Diagonal pictorial axes rise from lower left to upper right and fall from upper left to lower right, unifying this pair of landscapes and defining the amorphous and evocative recession of the centrally-placed river. On the hills and peaks located to either side rise pagodas, temples, gateways, and houses, while within this impressive environment small figures carry on the chores of everyday existence by light of the setting sun. Although done in ink-monochrome, the paintings are yet rich in the colors of ink, which range from pale washes to sharp accents of deep black. This basic approach to painting was derived from Sesshū (1420-1506), some generations prior to that of Ryōkei, the present artist, and these works thus are more self-conscious but also more pictorially elegant than paintings by the earlier master.
Ryōkei was born into the Watanabe family during the latter half of the 16th century. His earliest teacher in painting is not known, but while living in Kyoto Ryōkei became a pupil of Kanō Mitsunobu (1561/5-1602/8), the sixth-generation head of the Kanō school of painting. Much of Ryōkei’s early work was accomplished in cooperation with Mitsunobu, including paintings done for the Kōdai-ji in Kyoto. Ryōkei’s skill and success were such as to move Mitsunobu to allow Ryōkei and his descendants to use the Kanō surname.
Extant works attributed to Ryōkei include paintings of “Patriarchs” in Ryōsoku-in within Kennin-ji, fusuma door panels and a wall painting in the Nishi-Honganji in Kyoto, and fusuma paintings in the Taizō-in, Myōshin-ji, Kyoto (fig. 1). Doi Tsugiyoshi, the first modern scholar to study Ryōkei in depth, believes that the Kōdai-ji paintings were done by Mitsunobu, Koi, and Ryōkei and that a pair of four-panel screens in the temple also provides a good illustration of Ryōkei’s style. The present pair of paintings, done in haboku splashed-ink style, are the first known at present to bear the tripod-shaped seal reading Ryōkei that is recorded in the Koga Bikō (1904). Muneshige Narazaki, author of an article on Ryōkei in Kokka, thus argues that the present pair of paintings should be regarded as the standard by which to judge all other works attributed to Ryōkei.
According to the Koga Bikō, Ryōkei enjoyed a long life. During the Kan’ei era (1624-1644) he served the Matsuura family in Hirado, where he died. His position there was handed down to his son, Ryōshi, who married the daughter of Kanō Koi (1569-1639), who had studied under Mitsunobu along with Ryōkei. In the third generation of the family, Ryōkai moved to Edo and became a pupil of Kanō Yasunobu (1613-85), who became goyō eshi master painter to the shogun and founded the Nakabashi Kanō school. Ryōkai’s son also studied with Yasunobu while his grandson became a pupil of Kanō Eishuku, also in Edo. Thus it was that the Koga Bikō noted a particularly long and close relationship between the family of Watanabe Ryōkei and the Kanō lineage of masters.
Fig. 1. Watanabe Ryōkei: “Landscape,” fusuma, Taizō-in, Myōshin-ji, after Tsugiyoshi Doi: Momoyama Decorative Painting, Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art, Tokyo, 1977, fig. 32, p. 45.
Details:
Right scroll with details –
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Left scroll with details –
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Double box details:
第七三五 号
渡辺了慶
山水 双幅
國華所蔵
“No.736
Watanabe Ryōkei.
A pair of landscape scrolls;
published in Kokka”
