A grove of early spring blossoming plums is silhouetted against an expansive river on which float two skiffs, one being skulled by a boatman, the other with fisherman bent over his pole. On the further shore sits an extensive villa surrounded by more plum trees. The mountains above and also the foreground riverbank are textured in good literati style, with the parallel and sometimes overlapping strokes along with dottings of ink describing the contours and flow of the earthen forms. Light blue washes on especially the distant hills and peaks convey a sense of antiquity by virtue of their relationship with ancient Chinese landscape traditions. The whole of the complex scene is immensely satisfying, justifying Kyoko Kinoshita’s comment in the Philadelphia catalogue for the painting, that it “may be one of the finest paintings by Gyokuran early in her career.”1
1. Felice Fisher with Kyoko Kinoshita: Ike Taiga and Tokuyama Gyokuran, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2007, cat. 35, p. 392.
Painting details:
Boxes & documents / transcriptions & translations:
1. Painting is double boxed. This image shows the outer box.
2. Outer box, sliding side panel – label:
玉瀾女史 Gyokuran-joshi – Mrs. Gyokuran
梅林山水 Bairin sansui – Landscape of Plum woods
早春 Sōshun – Early Spring
3. Inscription on the inside of the panel (from above – no.2):
龍吟閣蔵 Ryūgin-kaku zō – In the possession of Ryū(or Ryō)gin-kaku
4. Image shows the outer painting box (left) alongside the inner box (right).
箱題 Inner box – Title on lid:
徳山玉蘭淡彩梅谿閒棹図
Tokuyama Gyokuran’s lightly colored painting of “Rowing leisurely in Plum Valley.”
.
5. Inner box, sliding side panel – label:
梅林図 Bairin zu – Painting of Plum Woods
玉瀾画 Gyokuran ga – Painted by Gyokuran
「重承所得」Shigetsugu (or Shigetsugi) Shotoku – Possessed by Shigetsugu
6. 箱書 Box inscription on inner side of lid (from above – no.6):
玉蘭女池大雅妻姓徳山俗名町号葛覃居学画夫大雅能和歌天明四年没享年七十八
有一士人自関東来問池生 置其傔従而入會生他適獨妻在出應之門 士人問曰夫人池君之室乎妻云然々則吾与夫人為同父
異母兄弟吾徳山某之子也 吾欲与夫人相見久矣山河阻絶徒有神馳 今幸因公事来此得遂宿志請自今数相往来以序匪
他之情耳 妻曰妾亦聞此於亡母矣然亡母誡慎勿相通門今雖荷厚意不違遺矣 山陽遺稿百合傳節録
玉蘭父幕府士人徳山某江戸人後帰嗣宗家 母百合不知何許能書又能和歌冷泉黄門殊眷遇之 同稿節録
明治四十五年七月三日於少林書屋 年香市人 「」「」
(translation)
[Translation of the above passages, excerpted from Rai Sanyō’s Posthumous Manuscripts (Sanyō Ikō), including the biographical section titled “The Account of Yuri” (Yuri-den, 百合伝), which recounts the life of Gyokuran and her family.]
Gyokuran, a woman, wife of Ike no Taiga.
Her family name was Tokuyama, her personal name Machi, and her art name Kattan-kyo.
She studied painting under her husband, Taiga, and was accomplished in waka poetry.
She passed away in the fourth year of the Tenmei era (1784), at the age of seventy-eight.
One day, a gentleman from the Kantō region came, seeking an audience with Mr. Ike.
He left his attendant outside and entered the house.
As Mr. Ike was away on an outing, only his wife was at home.
She came out to the gate to receive him.
The man asked, “Madam, are you the wife of Mr. Ike?”
She replied, “Yes, I am.”
The man then said,
“Then you and I are siblings — children of the same father but different mothers.
I am the son of a certain Tokuyama.
I have long wished to meet you, but mountains and rivers have separated us.
In vain have my thoughts flown to you.
Now, by fortunate circumstance, I have come here on official duty and can finally fulfill this long-held wish.
I ask that from now on, we might visit one another from time to time, to express nothing more than the feelings appropriate to our kinship.”
She answered,
“I too heard this from my late mother.
However, she sternly admonished me never to have dealings with your household.
Though I am grateful for your kind intentions, I cannot go against her final wishes.”
—Excerpt from The Account of Yuri, in the Posthumous Writings of Rai Sanyō (Sanyō Ikō).
Gyokuran’s father was a samurai-scholar named Tokuyama, in service to the Tokugawa shogunate, a native of Edo.
He later returned there to inherit the headship of the main family line.
Her mother, Yuri, was of uncertain origin.
She was skilled in calligraphy and waka, and was particularly favored by Lord Reizei (Reizei Kōmon).
—Excerpt from the same posthumous manuscript.
Written at Shōrin Sho-oku on the third day of the seventh month, Meiji 45 (July 3, 1912),
by Nenko [?], a townsman.
[Two seals present, unread.]
7. 軸 Inscription on the back of the scroll mounting:
徳山玉蘭女史梅林山水画 two seals:「龍唫閣記」「撫石山房」
Tokuyama Gyokuran joshi Bairin Sansui ga. [Ryūgin-kaku ki] [Buseki-sanbō]
“Ms Tokuyama Gyokuran’s plum grove landscape”
8. Seals on the back of the scroll mounting:
龍吟閣記 Ryū(or Ryō)gin-kaku ki – Record of Ryū(Ryō)gin-kaku
撫石山房 Buseki-sanbō
[Studio or House names]
The painting is also accompanied by a letter:
封筒 Envelope:
(front) (表)吟秋神戸賢臺. 乞直披
Mr. Ginshū Kando [a collector in Gifu or Nagoya]. For your eyes only
(back) (裏)玉瀾幅相添へ申候也
Gyokuran’s scroll attached
四月三日
3th day of April
(橋)江次郎
(Hashi)e Jirō
手紙 Letter:
拝啓昨日ハ推参緩々御懇話聴候
御馳走拝味辱奉感謝候
乍憚御家内さま方へ宜敷奉希上候
帰宅直ニ養ヘ申遣置候故何れ養参上可致候
何分よろしく願上候
■ハ餘■御約束玉瀾梅林幅差出候
是亦よろしく奉希候
尚勾玉小さげ同時ニ願度存候ヘども
餘リ一時ニ而はとの御話も有之候
故ニ是ハさし控へ更待後機可願候
先ハ御礼耳書餘後叙 恐惶謹言
四月三日
丞?
吟秋賢臺梧下
二白 御心ニ被為残候京都病人逐日快気のよし
只今廣帰宅承り安■候
御萱堂へも右御傳聲奉願上候
再行
例之一寸出鱈目御笑正可下候
鬻秘蔵幅得充観花費戯賦之笑正
梅蕚已凋桃李咲
真個刻價千金
割(淡粧)愛一幅羅浮景
買
欲酔洛陽九十春
御一笑々々
(translation)
Dear Sir,
I called on you yesterday unexpectedly
and had the pleasure of listening to your kind conversation at leisure.
Thank you kindly for your warm and generous hospitality.
Please also extend my respects to your wife and esteemed household.
Upon returning home, I immediately sent word to Yō;
I believe he will call on you in the near future.
Please give him your regards.
As previously promised, I am enclosing the scroll “Plum Grove” by Gyokuran.
I hope it is kindly received.
I had intended to enclose the small magatama Kosage at the same time,
but since you mentioned not wishing to receive everything at once,
I have held it back for now and will await a more suitable occasion.
For now, I write only to express my gratitude; the rest I shall convey at another time.
With deepest respect.
Dated: April 3
(signed: [unreadable character, possibly “Jō–?”])
To the Honorable Ginshū, beneath the paulownia tree.
P.S.-
As for the person in Kyoto whom you kindly asked after:
I am happy to report that they are recovering day by day.
I have just heard that they have returned home safely.
Please pass this news on to your esteemed mother as well.
Respectfully again.
Once again-
As usual, a little nonsensical poem—please accept it with a smile.
I sell my treasured scroll, devoting the money to enjoying flowers,
and make a poem of it. Please laugh and criticize.
Plum blossoms withered,
peaches and apricots are in bloom,
True, one hour (in the Spring evening) deserves a thousand golds.
Parting reluctantly with a scroll lightly adorned with the scene of Luofu.
I would buy it, if only to become intoxicated by ninety springs in Luoyang.
Please accept it with a smile… or perhaps two.
Biographical sketch from Kaikodo Journal XXVI (Honored Guests, Spring 2010), no.33:
Gyokuran (1728-84), talented waka poet and imaginative Nanga painter, was the happy result of an union between the proprietress of a Kyoto tea-shop and a man named Tokuyama, a samurai visiting from Edo. Were it not for the untimely death of the samurai’s elder brother, an event which necessitated the immediate return of Gyokuran’s father to Edo, in order to succeed to his patrimony, the subsequent life of Gyokuran would surely have been much different. It is to Tokuyama’s credit that he requested Gyokuran’s mother to return with him just as it is telling of the mother’s good sense that she refused on the grounds that such would be detrimental to his subsequent career in the Tokugawa government.
Tokuyama Machi, as Gyokuran was then named, thus remained in Kyoto where she was raised by her mother, Yuri (1694-1761), and her grandmother, Kaji, who had founded a teashop named Matsuya in the Gion district east of the Kamo River in Kyoto (fig. 1). Yuri, Gyokuran’s mother, was the adopted daughter of Kaji and eventually inherited the Matsuya and its business. Both Kaji and Yuri excelled in writing poetry in the Japanese verse form called waka; those by Kaji were published as Kaji no Ha and those by Yuri as Sayo Riyo. During their lifetimes Kaji and Yuri were famed even in Edo not only for their poetry but also for their beauty. Since the Matsuya not only sold green tea leaves for home consumption but also served tea to customers on the premises, one can imagine at least part of the means by which their fame spread and also how the visiting samurai came to know Yuri’s charms.
Tokuyama Machi inherited from her mother and grandmother not only the teashop but also their talent in poetry. Her physical appearance, however, may have owed more to her father, for even her friends remarked that despite a certain spiritual refinement her round face was rather homely.
During her teens Machi began to study painting as well as poetry. Her first teacher, Yanagisawa Kien (1706-58), rewarded her efforts with the gift of a painting he had done of a basket of orchids. He then inscribed it: “Painted after the Master of the Snowy Hall (either Su Shih or, less likely, Ch’en Chi-ju) by Ryu Kobe (Yanagisawa Kien) at Toku(yama) Gyokuran’s Kaidoka.” The name Gyokuran, meaning “Jade Wave,” was given to Machi by Kien and the inscription is evidence as well that Gyokuran had by then a studio name, Kaidoka, meaning “Cherry-apple Nest.” Another of Gyokuran’s studio names, Kattankyo, meaning “Dwelling with the Enduring Arrowroot,” was taken from the Chinese poetry classic, the Shijing, and suggests that she (or Yuri) was knowledgeable about Chinese literature as well.
By her late teens Gyokuran had met the man who would have the greatest impact on her life: Ike Taiga (1723-76). The exact circumstances of their meeting are unknown but it can be noted that in 1737 Taiga-then fourteen years of age-had opened a shop wherein he sold fans painted in the Chinese manner. It was also at that time that Taiga adopted the name Gyokkai, “Jade Sea,” a name that was based on one character from a name used by Yanagisawa Kien-Gyokkei, “Jade Cassia”-and one that was given by Kien to Taiga. Kien was one of Taiga’s earliest teachers and sponsors and he was also knowledgeable about the tea ceremony. It is likely then that Kien played some important role in bring Jade Wave together with Jade Sea, perhaps at the Matsuya tea-house run then by Gyokuran’ mother, sometime after 1742, when Taiga moved into the neighborhood of the Matsuya.
Whether Gyokuran and Taiga ever actually formalized their relationship in marriage is in some doubt. The Heian Jimbutsu Shi of 1768 refers to her as Ike Gyokuran and Taiga’s memorial marker erected on his death mentions Gyokuran as Taiga’s wife. On the other hand, the Heian Jimbutsu Shi lists them at separate addresses, the memorial marker gives her surname as Tokuyama, and she and Taiga are buried in separate temples, Taiga in his family temple and Gyokuran with her mother. Although they certainly lived together as man and wife, and were obviously considered as such by their contemporaries, it may be that in the absence of children it was not thought necessary by either of them to formally register their marriage.
It is clear that the relationship between Gyokuran and Taiga was close and mutually sus-taining. During the early years of their life together Gyokuran and Taiga barely supported themselves by painting hanging lanterns for teahouses and by decorating tobacco pouches and fans for dancing girls. Taiga traveled extensively during the first decade or so of their relationship and it would thus seem that Gyokuran must have handled most of these types of commissions. Gyokuran also continued to paint at a higher level of aesthetic endeavor. The Horeki Banashi of about 1750 records that when Taiga traveled he would take along paintings by Gyokuran to sell. Gyokuran’s style must at this point have been strongly influenced by that of Taiga, who, in good Chinese fashion, provided her with a series of model paintings designed to assist her in the formation of her own style. According to Minagawa Kien (1734-1807), “There was a single album of the rules of painting landscapes, trees, and rock by the teacher Ike Taiga. It was painted by Taiga for Gyokuran as an instruction book, and Ko Fuyo (1722-84) wrote the inscription at the beginning in seal script. Gyokuran always kept this album hidden and never showed it to anyone…”
The burden of the couple’s support seems in fact to have fallen most heavily on Gyokuran at this time, for an anecdote concerning Taiga about the year 1752 suggests that his own paintings were not yet eliciting a positive response from patrons: “…Having friends in Hino Goshu and thinking that he might have a chance to sell some work, (Taiga) painted several fans and took them along. No one at all, however, wanted to buy them, and while hurrying back to Kyoto, he hurled them off the Seta Bridge, announcing that he was paying homage to the Dragon God.” On the death of Yuri in 1761, Gyokuran inherited both the Matsuya and her mother’s house, and from that time onward the financial situation of Gyokuran and Taiga appears to have improved greatly.
Their residence was a small house located within the precincts of Shinpukuin, near the Gion Shrine and Gyokuran’s teahouse. A sketch of the precincts (fig. 2) done by Taiga’s pupil Geppo Shinryo (1760-1839) shows the one-story structure, the right section labeled as Taiga’s studio, the left as being occupied by someone else, and the center annotated as the Kattankyo, the studio of Gyokuran and apparently where the couple lived. The name of the entire structure, either Kuzugahara, “Arrowroot Source,” or Makuzugahara, “True Arrowroot Source,” may have had
somewhat deeper and more meaningful associations for Gyokuran than the kuzu vines that grew by the actual house and which are included in Geppo’s drawing, for the kuzu figures as well in Gyokuran’s studio name, Kattankyo, mentioned above as deriving from the poetry classic Shijing, where it is found in the “Odes of Zou-nan” section. The intent of that poem-which must surely have had special significance for Kaji and Yuri as well as Gyokuran-was to encourage diligence and frugal practices as feminine virtues. The “true arrowroot source,” that which persevered and endured, was thus Gyokuran herself.
Several illustrations focusing on the life enjoyed by Gyokuran and Taiga in the Makuzugahara (figs. 3-4) suggest that music, tea, literature, calligraphy and painting were all that mattered to the well-matched couple. These illustrations are based on the abundant stories found in contemporaneous sources that reveal Gyokuran’s attitude toward life and art. Gyokuran sometimes called herself “the Gion Eccentric,” and she is described as wearing clothes long out of fashion, as declining to make-up her face in the customary fashion, and even as refusing to pluck and shape her eyebrows. Rai Sanyo (1780-1832) reported that painting silks and papers littered the floor of the Makuzugahara and that the couple occupied themselves with painting, with rubbing ink, with playing the koto and lute, and with drinking sake but that they never worried about the grime that covered the cooking pans. On one occasion an over-night guest was provided with silk futon bed-coverings that proved on inspection to be a bit soiled, causing the guest to assume that he was using futon kept only for their many guests. At midnight he awoke and rose to go to the toilet but wandered by mistake into another room-probably Taiga’s studio-where lay the sleeping Gyokuran and Taiga, he covered with a piece of carpet and she by used Chinese painting paper.
The silk futon appearing in the last story indicates that Gyokuran and Taiga were by then fairly well-off but many stories suggest that neither was much concerned with saving money. On one occasion Taiga delivered some paintings to a customer in Osaka but returned empty-handed, responding to Gyokuran’s query that he had left the money on the river-boat. The next morning Gyokuran went off and discovered that the money had been left at the Teradaya for the owner to claim. She declined to take it, however, saying that she had merely wanted to find out what had happened to the money.
Another story suggests that Gyokuran’s and Taiga’s concern for each other was balanced equally by absorption with their individual arts. We find Taiga setting off one day to sketch in the area of Yoshino but forgetting to take his brushes with him. On noticing the brushes still at home Gyokuran hurried after and stopped him, saying: “Here are your brushes!” Taiga, evidently assuming that he had simply dropped the brushes and was being addressed by a stranger, replied: “Thank you very much for picking them up.” “You are welcome,” responded Gyokuran, who then returned home. On another occasion, in the year 1760, Gyokuran’s lack of concern with formalities caused some discomfort for her friends. Taiga, Ko Fuyo, and Kan Tenju had decided on the spur of the moment to go and climb Mt. Fuji; taking some coins hidden beneath the tatami mats. Taiga and his friend left immediately on a journey that would consume nearly three months, leaving a note with Gyokuran to be delivered to Fuyo’s wife Raikin. Gyokuran forgot to do this, however, leaving Raikin in the dark about her husband’s whereabouts, a circumstance probably not uncommon in the life of Gyokuran.
Given the contemporary preeminence and historical importance of Taiga as a painter, it is tempting to treat Gyokuran’s own creations in terms of her husband’s influence, to concentrate on isolating stylistic feature found also in Taiga’s paintings. Although this approach would of course yield some truth, it should also be remembered that Gyokuran’s talent and training in poetry were independent of her association with Taiga and also that her study of painting had begun before the advent of Taiga in her life.
Gyokuran’s individual success as a painter is indicated by the fact that she was included as one of only sixteen artists listed in the 1768 edition of the Kyoto guidebook, Heian Jimbutsu Shi. And even Taiga’s memorial marker, composed by Abbot Daiten (1719-1801) of Shokokuji and written out in 1777 by Kan Tenju (1727-95), states that Gyokuran “is capable in painting and is famous.” High among the stylistic features that must have contributed to Gyokuran’s fame as a painter are her exquisite sense of coloring, her imaginative use of strong formal patterns and rhythms to enliven picture surfaces and to unify compositions, and her frequent blending of poetry, calligraphy and painting into indissoluble aesthetic wholes. Well might we join the Abbot Daiten in concluding, “(Gyokuran) has no children and her house has come to an end. What a lamentable matter!”
Note:
For additional information about this fascinating artist, see Stephen Addiss: “The Three Women of Gion,” in Marsha Weidner, ed.: Flowering in the Shadows: Women in the History of Chinese and Japanese Painting, Honolulu, 1990, pp. 241-63; and Felice Fischer with Kyoko Kinoshita: Ike Taiga and Tokuyama Gyokuran, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2007. Much information on Gyokuran and her relationship with Taiga is to be found in Melinda Takeuchi: Taiga’s True Views, Stanford, 1992.
…
Fig. 1. Mikuma Katen: “The Matsuya Teahouse,” after Stephen Addiss: “The Three Women of Gion,” in Marsha Weidner, ed.: Flowering in the Shadows, Honolulu, 1990, p. 242.
Fig. 2. Geppo Shinryo (1760-1839): “Kuzugahara,” after Melinda Takeuchi: Taiga’s True Views, Stanford, 1992, fig. 56, p. 77.
Fig. 3. Mikuma Katen (1730-94): “Portrait of Taiga and Gyokuran,” after Melinda Takeuchi: Taiga’s True Views, Stanford, 1992, fig. 54, p. 76.
Fig. 4. Tomioka Tessai (1836-1924), att: “Portrait of Taiga and Gyokuran,” after Melinda Takeuchi: Taiga’s True Views, Stanford, 1992, fig. 55, p. 77.