bokuchiku　墨竹

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Ch: mozhu. Painting of bamboo rendered in *sumi 墨 ink. Bamboo exemplified Chinese literati taste in both theme and style. The bamboo, or junzi 君子 (this gentleman), was the most beloved of all plants, according to educated Chinese. Yielding yet resilient, modest yet ever functional, faithfully holding its leaves through the winter, and hollow-hearted (a quality associated with Daoist and Buddhist ideas of emptiness), the bamboo symbolized the highest human virtues. Bamboo was depicted alone or as one element of the *shikunshi 四君子 (four gentlemen), and *saikan sanyuu 歳寒三友 (three friends of the wintry seasons). The simplicity of the subject allowed the artist a high degree of creative freedom and latitude in technical skill. The techniques of ink bamboo painting typically were learned through the discipline of calligraphy. And like the distinctive hand of an experienced calligrapher, bamboo paintings served as an artist's self-portrait. The Northern Song literati-painters, Wen Tong (Jp: Bun Dou 文同; 1018-79) and Su Shi (Jp: So Shoku 蘇軾; 1036-1101), are known as early practitioners of the genre. Paintings from the Yuan dynasty of ink-bamboo are of two types: naturalistic depictions of bamboo, often with rocks and blown by the wind, exemplified by the paintings of Tan Zhiru (Jp: Dan Shizui 檀芝瑞; late 13c-early 14c); and the more abstract or intellectualized bamboo depictions typified by the paintings of Li Kan (Jp: Ri Kan 李桁; 1245-1320), and described and illustrated in his manual Zhupu Xianglu (Jp: CHIKUFU SHOUROKU 竹譜詳録). The popularity of ink bamboo painting continued through the Ming and Qing dynasties. In Japan, artists began to create ink paintings of bamboo in the 14c. They often added sparrows such as those seen in the early 14c painting by Kaou 可翁 in the Yamato Bunkakan 大和文華館, Nara and the mid 14c painting by Gukei 愚渓 in Daijiji 大慈寺, Kumamoto prefecture. Ink bamboo paintings gained wide popularity among literati painters of the Edo period. There are notable examples by Gion Nankai 祇園南海 (1677-1751), Sakaki Hyakusen 彭城百川 (1697-1752), Ike no Taiga 池大雅 (1723-76), and Maruyama Oukyo 円山応挙 (1733-95). Artists such as Yanagisawa Kien 柳沢淇園 (1704-58) even incorporated the Chinese character for bamboo into their artistic names.

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