Hasegawa Tōhaku

Hasegawa Tōhaku, born {{nihongo|Okumura Tōhaku|奥村 等伯}} in 1539 in Nanao,[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/256522/Hasegawa-Tohaku "Suiboku-ga."] Encyclopædia Britannica Online. December 10, 2009 a town in Noto Province (in the vicinity of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) to a noted local family of cloth dyers, although evidence shows that Tōhaku's original family name was Okumura and that he was adopted into the Hasegawa family.[http://www.kyoto.zaq.ne.jp/mibu/eng/pages/artworks/paintings/tohaku.html HASEGAWA Tohaku (1539–1610)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091208192923/http://www.kyoto.zaq.ne.jp/mibu/eng/pages/artworks/paintings/tohaku.html |date=December 8, 2009 }} Mibura-Dera Temple Website. December 10, 2009

Tōhaku started his artistic career as a painter of Buddhist paintings in his home province of Noto. His pictures include: Portrait of Takeda Shingen” (Seikei Temple of Mount Kōya), “Picture of Twelve Devas” (Ishikawa Shōkaku Temple) and “Portrait of Nawa Nagatoshi”.

By the age of 20, Tōhaku was a professional painter, and by his thirties had moved to Kyoto to study under the prestigious Kanō school, then headed by Kanō Shōei.Ishizawa, Masao, et al. The Heritage of Japanese Art. 1st ed. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1982 The Kanō school was well known at the time for their large bold paintings that decorated the castle walls of many a wealthy warlord patron. These were often ink on white paper or gold-leaf decorative wall panels that served a dual purpose of reflecting light around the dim castle rooms as well as flaunting the castle owner's abundant wealth to commission such extravagant pieces. Many of Tōhaku's earlier works are in the style of the Kanō school, such as his Maple, Chishaku-in painted in 1593.

At the same time, he also studied the older Song, Yuan and Muromachi periods' styles of ink painting by examining scrolls from Mu Qi and Sesshū Tōyō, which he is believed to have gained access to in his time at the Daitoku-ji temple in Kyoto. After a period of time in Kyoto, Tōhaku developed his own style of {{transl|ja|sumie}} which in many ways departed from the bold techniques indicative of the Kanō school, and called back to the minimalism of its predecessors. The works of Sesshū Tōyō in particular influenced Tōhaku's redirection of artistic style as Tōhaku also studied under Sesshū's successor, Toshun for some time. Tōhaku was in fact so much enamored with the techniques of Sesshū that he attempted to claim rights as his fifth successor, though he lost in a court battle to Unkoku Togan. Still, the influence of Sesshū is evident in many of Tōhaku's mid to late works, such as his {{nihongo3|Pine Trees screen|松林図 屏風|Shōrin-zu byōbu}}, which were declared a national treasure of Japan are argued to be the first paintings of their scale to depict only pine trees as subject matter.

Hasegawa Tohaku - Pine Trees (Shōrin-zu byōbu) - left hand screen.jpg|Left panel of the {{nihongo|Pine Trees screen|松林図 屏風|Shōrin-zu byōbu}}, {{circa|1595}}, six-fold screen, ink on paper, National Treasure.

Hasegawa Tohaku - Pine Trees (Shōrin-zu byōbu) - right hand screen.jpg|Right panel of the {{nihongo|Pine Trees screen|松林図 屏風|Shōrin-zu byōbu}}, {{circa|1595}}, six-fold screen, ink on paper, National Treasure.

The school founded by Hasegawa Tōhaku is known today as the Hasegawa school. This school was small; consisting mostly of Tōhaku and his sons. However, its members conserved Tōhaku's quiet and reserved aesthetic, which many attribute to the influence of Sesshū as well as his contemporary and friend, Sen no Rikyū. It is suspected that these simple aesthetics protested the usage of intimidation and wealth rampant in the Kanō school.Moes, Robert D.. "The Other Side of Tōhaku." Occasional Papers No. 11(1969): 3–33.

Tōhaku's most noted contemporary was Kanō Eitoku, who often competed with Tōhaku for the patronage of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After Eitoku's death in 1590, Tōhaku stood alone as the greatest living master of his time. He became the official painter for Hideyoshi, and produced some of his greatest and most elegant paintings under his patronage. He and his atelier produced the wall and screen paintings in Shoun-ji (temple), commissioned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1593. The paintings were moved to Chishaku-in (temple), Kyoto and have survived. At the age of 67, Tōhaku was summoned to Edo and granted the priestly title of {{transl|ja|hōgen}} by the {{transl|ja|shōgun}} Tokugawa Ieyasu.Webb, Glenn T. "Hasegawa Tohaku". Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. 1st ed. 1983. There he stayed for the remainder of his life.

Érable entouré d'herbes d'automne (détail) par Hasegawa Tōhaku.jpg|Maple, colour on gold paper, at Chishaku-in, Kyoto (1593), National Treasure.

Tohaku Hasegawa - Crows and Herons (Important Cultural Property) - Google Art Project.jpg|Crows and Herons, Contemporary Art Foundation (ja), Important Cultural Property

• Chōjirō

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{{Commons category|Hasegawa Tohaku}}

• The painting [https://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/syuzou/meihin/kinsei/item13.html Old Trees and Monkeys] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114064945/https://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/syuzou/meihin/kinsei/item13.html |date=November 14, 2020 }} at the Kyoto National Museum.
• [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/84980/rec/1 Momoyama, Japanese Art in the Age of Grandeur], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Hasegawa Tōhaku.

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Category:1539 births

Category:1610 deaths

Category:Japanese painters

Category:Buddhist artists