Kōno Bairei (1844-1895)
Sarumawashi (The Monkey Dance)
Signed: Kōno Bairei and sealed
Two-panel screen: ink, color, and gold wash on paper
73 x 67 inches (185.5 x 170.2 cm)
Inscribed by artist: Meiji 5 (1872), painted at Kinsen, Kōno Bairei
Entertaining dances by trained monkeys began as early as the Kamakura period and during the Edo period (1600-1868) became a popular entertainment at the stables of samurai. This was due to a Chinese adage that horses that saw a monkey performing would be blessed with good health. In later years the performances came to be considered as generally auspicious and were included as part of the New Year’s festivities. In this screen painting it seems that a small child with a mask is playing the part of the monkey. Perhaps by the time that Bairei observed the dance, it was already being performed by the members of a small society in Hikari, Yamaguchi prefecture that had been created to preserve this art form.
Bairei was born in Kyoto in 1844 and at the early age of eight began his painting studies with the Maruyama painter Nakajima Raishō (1796-1871) and after his death, with the Shijō artist Shiokawa Bunrin (1808-77) who was to strongly influence his style. He also studied the Nanga traditions under Nakanishi Kōseki and Maeda Chōdō as well as calligraphy and Chinese literature with noted Confucian scholars. In 1880 he was instrumental in establishing the Kyoto Prefectural Painting School (Kyōtofu Gagakkō) but in 1881 left to establish his own school and studio. There for the following ten years he instructed many students who would usher in a new wave of painting combining traditional subjects and styles with new Western techniques and colors. Among them were Takeuchi Seihō, Kikuchi Hōbun, Kawaii Gyokudō and Uemura Shōen.
In 1890 he founded the Kyoto Art Society (Kyōto Bijutsu Kyōkai). This group later published a journal called Kyōto Bijutsu Kyōkai zasshi, sponsored its own exhibitions, the Shinko Bijutsuhinten, and was a major influence on Kyoto artists of the late Meiji period. In 1893 Bairei was appointed as a member of the Art committee of the Imperial Household and the following year was commissioned to paint murals in the Higashi Honganji. In earlier years he had spent time with Ōtani Kōshō, the abbot of that temple, touring Kyushu and central Japan and making many sketches along the way. His paintings incorporate traditional sensitivity and charm with the soft shading, washes and colors of the Shijō school, with an added touch of Western realism and perspective. Bairei was a leader in the art circles of Kyoto, and with his impressive credentials eagerly sought after as a judge for many exhibitions. But perhaps most important was his role as a prominent educator and teacher of those artists that would, in the following Taishō period, represent Japan’s first wave of modem art.
Paintings by Bairei are in the collections of the Kyoto National Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the Tokyo National Museum.
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