Taikoubou　太公望

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Ch: Taigongwang. A Chinese scholar who was thought to be a paragon of humble virtue and learned accomplishment and who lived in the 11c BC. His real name was Lu Shang (Jp:Ryo Shou 呂尚). After earning a reputation as a great scholar, Taigongwang is said to have fled society to live alone spending his days fishing on the banks of the Wei 渭 river. Taikoubou is sometimes used to mean skilled-angler tsurishi 釣師. Many legends surround Taigongwang, including the story that when he fished his line bore neither bait nor hook. In one legend, Taikoubou was discovered by Wen Wang 文王, first and model king of the Zhou 周, who felt he needed Taigongwang's knowledge of statecraft and invited him to serve as a court minister. Taigongwang refused, thereby ensuring his place in Chinese history as moral exemplar of disinterestedness. The sobriquet Taigongwang, equivalent to "Grand-Duke's-Desire," supposedly originated from Wen Wang's statement "I, the Grand Duke, have long fished for you." There are well-known paintings by Kanou Sanraku 狩野山楽 (1559-1635, Myoushinji 妙心寺, Kyoto) and Ogata Kourin 尾形光琳 (1658-1716, Tokyo Natinal Museun).

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