Humor in Japanese Paintings (I)

choi

Lee Lawrence, Elegance That Encourages Laughter. Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/une ... laughter-1527937201

Note:
(a) The review is not locked behind paywall. However there is no need to read the rest of the text. Do view paintings, though.
(b) Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo ... nd_Japanese_Gardens
(whose Japanese name is モリカミ博物館・日本庭園, per ja.wikipedia.org) is on the estate of George Sukeji MORIKAMI  森上 助次. In Morikami Museum, the main building /exhibition hall is Yamato-kan 大和館, and Japanese Gardens is Roji-En 露時園: The Garden of the Drops of Dew.

Ja.wikipedia.org remarks that Mr Morikami failed as a farmer /owner of Yamato colony which was disbanded during World War II (it does not say Mr Morikami was interned). He became a successful wholesaler. For lack of an heir, he donated his estate to county (160 acres) state (40 acres). (The above Web page states, "He originally proposed donating the land to the City of Delray Beach which declined." Take notice the CITY declined.)  It was the county that used the 160 acres to open the museum and gardens. A new Yamato-kan was rebuilt in 1993.
(c) This is an exhibition review on Unexpected Smiles: Seven Types of Humor in Japanese Paintings. Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, May 19-Aug 5, 2018.
https://morikami.org/museum/current-exhibitions/

(d) Quoting the WSJ review:
(i) "Thick black lines mark the contours of an elephant depicted head-on, its legs merging into a single, columnar mass fringed with a curlicue of toes, its body so large only a sliver fits inside the painting. Ito Jakuchu's 1795 'Elephant' is at once imposing and cute, one of many of the 48 ink paintings in 'Unexpected Smiles: Seven Types of Humor in Japanese Paintings' with a high 'Aw!' factor. * * * In 18th-century Japan, as her [curator's] label points out, 'Elephant' also offered the thrill of seeing an odd-looking, exotic animal."
(A) ITŌ Jakuchū  伊藤 若冲
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itō_Jakuchū
(1716 – 1800)
(B) 象図 Elephant. Tokyo Fuji Art Museum 東京富士美術館, undated
www.fujibi.or.jp/our-collection/ ... s.html?work_id=8597
("寛政2年（1790） 紙本墨画 軸装")
(C) Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (TFAM) is a private museum that opened in 1983.
(ii) "More layered, 'Snowman Daruma' by Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944) presented a charming portrait of the founder of Zen Buddhism. Infused with puns that the label decodes, it is also one of the show’s many amusing reminders that Buddhist practice isn’t the beatific experience people like to believe."

This will be annotated in another posting.

choi

(iii) "Temple festivals sprouted monthlong carnivals with acrobats, storytellers, trained animals, staged dramas, sideshows, you name it.  Some paintings, like Hakuin Ekaku's early 18th-century 'Korean Acrobats' and Nakajima Yoshiume's mid-19th-century octopus as 'Clumsy Waiter,' [University of Richmond Museums noted "1819-1879" and "Private collection" for the painter and painting, respectively; I fail to find the Japanese name of the painter] reflect this broader context, which this installation underscores with the fortuitous addition of 40 Edo-goma 江戸独楽. These are colorful wooden toys that spin like tops and depict everything from beloved Buddhist figures to fierce samurai and characters from folk tales. They are the work of HIRO-I Michiaki 広井道顕 [1933- ; male], a fourth-generation maker of such tops, and part of the Morikami's permanent collection."
(A) For the Korean Acrobats, see Unexpected Smiles: Seven Types of Humor in Japanese Paintings. Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, Oct 18, 2017-Jan 28, 2018
https://museums.richmond.edu/exh ... ataMuseumExhibition,startdate:2017-10-19,enddate:2018-01-28

This explains why Morikami Museum could hold the exhibition, not because it owns the exhibits but serves as an exhibition hall. See (d)(vi).
(B) 独楽
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8B%AC%E6%A5%BD
* 独楽 is pronounced koma, whose k is softened to g when not placed at the beginning of a word.
* Section 2 歴史 of the above Wiki page states that things similar to a spinning top (or top for short), made of wood, were unearthed in (ruins or graves. I guess, of) ancient capitals, but whether they were tops is unclear.  The Wiki page goes on to say, "18〜19世紀にかけてヨーロッパでは独楽が流行したが、日本でも江戸時代には独楽が大進歩を遂げた。"

my translation: In the 18th and 19th centuries, tops were popular in Europe. Even in Japan, Edo Period saw tops achieve great progress/improvement
(C) As for tops in China and Taiwan, see 吳望如 (主任.), 台灣童玩－陀螺在藝術與人文教學上的探索. 台北縣三重市五華國小, undated
http://163.20.178.5/groth/93/%E6 ... %8E%A2%E7%B4%A2.doc
(iv) "the delightful, early 19th-century depiction of fat-bellied, sumo-wrestling frogs by MORI Shūhō" 森 周峰 (1738–1823; painter)
(A) Frogs in Sumo Match (undated). Collection of Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture (formerly known as the Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art at the Clark Center (Identifier: ucm_li_CL1992_003).
https://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb996nc021/?order=1
(B) University of California, Merced
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Merced
(2005- ; by City of Merced [Spanish noun feminine for mercy; the city was named after the nearby Merced River])
(v) "poetess TAKABATAKE Shikibu's [高畠 式部; 1785-1881] 19th-century 'Bannerman as a Kite,' which mocks the inflated ego of those who led ceremonial processions for daimyos 大名 [feudal lords in Japan]"

I believe we all felt much like this "Bannerman as a Kite" by Takabatake Shikibu today. That face sums it up perfectly. (Google: "two weeks ago")
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf12AV5lEIC/

I can not find out which collection owns it -- or title in Japanese or English. Absolutely nothing.
(vi) "Is Hakuin's depiction of a monkey, its long arm stretching down to catch the moon's reflection in water, a sly put-down of a revered 14th-century writer?"
(A) HAKU-IN E-kaku  白隠 慧鶴
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuin_Ekaku
(1686 - 1768)

The four divisions above are all Chinese pronunciations of kanji, in that order.

The ja.wikipedia.org says he was a 禅僧 who was 臨済宗中興の祖. having born into 長沢家 (surname 長沢, given name not mentioned) and 15歳で出家 (thus 白隠 慧鶴 was his monk name).
(B) Obviously he painted four under this theme, and the photo accompanying the WSJ article (in print but not online) is the fourth one, the one in the bottom of
白隠慧鶴 Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769): Monkey Reaching for the Reflection of the Moon. Hungary: Terebess Center, undated.
https://terebess.hu/zen/hakuin/hakuin81.html

Geissmann T, Gibbon paintings in China, Japan, and Korea: Historical distribution, production rate and context.Gibbon Journal, 4: 1, 14 (2008)
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/3306/2/2008_Geissmann_PaintingsV.pdf
(In China "The Buddhist theme 'Gibbons reaching for the reflection of the moon' occurs as early as about AD 1200, but the theme remains uncommon in China")
(C) The painting may also be seen at page 1 of (e)(i).
(D) Geissmann T, Gibbon paintings in China, Japan, and Korea: Historical distribution, production rate and context.Gibbon Journal, 4: 1, 14 (2008)
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/3306/2/2008_Geissmann_PaintingsV.pdf
(In China "The Buddhist theme 'Gibbons reaching for the reflection of the moon' occurs as early as about AD 1200, but the theme remains uncommon in China")
(E) gibbon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbon
(section 6        In traditional Chinese culture: "The sinologist Robert van Gulik concluded gibbons were widespread in central and southern China until at least the Song dynasty, and furthermore, based on an analysis of references to primates in Chinese poetry and other literature and their portrayal in Chinese paintings, the Chinese word yuán (猿) referred specifically to gibbons until they were extirpated throughout most of the country due to habitat destruction (circa 14th century). In modern usage, however, yuán is a generic word for ape. * * * Gibbon figurines as old as from the fourth to third centuries BCE (the Zhou dynasty) have been found in China. Later on, gibbons became a popular object for Chinese painters, especially during the Song dynasty and early Yuan dynasty, when Yì Yuánjí 易 元吉 [北宋] and Mùqī Fǎcháng 牧溪 法常 [南宋末年; a Chinese Chan Buddhist monk; Muqi was a hao  and Fachang, his monk name (Chinese: 法名) ] excelled in painting these apes. From Chinese cultural influence, the Zen motif of the 'gibbon grasping at the reflection of the moon in the water' became popular in Japanese art, as well, though gibbons have never occurred naturally in Japan")

The word gibbon is 長臂猿 in Taiwan, though there has been none of the animals there (so the animal is not in our consciousness, thought to be in far-away land (like the other side of the earth).

Saying he was born with surname 李 (given name unknown), the zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/牧谿 remarks, "牧谿的作品在當時並未受到重視，在日本卻得到極大的尊崇[3]。在中國繪畫史上，他是中國對日本影響最大、最受喜愛與重視的一位畫家。 * * * 現存作品多流落在日本，備受推崇，日本古籍《松齋梅譜》中評價牧溪的繪畫「皆隨筆點墨而成，意思簡當，不費裝綴。」牧溪甚至被評為「日本畫道的大恩人」。"

choi

(e) A painting in the exhibition that appears online but not in print of the WSJ review:
"Shunso Soshu's 'Demon Meditating' PHOTO: TAYLOR DABNEY/UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND MUSEUMS"

I spent many hours researching this quotation.
(i) I can not find the painter by that name. So I tried to search with the painting "Demon Meditating;" it was a success and I found
University of Richmond Museums; Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, Fall semester, 2017, at page 12
https://museums.richmond.edu/about/newsletter/URMMAG-fall2017.pdf
(regarding the new exhibition listed in : Shunsô Sôshu (Japanese, 1750-1835), Demon Meditating, n.d., ink on paper, image 13v 18 3/8 inches, Private collection. © University Museums, photograph by Taylor Dabney"

The circumflex symbol ô means the same as macron ō: a long vowel of o. (Both are diacritics.)
(ii) Still I was stymied, because there was no Japanese painter who was born and dead in those years, not to mention the name.
(iii) My break came from searching with surname Shunso alone (without he given name). I found

Artist: Shunso, Japan, 1750-1835. Birmingham Museum of Art, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), undated
https://artsbma.org/artist/shunso-japan-1750-1835/
( (painting title) Jittoku Shunso  ink on paper")

Here I can clearly see he signed with the same two words as in (e)(i), PLUS the top character is 春. Quickly I found the following, which has the collect romanization of his name (and different years of birth nd death).
(iv) Michel MOHR, Japanese Zen Schools and the Transition to Meiji; A plurality of responses in the nineteenth century. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 25: 167, 179
https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2649
("Shunsō Shōju 春叢紹珠 (1751-1839)[superscript:]23" where footnote 23 is as follows: "Shunsō Shōju is a successor of Hakuin's disciple Suiō Genro 遂翁元盧 (1717-1789). In regard to Shunsō's dates, I followed Zenbunka [The Kyoto-based Institute for Zen Studies 禅文化研究所 publishes a quarterly The Zen Bunka Journal] 145, p 76. KSBD gives only the year he received his imperial title of Daikankōshō Zenji 大鑑廣照禪師 (vol 1, p 178). This has mistakenly been taken as the year of his death by NBJ, p 336b")
(v) Kanzan and Jittoku. The Manyo'an Collection of Japanese Art 萬葉庵, undated
http://www.manyoancollection.org/subject/kanzan-and-jittoku/
("SHUNSO Shoju 春叢紹珠[,] Kanzan and Jittoku [寒山 and 拾得: Chinese, 9th-century Tang Dynasty.] 1985.3")

It appears that The Manyo'an Collection also claims ownership. So I have no idea whether it or UAB is the current owner. See next.
(vi) Press release: Princeton University Art Museum Adds Important Japanese Works from Renowned GItter-Yelen Collection. Princeton University Art Museum, Mar 19, 2018
http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/a ... tant-japanese-works
("Sixteen major works of Japanese art from the distinguished Gitter-Yelen Collection, also known as the Manyo'an Collection of Art of Dr Kurt A Gitter and Alice Yelen Gitter, were recently added to the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum. * * * 'come from one of the most important private collections of Japanese art,' said James Steward, [chair title] Nancy A Nasher–David J Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director [of Princeton]. * * * Dr Gitter began collecting art in the 1960s while working as a flight surgeon in the US Air Force on the island of Kyushu, Japan. The collection has grown significantly since then, and is primarily located in New Orleans at the Gitter-Yelen Art Study Center * * *Highlights among the acquired works include")

So it is an acquisition (purchase), not donation.