo-kai (Association of Japanese Nanga Painters, est. 1896), Tessai largely refrained from entering painting exhibitions and competitions, maintaining that he was principally a scholar who disdained publicity. He supported himself by teaching art theory at the Kyo-to-shi Bijutsu Gakko- (Kyoto Municipal Art School) and by selling his work.

2. Middle period, c 1888–1916.

From the 1890s Tessai was patronized by several members of the imperial family and gained acceptance in Tokyo art circles. Soon afterwards, he sequestered himself at his home, to read and to paint prolifically. In 1907 he was honoured by a commission from the emperor, for whom he produced two large hanging scrolls, the Poet Abe Nakamaro Gazing at the Moon from Mingzhou, China and Lofty Meeting of Daoist Immortals (see T. Kuwahara and others, p. 164).

Tessai’s paintings in this period gradually became more personal and less influenced by his elders’ works. His brushwork became bolder, and he began defining forms more prominently with colour. He largely retained the detailed, careful compositions that distinguished the works of his early period, but at times the rough freedom of brushwork—the hallmark of his later paintings and of the more individualistic Meiji period literati painters—appeared. Many of his subjects were now drawn from Chinese, Daoist, Confucian and Buddhist philosophies, from classical history and literature or from simple folk beliefs, as well as from direct observation of the places he visited.

3. Late period, c 1917–24.

Tessai continued to paint in the Taisho period (1912–26); indeed the work he did in his eighties is considered his most original. Although he received several public honours for his paintings, including appointments to the Imperial Art Committee (Teishitsu Gigeiin) in 1917 and to the Imperial Academy of Art (Teikoku Bijutsuin) in 1919, he did not take these seriously.

Most of Tessai’s works executed at this time were spontaneously brushed in a variety of colours, applied so that they appeared almost like Western Expressionist artists’ oil paintings, and in bold ink on paper. They display a refined integration of the diverse painting styles he studied throughout his life. Favourite subjects from this period included Zen Buddhist themes such as the bodhisattva Kannon (Skt Avalokiteshvara) and Daoist symbols of longevity—pine trees, the god of longevity (Juro-jin), cranes and the Immortal Isles. Figures and animals are highly animated, and landscape forms are filled with energy. In the landscape Sweeping away Worldly Dust (1918; Nara, Yamato Bunkakan), a work of intense emotion, the powerful mountain peaks seem to move around the small figures in the hut. Even the calligraphic inscriptions at the top right of the picture are brushed with wild abandon. Works such as this from his late years instilled new life into the increasingly stagnant literati painting tradition and profoundly influenced his younger contemporaries, including Taikan Yokoyama and Ryu-zaburo- Umehara, who were working respectively in the tradition of Nihonga (Japanese-style painting after the Edo period; see Japan, §VI, 5(iii)) and its counterpart Yo-ga (Western-style painting; see Japan, §VI, 5(iv)).

4. Other activities.

Tessai’s wide-ranging scholarly interests included book collecting, seal-carving and the connoisseurship of old paintings. Inscriptions by him are often seen on older Nanga school painting boxes and on the backs of albums of paintings. He also continued to study and practise the Chinese method of preparing infused tea (sencha), which had been popular among scholars in the late Edo period. Despite his fame and wealth in his later years, Tessai led a modest and frugal life, generously contributing money to assist the needy.

Patricia J. Graham. "Tomioka Tessai." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T085528 (accessed May 8, 2012).