Uji Shūi Monogatari ( 宇治拾遺物語 ) is a collection of Japanese tales written around the beginning of the 13th century. The author is unknown, and it may have been revised several times.
136-491: The Shigisan Engi Emaki ( 信貴山縁起絵巻 , lit. "Legend of Mount Shigi Emaki") is an emakimono or emaki (painted narrative handscroll) made in the second half of the 12th century CE , during the Heian period of Japanese history (794–1185). It is an illuminated manuscript detailing miracles attributed to the monk Myōren , who lived on Mount Shigi near Nara in Japan in
272-519: A certain feeling of lack of restraint. Otoko-e is part of a broader style of Japanese painting called Yamato-e . The work is a prime example of both Heian period scroll painting and Yamato-e , as most of the early scroll and Yamato-e paintings are now lost. Originating in Japan in the sixth or seventh century through trade with the Chinese Empire , emakimono art spread widely among
408-513: A child and an old man are reading. Finally, a short landscape concludes the painting and the first scroll. The anecdote narrated in the second scroll, "The Exorcism of the Emperor of the Engi Era", relates to the miraculous healing of the reigning Emperor Daigo by the prayers of Myōren . The scroll consists of two portions of calligraphic text and two long painted sections. After the introductory text,
544-477: A decorative appearance. The format of the emakimono , long scrolls of limited height, requires the solving of all kinds of composition problems: it is first necessary to make the transitions between the different scenes that accompany the story, to choose a point of view that reflects the narration, and to create a rhythm that best expresses the feelings and emotions of the moment. In general, there are thus two main categories of emakimono : those which alternate
680-672: A doctrine, or even as an act of faith, because copying illustrated sutras must allow communion with the deities (a theory even accredits the idea that the Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki would have aimed to pacify evil spirits). Proselytising, favoured by the emergence of the Pure Land Buddhist sects during the Kamakura era, changed the methods of emakimono production, because works of proselytism were intended to be copied and disseminated widely in many associated temples, explaining
816-457: A dozen years on Mount Shigi where a small chapel dedicated to Bishamon-ten was installed. Several companions joined him, giving Chōgosonshi-ji growing importance. According to other fictionalised chronicles, Myōren would have been instructed in a dream during a retreat at the Hōryū-ji temple to go to Mount Shigi to settle there, with a purple cloud to guide him. The Shigisan Engi Emaki
952-403: A key episode of the novel and is followed by a calligraphic extract on paper richly decorated with gold and silver powder. The Genji Monogatari Emaki already presents the composition techniques specific to the art of emakimono : an oblique point of view, the movement of the eyes guided by long diagonals from the top right to the bottom left, and even the removal of the roofs to represent
1088-598: A large part of their content to the representation of everyday life and folklore, testifying to an unprecedented interest in painting for children and popular legends. Such interest, however, already existed among the Japanese nobility from at least the end of the 11th century, as evidenced by the literature of the Imperial Court. Indeed, several ancient collections of popular tales, including the Konjaku Monogatarishū ,
1224-496: A large place in the narration, and include depictions of the historical Kisoji ( 木曽路 ) trade route, which connected Mino with Matsumotodaira, then finally Kyoto , as well as the small shrines and state-maintained inns along the route. Some details are still unclear today, such as the exact meaning of the marks drawn on some farms. The Shigisan Engi Emaki has belonged to the Chōgosonshi-ji temple since its inception, but
1360-513: A miraculous story about the life of Myōren , a Buddhist monk who lived at the end of the 9th century in the Chōgosonshi-ji temple on Mount Shigi ( Shigi-san ) in the province of Yamato , and was dedicated to the deity Bishamon-ten ( Vaiśravaṇa ). The term "engi" in the title designates a Japanese literary style that transcribes chronicles and legends on the foundation of Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines , as well as, by extension,
1496-565: A monk, remains remarkable for its influences, so far rare, from the Song dynasty (via the wash technique ) and the Tang dynasty (the shan shui style), as well as by its very precise representations of forts in many Japanese landscapes. As for the Saigyō Monogatari Emaki [ fr ] , it addresses the declining aristocracy in idealising the figure of the monk aesthete Saigyō by
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#17330856120601632-610: A peak of Japanese civilization via the culture of the emperor's court, although intrigue and disinterest in things of the state resulted in the Genpei War . This perception arises from the aesthetics and the codified and refined art of living that developed at the Heian court, as well as a certain restraint and melancholy born from the feeling of the impermanence of things (a state of mind referred to as mono no aware in Japanese). Furthermore,
1768-428: A realistic rendering and facilitating transitions between scenes, for example by creating a light mist in which the landscape is lost, or gradual blurring of the colour giving way to bare paper. The same process is used with India ink to obtain different levels of grey. Depth is typically rendered in emakimono by diagonal lines which create axonometry while guiding the reader's eye from scene to scene. This process
1904-574: A school he founded in honour of his father Fujiwara no Takanobu ). Among the temple workshops, it is known that the Kōzan-ji workshop was particularly prolific, under the leadership of the monk Myōe , a great scholar who brought in many works from Song dynasty China. Thus, the Jōnin brushstrokes on the Kegon Engi Emaki or the portrait of Myōe reveal the first Song influences in Japanese painting. However,
2040-509: A short landscape, the painting shows the imperial delegation again on their way through plains, mists and mountains. The messenger thanks Myōren in person, and then the painting ends with a landscape lost in the mist. The third scroll, "The Story of the Nun", recounts the adventures of a nun, Myōren 's older sister, in search of her brother whom she has not seen for twenty years. It consists of two calligraphed sections and two painted sections. After
2176-489: A single scene, allowing the action to be imaged with great economy of means. In particular, the painter of the Shigisan Engi Emaki twice used a characteristic process of Yamato-e , by representing, in a single scene, the same character several times (a technique known as hanpuku byōsha ), or at different moments (the iji-dōzu technique), to suggest the passing of time: the nun is represented several times in
2312-445: A story or a succession of anecdotes (such as literary chronicles or Buddhist parables), combining pictorial and narrative elements, the combination of which characterises the dominant art movements in Japan between the 12th and 14th centuries. An emakimono is read, according to the traditional method, sitting on a mat with the scroll placed on a low table or on the floor. The reader then unwinds with one hand while rewinding it with
2448-586: A temple, and the religious scrolls do not refrain from representing popular things. So, for example, the Hōnen Shōnin Eden [ fr ] presents a rich overview of medieval civilization. Colophons and comparative studies sometimes allow for the deduction of the name of the artist of an emakimono : for example, the monk En'i [ fr ] signed the Ippen Shōnin Eden , historians designate Tokiwa Mitsunaga [ fr ] as
2584-421: A veranda, while the other travellers wait below. Following a scene of a new mountain landscape, the delegation is depicted returning to Seiryō-den , the Emperor's private quarters, apparently bringing back a message from Myōren . The palace wall completes the first painting. The second calligraphed section reveals that Myōren , despite insistent requests of His Imperial Majesty, has refused to go in person to
2720-401: Is also found in the rugged mountain landscapes, executed with great mastery through soft lines and ink strokes for the reliefs. The work is characterised by the painter's desire to represent the daily life of the people: peasants, merchants, monks, women ... This bias confers a lively and authentic, almost documentary aspect to the scrolls, and gives the painter every opportunity to deviate from
2856-406: Is an illustrated horizontal narration system of painted handscrolls that dates back to Nara-period (710–794 CE) Japan . Initially copying their much older Chinese counterparts in style, during the succeeding Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura periods (1185–1333), Japanese emakimono developed their own distinct style. The term therefore refers only to Japanese painted narrative scrolls. As in
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#17330856120602992-457: Is assembled from several sheets of paper of similar lengths - approximately 60 cm (24 in) long - glued one after the other: 16 sheets for the first scroll, 24 for the second and 26 for the third. The first scroll, commonly titled "The Flying Granary", consists of a single long painted section, the calligraphic text having disappeared. It narrates the anecdote known as the "flying granary". Myōren used to send his bowl by air every day to
3128-569: Is in the Nara region. Then the nun, following her arrival at the Tōdai-ji temple, is painted praying in front of the Daibutsu ( 大仏 , "Giant Buddha") monumental statue. The nun is shown several times (a technique of representation of time passing) in the scene at the foot of the monumental statue, praying, sleeping or meditating. The temple disappears in the mist, then a landscape scene follows, completing
3264-467: Is kept at Chōgosonshi-ji. Today, the Shigisan Engi Emaki is considered by art historians to be one of the masterpieces of emakimono art. It has been the subject of dozens of academic articles, and in particular makes it possible to study the formation of the Yamato-e movement in the Heian period, very few earlier paintings having survived. It also illustrates the refinement of narrative painting at
3400-407: Is kept closed by a cord and stored alone or with other rolls in a box intended for this purpose, and which is sometimes decorated with elaborate patterns. An emakimono can consist of several successive scrolls as required of the story – the Hōnen Shōnin Eden [ fr ] was made up of 48 scrolls, although the standard number typically falls between one and three. An emakimono
3536-569: Is made up of three paper scrolls in a horizontal format. On each scroll, calligraphic texts accompany illustrations that have been painted, by hand, using watercolour-like techniques associated with the application of strokes in India ink . The scrolls measure respectively: 31.7 cm (12.5 in) high by 878.27 cm (345.78 in) long; 31.82 cm (12.53 in) high by 1,275.85 cm (502.30 in) long; and 31.7 cm (12.5 in) high by 1,417.43 cm (558.04 in) long. Each scroll
3672-466: Is made up of two elements: the sections of calligraphic text known as kotoba-gaki , and the sections of paintings referred to as e ; their size, arrangement and number vary greatly, depending on the period and the artist. In emakimono inspired by literature, the text occupies no less than two-thirds of the space, while other more popular works, such as the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga , favour
3808-486: Is particularly well illustrated by the flight of the sacks of rice in the first scroll, or the arrival, from the sky, of Ken-no-Gohō in the second scroll, materialised by a long diagonal line from the bottom corner to right to the top left corner of the scroll. To create perspective, the painter also uses bird formations that gradually become smaller and smaller, a process originating in Chinese painting . This Chinese influence
3944-582: Is stored in the Nara National Museum . The work was designated as a National Treasure of Japan on 9 June 1951, and it was on that occasion that its current title, Shigisan Engi Emaki , was adopted, although the scrolls do not mention that title. From the beginning of April to the end of May 2016, the Nara National Museum organized a special exhibition, during which all three painted scrolls, spread out over their entire length, were presented to
4080-600: Is that of the Yamato Monogatari , offered to the Empress between 872 and 907. However, the stylistic mastery of later works (from the 12th century) leads most experts to believe that the "classical" art of emakimono grew during this period from the 10th century, first appearing in illustrations in novels or diaries produced by the ladies of the court. In addition, the initial themes remained close to waka poetry (seasons, Buddhism, nature and other themes). Therefore,
4216-411: Is visible. The narrative assumes a series of scenes, the rhythm, composition and transitions of which are entirely the artist's sensitivity and technique. The themes of the stories were very varied: illustrations of novels, historical chronicles, religious texts, biographies of famous people, humorous or fantastic anecdotes, etc. The scrolls of the Shigisan Engi Emaki , three in number, each narrate
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4352-527: The Dōjō-ji Engi Emaki [ fr ] (16th century). On the other hand, the innovative and more spiritual influences of Chinese Song art , deeply rooted in spirituality and Zen Buddhism, initiated the dominant artistic movement of wash (ink or monochromatic painting in water, sumi-e or suiboku-ga in Japanese) in the ensuing Muromachi period , guided by such famous artists as Tenshō Shūbun or Sesshū Tōyō . A professional current
4488-705: The Ishiyama-dera Engi Emaki [ fr ] (1497), the Seikō-ji Engi emaki [ fr ] (1487) or a version of the Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki (1503); he paid great attention to details and colours, despite a common composition. In a more general way, the illustration of novels in the classic yamato-e style (such as the many versions of the Genji Monogatari Emaki or The Tales of Ise Emaki ) persisted during late medieval times. If emakimono therefore ceased to be
4624-469: The Shigisan Engi Emaki . For example, the Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki recounts the life and death of Sugawara no Michizane , Minister in the 9th century and tragic figure in Japanese history, revered in the manner of a god ( kami ). The rich colours, the tense contours, the search for movement and the very realistic details of the faces well illustrate this mixture of styles, especially as
4760-457: The Zuijin Teiki Emaki attributed to Fujiwara no Nobuzane , directly present portrait galleries according to the iconographic techniques of the time. A similar change was felt in religion as the esoteric Buddhist sects of the Heian era ( Tendai and Shingon ) gave way to Pure Land Buddhism ( Jōdo ), which primarily addressed the people by preaching simple practices of devotion to
4896-424: The yamato-e style, these Japanese works are above all an everyday art, centered on the human being and the sensations conveyed by the artist. Although the very first 8th-century emakimono were copies of Chinese works, emakimono of Japanese taste appeared from the 10th century in the Heian imperial court , especially among aristocratic ladies with refined and reclusive lives, who devoted themselves to
5032-640: The Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki or the Ippen Shōnin Eden . As for the workshops of the court, they satisfied the orders of the palace, whether for the illustration of novels or historical chronicles, such as the Heiji Monogatari Emaki . A form of exploitation of the story could also motivate the sponsor: for example, Heiji Monogatari Emaki were produced for the Minamoto clan (winner of
5168-456: The Amida Buddha . These very active sects used emakimono intensively during the 13th and 14th centuries to illustrate and disseminate their doctrines. Several religious practices influenced the Kamakura emakimono : notably, public sermons and picture explaining sessions ( 絵解 , e-toki ) led the artists to use scrolls of larger size than usual, and to represent the protagonists of
5304-508: The Genpei War ), and the Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba was created to extol the deeds of a samurai in search of recognition from the shōgun . These works were, it seems, intended to be read by nobles. Nevertheless, Seckel and Hasé assert that the separation between the secular and the religious remains unclear and undoubtedly does not correspond to an explicit practice: thus, the aristocrats regularly ordered emakimono to offer them to
5440-479: The Heian period ), probably between 1157 and 1180, but without certainty. This estimate is based on the dating of architectural details reproduced in the work. Thus, the [[[Kikki (diary)|Kikki]] [ ja ] ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 98) ( help ) , the personal diary of [[[Yoshida Tsunefusa]] [ ja ] ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 96) ( help ) , an aristocrat of
5576-407: The Nara period , the Japanese were inspired by the Tang dynasty : administration, architecture, dress customs or ceremonies. The exchanges between China and Japan were also fruitful for the arts, mainly religious arts, and the artists of the Japanese archipelago were eager to copy and appropriate continental techniques. In that context, experts assume that the first Chinese painted scrolls arrived on
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5712-417: The composition of the Shigisan Engi Emaki (known as continuous composition) is based on long paintings, in which several scenes follow one another without a clear break, creating an impression of dynamism. The transitions between scenes are cleverly integrated into the composition, and allow variation of the rhythm, in particular thanks to close-ups, or the insertion of calm landscapes and mists. Often,
5848-503: The six realms (or destinies [ fr ] ) Buddhist paintings ( rokudō-e ) – such as the Hell Scroll or the two versions of the Gaki Zōshi [ fr ] , otoko-e paintings – aimed to frighten the faithful with horror scenes. Retracing the evolution of emakimono remains difficult, due to the few works that have survived. However, the obvious mastery of
5984-652: The 10th century Imperial Court. The beginnings of the Japanese-inspired Heian period painting technique, retrospectively named yamato-e , can be found initially in some aspects of Buddhist painting of the new esoteric Tendai and Shingon sects, then more strongly in Pure Land Buddhism ( Jodō ); after a phase when Chinese techniques were copied, the art of the Japanese archipelago became progressively more delicate, lyrical, decorative with less powerful but more colorful compositions. Nevertheless, it
6120-659: The 3rd century CE under the Han dynasty and the 2nd century CE under the Zhou dynasty , the pottery of which was adorned with hunting scenes juxtaposed with movements. Paper was invented in China in about the 1st century CE, simplifying the writing on scrolls of laws or sutra, sometimes decorated. The first narrative scrolls arrived later; various masters showed interest in this medium, including Gu Kaizhi (345–406), who experimented with new techniques. Genre painting and Chinese characters, dominant in
6256-659: The 4th century CE. They were used for religious texts and entered China by the 1st century. Handscrolls were introduced to Japan centuries later through the spread of Buddhism. The earliest extant Japanese handscroll was created in the 8th century and focuses on the life of the Buddha. The origins of Japanese handscrolls can be found in China and, to a lesser extent, in Korea , the main sources of Japanese artistic inspiration until modern times. Narrative art forms in China can be traced back to between
6392-487: The Chinese and Korean scrolls, emakimono combine calligraphy and illustrations and are painted, drawn or stamped on long rolls of paper or silk sometimes measuring several metres. The reader unwinds each scroll little by little, revealing the story as seen fit. Emakimono are therefore a narrative genre similar to the book, developing romantic or epic stories, or illustrating religious texts and legends. Fully anchored in
6528-565: The Heian period onwards, emakimono came to be dissociated from China, mainly in their themes. Chinese scrolls were intended mainly to illustrate the transcendent principles of Buddhism and the serenity of the landscapes, suggesting the grandeur and the spirituality. The Japanese, on the other hand, had refocused their scrolls on everyday life and man, conveying drama, humour and feelings. Thus, emakimono began to be inspired by literature, poetry, nature and especially everyday life; in short, they formed an intimate art, sometimes in opposition to
6664-525: The Imperial Court , evokes arrangements around the palace, reproduced in the second scroll, which are subsequent to the beginning of the Hōgen era (1156–1159), hence the date of manufacture of the scrolls was probably after the beginning of this era. As for 1180, this was the year when the original statue of the Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji , which is depicted in the third scroll, was destroyed by fire, indicating that
6800-527: The [[[Kohon Setsuwa Shū]] [ ja ] ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 96) ( help ) and the Uji Shūi Monogatari , tell three anecdotes, reminiscent of the subject of the Shigisan Engi Emaki , about a hermit-monk from the Nara period . The surviving texts of the second and third scrolls are very similar to the Kohon Setsuwa Shū , suggesting that
6936-455: The aristocracy in the Heian period . An emakimono consists of one or more long scrolls of paper narrating a story through Yamato-e texts and paintings. The reader discovers the story by progressively unrolling the scroll with one hand while rewinding it with the other hand, from right to left (according to the then horizontal writing direction of Japanese script ), so that only a portion of text or image of about 60 cm (24 in)
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#17330856120607072-495: The art of emakimono . Under the impetus of the new warrior class in power, and the new Buddhist sects, production was indeed very sustained and the themes and techniques more varied than before. The emakimono style of the time was characterized by two aspects: the synthesis of the genres of yamato-e , and realism. Initially, the evolution marked previously by the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba (very late Heian era)
7208-431: The artistic tastes of the court in the 11th century, inclined to an emotional, melancholic and refined representation of relations within the palace, and formed a pictorial vector very suited to the narrative. Even though they are mentioned in the antique texts, no emakimono of the early Heian period (9th and 10th centuries) remains extant today; the oldest emakimono illustrating a novel mentioned in period sources
7344-478: The artists, allowing a naturalistic style in opposition to the very stylised paintings of the court such as the Genji Monogatari Emaki . The colour thus gives way at the line, being affixed only in a discreet tone and revealing the bare paper. The painters mainly used vegetable pigments, the opacity of which varies according to the amount of water used for their dilution. As the paper absorbs these colours with water, gradation effects are created naturally, giving
7480-471: The arts led to a more realistic and human representation (anger, pain or size). If the activity related to religion was prolific, then so too were the orders of the bushi (noble warriors). Several emakimono of historical or military chronicles are among the most famous, notably the Hōgen Monogatari Emaki [ fr ] (no longer extant) and the Heiji Monogatari Emaki ; of
7616-442: The arts, poetry, painting, calligraphy and literature. However, no emakimono remain from the Heian period, and the oldest masterpieces date back to the "golden age" of emakimono in the 12th and 13th centuries. During this period, the techniques of composition became highly accomplished, and the subjects were even more varied than before, dealing with history, religion, romances, and other famous tales. The patrons who sponsored
7752-598: The author of the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba and the Nenjū Gyōji Emaki [ fr ] , or Enichibō Jōnin [ fr ] for part of the Kegon Engi Emaki . Nevertheless, the life of these artists remains poorly known, at most they seem to be of noble extraction. Such a background is particularly implied by the always very precise depictions in emakimono of the imperial palace (interior architecture, clothing and rituals) or official bodies (notably
7888-428: The author relied mainly on that collection. The mixture of popular and religious themes in the Shigisan Engi Emaki and many later emakimono , which give them an authentic and romanticised look, thus ties in with these earlier works. The life of Myōren (who died circa 937–941) is also recorded in a short autobiography dated 937 and several subsequent historical chronicles. These sources relate that he lived for
8024-480: The beauty of its landscapes and its calligraphic poetry. Towards the middle of the Kamakura period, there was a revival of interest in the Heian court, which already appeared to be a peak of Japanese civilization, and its refined culture. Thus the Murasaki Shikibu Nikki Emaki , which traces the life and intrigues of Murasaki Shikibu , author of The Tale of Genji (10th century), largely reflects
8160-425: The calligraphy and the image, each new painting illustrating the preceding text, and those which present continuous paintings, not interrupted by the text, where various technical measures allow the fluid transitions between the scenes. Today, emakimono offer a unique historical glimpse into the life and customs of Japanese people, of all social classes and all ages, during the early part of medieval times. Few of
8296-491: The classical scrolls of the end of the Heian period testifies to at least a century of maturation and pictorial research. These foundations permitted the emakimono artists of the ensuing Kamakura period to engage in sustained production in all of the themes. The era covering the end of the Heian period and much of the Kamakura period , or the 12th and 13th centuries, is commonly described by art historians as "the golden age" of
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#17330856120608432-504: The construction of a story, so the composition must be based on the transitions from scene to scene until the final denouement. Emakimono were initially strongly influenced by China, as were the Japanese arts of the time; the Illustrated Sutra of Cause and Effect [ fr ] incorporates many of the naive, simple styles of the Tang dynasty , although dissonances can be discerned, especially in relation to colours. From
8568-428: The court. Monks were also able to produce paintings without any patronage. Secondly, in medieval Japan there were professional painters' workshops [ fr ] ( 絵 所 , literally 'painting office' ) ; during the Kamakura period, professional production dominated greatly, and several categories of workshops were distinguished: those officially attached to the palace ( kyūtei edokoro ), those attached to
8704-416: The creation of these emakimono were above all the aristocrats and Buddhist temples. From the 14th century, the emakimono genre became more marginal, giving way to new movements born mainly from Zen Buddhism. Emakimono paintings mostly belong to the yamato-e style, characterized by its subjects from Japanese life and landscapes, the staging of the human, and an emphasis on rich colours and
8840-511: The creativity of classical scrolls is felt even less in otogi-zōshi , because even though the composition is similar, the lack of harmony of colors and the overloaded appearance are detrimental; it seems that the production is often the work of amateurs. However, a field of study of nara-ehon and the nara-e pictorial style exists on the fringes and stands out from the framework of emakimono . Various other artists, notably Tawaraya Sōtatsu and Yosa Buson , were still interested in
8976-413: The crucial lack of information and documents on these rare known artists leads Japanese art historians rather to identify styles, workshops, and schools of production. Uji Sh%C5%ABi Monogatari The title means "gleanings from Uji Dainagon Monogatari ", a book which no longer exists. The Dainagon of Uji was Minamoto no Takakuni . The work is classified as setsuwa literature. Following in
9112-420: The daily lives of the people, historical chronicles, and the biographies of famous monks; ultimately, a style of emakimono depicting matters outside the palace and called otoko-e ("men's painting"). The Shigisan Engi Emaki (middle of the 12th century), with dynamic and free lines, light colors and a decidedly popular and humorous tone, perfectly illustrate this movement, not hesitating to depict
9248-646: The dominant artistic media in Japan since the end of the Kamakura period, it is in the illustration movement of Otogi-zōshi ( otogi meaning "to tell stories") that emakimono developed a new popular vigour in the 15th and 16th centuries (the Muromachi period); the term nara-ehon (literally, "the book of illustrations of Nara ") sometimes designated them in a controversial way (because they were anachronistic and combined books with scrolls), or more precisely as otogi-zōshi emaki or nara-emaki . These are small, symbolic and funny tales, intended to pass
9384-569: The end of the Heian period, foreshadowing the golden age of the emakimono during the Kamakura period that followed. Due to its dynamic and continuous storytelling, the Shigisan Engi Emaki is often cited to contextualize the influence of Japanese painting on modern manga , which is very popular in Japan. [REDACTED] Media related to Shigisan Engi Emaki at Wikimedia Commons Emakimono Illustrated handscrolls , emakimono ( 絵巻物 , lit. ' illustrated scroll ' , also emaki-mono ) , or emaki ( 絵巻 )
9520-442: The faces in the scrolls also recall the humorous sketches that have been found in the margins of religious paintings produced by the workshops of Buddhist temples; Buddhist imagery is similarly very precise, suggesting that the author of the scrolls was also familiar with the religious world. Thus, the work can be attributed to a professional court painter as well as to a Buddhist painter, without it being possible to distinguish between
9656-591: The famous eponymous novel, narrates the political and amorous intrigues of Prince Hikaru Genji ; the rich and opaque colors affixed over the entire surface of the paper ( tsukuri-e method), the intimacy and melancholy of the composition and finally the illustration of the emotional peaks of the novel taking place only inside the Imperial Palace are characteristics of the onna-e subgenre of yamato-e , reserved for court narratives usually written by aristocratic ladies. In that scroll, each painting illustrates
9792-415: The farm and three busy women, one in the garden and two washing the laundry. We then discover the nun sitting on the doorstep of the farm, chatting with a young woman who spins wool. We also see through the windows a woman and children scrutinizing the travellers with curiosity, as well as a man rebuffing two dogs barking outside. A new landscape again shows the nun travelling, fallow deer indicating that she
9928-446: The first painting opens at the great door of the original imperial palace of Heian-kyō (present-day Kyoto ) in front of which an imperial delegation is preparing to leave, while priests arrive to pray for the ailing Emperor. Several sequences illustrate the delegation's journey through various landscapes, a village and mist. After finally arriving at Mount Shigi, the messenger of the delegation and Myōren are conversing, seated on
10064-488: The footsteps of Konjaku Monogatarishū , it is the representative setsuwa work of the Kamakura period . The story is made up of 197 tales spanning 15 volumes. The preface states that it contains tales from Japan, India, and China. However, few of them are original, with many stories containing common elements from earlier works such as Konjaku Monogatarishū . Contents include a number of characters ranging from nobles to commoners and tales ranging from everyday stories to
10200-400: The great temples and shrines ( jiin edokoro ), or finally those hosted by a few senior figures. The study of certain colophons and period texts makes it possible to associate many emakimono with these professional workshops, and even sometimes to understand how they function. When produced by the temple workshops, emakimono were intended mainly as proselytism, or to disseminate
10336-464: The image, sometimes to the point of making the text disappear. The scrolls have a limited height (on average between 30 cm (12 in) and 39 cm (15 in)), compared with their length (on average 9 m (30 ft) to 12 m (39 ft)), meaning that emakimono are therefore limited to being read alone, historically by the aristocracy and members of the high clergy. Handscrolls are believed to have been invented in India before
10472-507: The imperial police ( 検非違使 , kebiishi ) ). The Shigisan Engi Emaki illustrates that point well, as the precision of both religious and aristocratic motifs suggests that the painter is close to those two worlds. Perhaps a more famous artist is Fujiwara no Nobuzane , aristocrat of the Fujiwara clan and author of the Zuijin Teiki Emaki , as well as various suites of realistic portraits ("likeness pictures" ( 似絵 , nise-e ) ,
10608-525: The initiators of the classical emakimono , are to be found at the emperor's court in Heian, among the aristocrats versed in the various arts. Period sources mention in particular painting competitions ( e-awase ) where the nobles competed around a common theme from a poem, as described by Murasaki Shikibu in The Tale of Genji . Their work seems to focus more on the illustration of novels ( monogatari ) and diaries ( nikki ), rather feminine literature of
10744-641: The interior of buildings ( fukinuki yatai ). A second notable example of the onna-e paintings in the Heian period is the Nezame Monogatari Emaki , which appears to be very similar to the Genji Monogatari Emaki , but presents softer and more decorative paintings giving pride of place to the representation of nature subtly emphasising the feelings of the characters. In contrast with court paintings inspired by women's novels ( onna-e ) there are other scrolls inspired by themes such as
10880-428: The introductory calligraphed text, the first painting opens with a mountain landscape in which an old nun and two men walk. Then the nun, who has arrived at a village, is shown sitting under the porch of a chapel while the villagers bring her food. There follows a new scene of landscape and mist, then the nun, having passed a small Dōsojin shrine, asks an old peasant for information about her brother. Behind them are
11016-604: The islands around the 6th century CE, and probably correspond to illustrated sutra. Thus, the oldest known Japanese narrative painted scroll (or emakimono ) dates from the 7th century to the Nara period: the Illustrated Sutra of Cause and Effect [ fr ] , which traces the life of the Gautama Buddha , founder of the Buddhist religion, until his Illumination. Still naive in style ( Six Dynasties and early Tang dynasty) with
11152-413: The large number of more or less similar copies on the lives of great monks and the founding of the important temples. Various historians emphasise the use of emakimono in sessions of picture explaining ( 絵 解 , e-toki ) , during which a learned monk detailed the contents of the scrolls to a popular audience. Specialists thus explicate the unusually large dimensions of the different versions of
11288-416: The last scene paints the two protagonists in different activities, such as praying, reading sutras or preparing religious rituals. A mountain landscape closes the painting, in which the roof of the flying granary of the first scroll can be seen. The exact date of creation of the scrolls is not known. Art historians commonly date the work as being from the middle or second half of the 12th century (the end of
11424-482: The late Heian period (second half of the 12th century) were already very mature. If almost all emakimono belong to the genre of yamato-e , several sub-genres stand out within this style, including in the Heian period onna-e ("women's painting") and otoko-e ("men's painting"). Several classic scrolls of each genre perfectly represent these pictorial movements. First, the Genji Monogatari Emaki (designed between around 1120 and 1140), illustrating
11560-423: The latter part of the 9th century. The tales are composed in the genre of engi , a narrative that chronicles the founding of a Buddhist or Shinto establishment. In the case of the Shigisan Engi Emaki , the establishment is Chōgosonshi-ji , where Myōren used to live. The pictorial style of the work, known as otoko-e , or "men's pictures", is characterized by active movement, outdoor scenes and
11696-456: The latter, the scroll kept at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston remains highly regarded for its mastery of composition (which reaches a crescendo at the dramatic climax of the scroll, i.e. the burning of the palace and the bloody battle between foot soldiers), and for its contribution to present day understanding of Japanese medieval weapons and armour. Akiyama Terukazu describes it as "a masterpiece on
11832-422: The life of the Japanese people in its most insignificant details. Here, the color is applied only in light touches that leave the paper bare, as the supple and free line dominates the composition, unlike the constructed paintings of the court. In addition, the text occupies very limited space, the artist painting rather long scenes without fixed limits. Two other masterpieces emerged into the light of day during
11968-417: The main deity of Chōgosonshi-ji . The wheel that precedes it evokes that of Dharma ( Dharmachakra ), an ancient and powerful Buddhist symbol, here underlining the power of this deity. As for the calligraphies , they are very parsimonious, having only a function of summary presentation of the story, except for the first scroll where the text has completely disappeared. In view of their themes and narration,
12104-434: The men, who studied Chinese writing from a young age, the women adopted a new syllabary , hiragana , which was simpler and more consistent with the phonetics of Japanese. Heian period novels ( monogatari ) and diaries ( nikki ) recorded intimate details about life, love affairs and intrigues at court as they developed; the best known of these is the radical Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu , lady-in-waiting of
12240-423: The miracles associated with them. Along with the biographies of high-ranking monks ( kōsō-den or eden ), this is the main genre of emakimono with a religious subject; the genre was produced in large numbers during the Kamakura period (1185–1333), mainly for proselytizing or didactic purposes. The Shigisan Engi Emaki is nowadays the oldest example of emakimono with religious themes that devote
12376-434: The names of the "masters" of emakimono . Moreover, a scroll can be the fruit of collaboration by several artists; some techniques such as tsukuri-e even naturally incline to such collaboration. Art historians are more interested in determining the social and artistic environment of painters: amateurs or professionals, at court or in temples, aristocrats or of modest birth. In the first place, amateur painters, perhaps
12512-462: The narrative scroll until around the 17th century. The Kanō school used narrative scrolls in the same way; Kanō Tan'yū realised several scrolls on the Tokugawa battles, particularly that of Sekigahara in his Tōshō Daigongen Engi , where he was inspired in places by the Heiji Monogatari Emaki (13th century). In essence, an emakimono is a narrative system (like a book) that requires
12648-409: The nearby village, where a wealthy farmer filled it with rice. One day, however, the farmer refused to take on this task and Myōren punished him by causing his entire rice barn to fly away. The scroll thus opens with a scene showing the amazement and dismay of the villagers running after the flying granary. Several landscape scenes follow, in which travellers are astonished at this flying granary while
12784-431: The nobles, especially the ladies interested in the illustration of novels, and seems to have become prevalent early in the 10th century. As with religious painting, the themes of Japanese life, appreciated by the nobles, did not fit well with painting of Chinese sensibility, so much so that court artists developed to a certain extent a new national technique which appeared to be fashionable in the 11th century, for example in
12920-484: The obscure and comical. Several of the stories were used as a basis for short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa including Hell Screen . The tales collected in Uji Shūi Monogatari can be split into the following major categories: Some tales contain Buddhist didactic elements, but the overall work does not place a particularly strong emphasis on Buddhism, setting it apart from many other setsuwa collections. It
13056-493: The one hand, emakimono had become less inspired, marked by an extreme aesthetic mannerism (such as the exaggerated use of gold and silver powder) with a composition more technical than creative; the tendency to multiply the scenes in a fixed style can be seen in the Hōnen Shōnin Eden [ fr ] (the longest known emakimono , with 48 scrolls, completed in 1307), the Kasuga Gongen Genki E (1309) and
13192-403: The other hand, from right to left (according to the writing direction of Japanese). In this way, only part of the story can be seen – about 60 centimetres (24 in), though more can be unrolled – and the artist creates a succession of images to construct the story. Once the emakimono has been read, the reader must rewind the scroll again in its original reading direction. The emakimono
13328-470: The other hand, the scrolls present many details of the religious and secular architecture of the time (the imperial palace, the temples and the cottages of the peasants); in the first scroll, the habitat of the rich farmer offers many details of the thatched roof, the hearth, the kitchen, the palisades ... The third scroll even presents a rare glimpse of the original Daibutsu statue at Tōdai-ji , which burned down in 1180. The monk's journeys also occupy
13464-408: The painters of emakimono are led to distort the time span of the story, due to constraints linked to the format of the scrolls, which impose the progressive discovery of paintings limited in height. First, the painter can spread a single narrative moment over several scenes of the scroll, to create suspense, an epic story or simply the passing of time. For example, the arrival of Ken-no-Gohō at
13600-511: The painting techniques of the time, notably the tsukuri-e , but in a more decorative and extroverted style. Other works followed that trend, such as Ise Monogatari Emaki , the Makura no Sōshi Emaki [ fr ] or the Sumiyoshi Monogatari Emaki . By the end of the Kamakura period, the art of emakimono was already losing its importance. Experts note that, on
13736-508: The painting. The second calligraphed section relates that the Tōdai-ji Daibutsu appeared in the nun's dreams to guide her to her brother. In the second painting, Myōren looks outward as if someone has called him; in front of him stands his sister. There follows a landscape where a purple cloud appears in the air, an omen indicating that the nun was guided to Mount Shigi by this cloud. The nun then settles down with her brother, and
13872-402: The paintings arranged in friezes above the text, it is very likely a copy of an older Chinese model, several versions of which have been identified. Although subsequent classical emakimono feature a very different style from that of this work, it foreshadows the golden age of the movement that came four centuries later, from the 12th century CE onwards. The Heian period appears today as
14008-417: The paintings drew their inspiration from both Buddhism and Shinto . The realistic trends that were in vogue in Kamakura art, perfectly embodied by sculpture , were exposed in the majority of the Kamakura emakimono ; indeed, the bakufu shogunate system held power over Japan, and the refined and codified art of the court gave way to more fluidity and dynamism. The greater simplicity advocated in
14144-401: The palace in the second scroll of the Shigisan Engi Emaki is represented by a long painting providing an effect of suspense as to the rest of the story, while the long landscapes flown over by the flying granary in the first scroll suggest both distance and passing time, highlighting Myōren 's incredible supernatural power. Secondly, the painter can condense several stages of the story into
14280-410: The palace, and has promised to heal the Emperor from his home. The second painting opens with a view of the Emperor seated in his quarters. Outside, a long landscape shows Ken-no-Gohō flying over fields and farms to the palace, the wheel of dharma rolling in front of him. The deity, sent by Bishamon-ten , has the mission of answering the prayers of the Buddhist monk by healing the Emperor. Following
14416-445: The participation of calligraphers for text, painters gathered in the workshop, editors, and possibly the participation of publishers or a sponsor for the choice of texts and paintings to be executed. The work has traditionally been attributed to Kakuyū , also known as Toba Sōjō , monk and painter. However, that allocation has been refuted, as Kakuyū died in 1140 while the scrolls are consensually dated by art historians as being from
14552-433: The public for the first time. The emakimono appears not to have survived in its original form, as suggested by the absence of text in the first scroll, perhaps due to alterations or old reassembling. Today, there is no consensus on the original form of the work; the existing hypotheses envisage the simple disappearance of the texts of the first scroll, the disappearance of a few painted scenes, or of an entire painting at
14688-453: The rice granary. A servant places a bag of rice in Myōren 's bowl, obviously on the order of the latter who explicitly points a finger at the bowl. The rest of the bags then begin to fly away. There follows, as for the flying granary, a long scene of landscapes flown over by sacks of rice, to the village where the little people are busy with their daily occupations - the women cook or collect fruit,
14824-400: The rich farmer on horseback and four of his people pursue their property. Myōren 's home then suddenly appears in a mountain landscape. The monk is seated on his terrace, facing his visitors who then appear. The farmer bows to the monk and it is understood that he begs Myōren to give him back his rice. After a new short mountain landscape, we discover Myōren and his visitors in front of
14960-405: The rupture of relations with China until the 9th century, due to disorders related to the collapse of the glorious Tang dynasty , promoted what Miyeko Murase has described as the "emergence of national taste" as a truly Japanese culture departed for the first time from Chinese influence since the early Kofun period . This development was first observed in the literature of the Heian women: unlike
15096-400: The scene at Tōdai-ji (third scroll), praying or sleeping, and then in the final scene showing her new life with Myōren . The artistic dimension of the scrolls also follows the canons of the otoko-e style. Thus, the paintings are dynamic and fluid, relying mainly on the curves and ink lines which really constitute the heart of the composition. The ink drawing confers great freedom on
15232-648: The scrolls have a certain historiographical value with respect to the life of their time. So, for example, the genre scenes of the first and third scrolls show the chores of the common people, for example the peasant women drawing water from the well, washing the laundry, spinning or even breastfeeding their children. The scrolls also facilitate observation of the work or hobbies of common people, such as cooking, gardening, reading, and watching over children. Studies by historians have focused in particular on habitat, tools (oven, press), rural work, customs and social practices (such as hospitality), clothing, food and travel. On
15368-511: The scrolls have survived intact, and around 20 are protected as National Treasures of Japan . The term emakimono or e-makimono , often abbreviated as emaki , is made up of the kanji e ( 絵 , "painting") , maki ( 巻 , "scroll" or "book") and mono ( 物 , "thing") . The term refers to long scrolls of painted paper or silk, which range in length from under a metre to several metres long; some are reported as measuring up to 12 metres (40 ft) in length. The scrolls tell
15504-411: The scrolls up to the 10th century CE, remain little known to this day, because they were overshadowed by the famous landscape scrolls of the Song dynasty . Relations with East Asia (mainly China and Korea) brought Chinese writing ( kanji ) to Japan by the 4th century, and Buddhism in the 6th century, together with interest in the apparently very effective bureaucracy of the mighty Chinese Empire . In
15640-422: The search for Chinese spiritual greatness. The first Japanese themes in the Heian period were very closely linked to waka literature and poetry: paintings of the seasons, the annual calendar of ceremonies, the countryside and finally the famous landscapes of the Japanese archipelago ( meisho-e [ fr ] ). Subsequently, the Kamakura warriors and the new Pure Land Buddhist sects diversified
15776-537: The seasonal landscapes of the panel paintings in the Phoenix Hall ( 鳳凰堂 , Hōō-dō ) or Amida Hall at the Byōdō-in temple, a masterpiece of primitive yamato-e of the early 11th century. Experts believe that yamato-e illustrations of novels and painted narrative scrolls, or emakimono , developed in the vein of this secular art, linked to literature and poetry. The painting technique lent itself fully to
15912-515: The second half of the 12th century Contemporary studies of the paintings emphasize the precise rendering of the clothes of nobles and private quarters of the Imperial Palace, indicating that the painter was a familiar of the court, for example a professional painter belonging to an [[[edokoro]] [ fr ; ja ] ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 126) ( help ) . The burlesque, even caricatural aspect of
16048-486: The second half of the 12th century. First, the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga forms a monochrome sketch in ink gently caricaturing the customs of Buddhist monks, where the spontaneity of touch stands out. Secondly, the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba tells of a political conspiracy in the year 866 by offering a surprising mixture of the two genres onna-e and otoko-e , with free lines and sometimes light, sometimes rich and opaque colors; this meeting of genres foreshadows
16184-415: The slow maturation of the movement of emakimono was closely linked to the emergence of Japanese culture and literature, as well as to the interest of ladies soon joined by professional painters from palace workshops ( e-dokoro ) or temples, who created a more "professional" and successful technique. The art historians consider that the composition and painting techniques they see in the masterpieces of
16320-496: The sponsor was perhaps to promote the worship of Bishamon-ten as well as the monastic lifestyle of the Nara era as practiced by Myōren , amid religious controversy between several rival Buddhist schools towards the end of the 12th century. The pictorial style of the Shigisan Engi Emaki falls within the Yamato-e movement, which predominated in Japanese painting in the Heian and Kamakura periods (1185–1333). More precisely,
16456-492: The start of the first scroll, or even the reassembly of the sheets making up the scrolls in a different order. The pictorial pigments have also largely disappeared in various places. An engraving on the box in which the scrolls were kept indicates that a fourth scroll, the Taishigun no maki , now disappeared, was stored there. Several copies of the emakimono have been made, including one by Sumiyoshi Hiroyasu from 1701 which
16592-434: The story in a somewhat disproportionate way compared with emakimono of the standard sizes, to enable those protagonists to be seen from a distance, in a typically Japanese non-realistic perspective (such as the Ippen Shōnin Eden ). The religious emakimono of the Kamakura period focus on the foundation of the temples, or the lives of famous monks. During that period, many of the religious institutions commissioned
16728-421: The style is part of a sub-genre of Yamato-e called otoko-e (lit. "painting of a man"). The otoko-e style is characterised by the depiction of the life of the people outside the palace and the staging of historical and epic events, as opposed to the intimate and romanticised emakimono about life in the palace. Emakimono of the otoko-e genre emphasize dynamic images rather than text. Thus,
16864-476: The style that dominated a few decades later, during the Kamakura period . While the authority of the court rapidly declined, the end of the Heian period (in 1185) was marked by the advent of the provincial lords (in particular, the Taira and the Minamoto ), who acquired great power at the top of the state. Exploiting the unrest associated with the Genpei War , which provided fertile ground for religious proselytism,
17000-401: The stylised faces of the court paintings, and foreshadow the more realistic iconography that will dominate in emakimono during the following century. The paintings also show a good knowledge of Buddhist imagery, in particular the rendering of the Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji and the deity Ken-no-Gehō . Historians identify the latter as one of the twenty-eight messengers of Bishamon-ten ,
17136-525: The subject of the world's military." In the same spirit, a noble warrior had the Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba designed to recount his military exploits during the Mongol invasions of Japan . Kamakura art particularly flourished in relation to realistic portraiture ( nise-e ); if the characters in the emakimono therefore evolved towards greater pictorial realism, some, such as the Sanjūrokkasen emaki , or
17272-610: The subjects even more widely. Despite the wide range of emakimono themes, specialists like to categorise them, both in substance and in form. An effective method of differentiating emakimono comes back to the study of the subjects by referring to the canons of the time. The categorisation proposed by Okudaira and Fukui thus distinguishes between secular and religious paintings: A third category covers more heterogeneous works, mixing religion and narration or religion and popular humour. The authors of emakimono are most often unknown nowadays and it remains risky to speculate as to
17408-538: The supernatural (a number of otogi-zōshi emaki depict all sorts of yōkai and folk creatures), as well as social caricatures and popular novels. Among the preserved examples are genre paintings such as Buncho no sasshi and Sazare-ichi , or supernatural Buddhist tales such as the Tsuchigumo Sōshi or the Hyakki Yagyō Emaki [ fr ] . From the point of view of art historians,
17544-446: The text to imagine adventures or new details, for example the solitary peregrinations of the nun (third scroll) or the rural life painted in the landscapes during the flight of the bags of rice (first scroll). The faces, painted in a human and popular, almost caricatural way, express a wide range of emotions: confusion, agitation, excitement alternate with each other. These expressive faces, whose details are underlined in ink, contrast with
17680-435: The time focusing on mythology, folklore, legends, religious beliefs or even contemporary society. This particular form of emakimono dates back to Heian times, but it was under Muromachi that it gained real popularity. The relative popularity of otogi-zōshi seems to have stemmed from a burgeoning lack of enthusiasm for hectic or religious stories; the people had become more responsive to themes of dreams, laughter and
17816-484: The two worlds. This difficulty of attribution is not surprising insofar as, at the end of the Heian period, the activity of court and temple painters largely overlapped. As for the sponsor, also unknown, a working hypothesis considers him to have belonged to the learned circles of the court, for example the Fujiwara clan or the Emperor Go-Shirakawa , because of the diversity of the motifs represented. The goal of
17952-411: The work is probably prior to that date. The style of calligraphy is also close to those in vogue during the last quarter of the 12th century. Although that date remains approximate, it nevertheless makes the Shigisan Engi Emaki one of the oldest emakimono preserved today. The author and the sponsor are not better known. The making of emakimono is a highly collaborative process that requires
18088-506: The workshops of painters (often monk-painters) to create emakimono recounting their foundation, or the biography of the founding monk. Among the best-known works on such themes are the illustrated biographies of Ippen , Hōnen [ fr ] , Shinran [ fr ] and Xuanzang , as well as the Kegon Engi Emaki and the Taima Mandara Engi Emaki [ fr ] . The Ippen biography, painted by
18224-503: Was especially in secular art that the nascent yamato-e was felt most strongly; its origins went back to the sliding partitions and screens of the Heian Imperial Palace , covered with paintings on paper or silk, the themes of which were chosen from waka court poetry, annual rites, seasons or the famous lives and landscapes of the archipelago ( meisho-e [ fr ] ). This secular art then spread among
18360-512: Was nevertheless maintained by the Tosa school : the only one still to claim the yamato-e , it produced many emakimono to the order of the court or the temples (this school of painters led the imperial edokoro until the 18th century). Tosa Mitsunobu notably produced several works on the foundation of temples: the Kiyomizu-dera Engi Emaki [ fr ] (1517), a scroll of
18496-402: Was spreading very widely due to the importance given both to the freedom of brush strokes and the lightness of the tones ( otoko-e ), as well as bright colors rendered by thick pigments for certain elements of the scenes ( onna-e ). However, the very refined appearance of the court paintings later gave way to more dynamic and popular works, at least in relation to the theme, in the manner of
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