The University of Kansas

Takaku Aigai

Japan, 1769-1843
Yellow Leaves and Red Trees, After I Fu-chiu
ink on paper
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Mitchell Hutchinson, 86.86

The term literati painting [in Chinese, wen ren hua; in Japanese, bunjinga] refers to paintings by scholar-gentlemen and ladies proficient in the arts of calligraphy, poetry, and painting who preferred landscape painting as their primary subject matter. Whereas the paintings favored by the imperial painting academy were skillfully rendered, often brightly colored works with an emphasis on visual realism, the literati painters held that displaying virtuosity of brushwork was an affectation and, instead, considered deliberate blandness or even awkwardness appropriate. Rather than simply capturing external appearances, it was more important to grasp the inner rhythm of nature; individual expression superseded technical proficiency. The Ming dynasty artist and critic Dong Qichang (1555-1636) pieced together an aesthetic lineage of artists whose lives and works embodied the above ideas, dating from the Tang dynasty down to his own time. He coined the tern nanzong hua [Southern school painting] to describe this "school" of painters.

In Japan, attempts to emulate the Chinese literati tradition gave rise in the 18th and 19th centuries to the Bunjin school [in Chinese, wenren], also commonly called the Nanga school 9after the abbreviation of nanzong hua). This was not so much a school as a loose affiliation of artists who shared a mutual admiration for Chinese culture&Mac220;especially for literati painting of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Japanese were not well acquainted with the subtleties suggested by Don Qichang_s theoretical lineage, but to the best of their ability attempted to absorb and reflect the ideals of the literati tradition as they understood it. In terms of actual paintings, however, the Japanese were dependent primarily on reproductions of paintings in woodblock-printed manuals and a smattering of paintings of uneven quality. As a result, the Japanese Bunjin school is both highly eclectic and idiosyncratic.