Wakan meihitsu kingyoku gafu 和漢名筆金玉画府

FSC-GR-780.635.1-6

Commentary by Yamamoto Yukari

Posted December 11, 2017

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

In Wakan meihitsu kingyoku gafu (Celebrated Japanese and Chinese brushes: Kingyoku’s painting album) Tsukioka Settei presents a selection of Japanese and Chinese paintings. [1] The first five volumes include examples of both styles. Volume 6 reproduces Settei’s painting treatise Secrets of Portraiture (Jinbutsu ketsu 人物訣) with illustrations. The contents of each respective volume is indicated on the title slip and in the table of contents. Volumes 1 and 2 depict kanga 漢画 (Chinese painting) and volumes 3 to 5 waga 和画 (Japanese painting). Volume 6 is described as a “supplement” (furoku 附録).

The two volumes on Chinese painting record the names of the painters and their works; they also include smaller versions of their representative works. For example, illustrations in volume 1 show the famous view of the Orchid Pavilion (蘭亭) by Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (303–361; J: Ō Gishi) or the well-known image of a true parrot on a plum tree by Lu Ji 呂紀 (1477–?; J: Ryoki) (vol. 1; pp. 8–9 and 20–21 on the website, respectively). Volume 1 has sixteen illustrations of masterworks, while volume 2 has twelve.

The three volumes dedicated to Japanese painting show Japanese painters and smaller scale copies of their representative works. Volume 3 includes eighteen works by painters such as Sesshū Tōyō and Kano Tan’yū 狩野探幽 (1602–1674), with celebrated works such as the Bodhiharma and the demon queller Shōki by Sesshū Tōyō 雪舟等楊 ( 1420–1506) on the first illustrated double-page opening and a Zen monk by Soga Jasoku 曽我蛇足 (d. 1483) on the third. Volume 4 features fourteen works by artists ranging from Kano Motonobu 狩野元信 (1476–1559) to Hanabusa Itchō 英一蝶 (1652–1724); volume 5 depicts twenty masterworks by various artists from Tan’yū to Tosa Mitsunobu 土佐光信 (1434–1525). The majority of the paintings in the waga volumes are in fact examples of Chinese-style painting (kanga 漢画) but there are also examples of Japanese artistic lineages, including Yamato-e (大和絵) and genre painting (fūzokuga 風俗画) by members of the Tosa school. Settei’s skill in rendering these renowned paintings in a smaller scale is demonstrated throughout, making this an excellent painting manual (edehon) filled with powerful imagery.

Volume 6 elucidates the salient points of Settei’s treatise Secrets of Portraiture and the attention required in the depiction of human figures. This text conveys the sense of professional pride by an artist who achieved authoritative status for his “pictures of beautiful women” (bijinga).

書名　　　金玉画府
執筆者山本ゆかり

月岡雪鼎が著した全六巻から成る画譜。内容は巻一から巻五が和漢の名画集で、巻六に雪鼎による人物画の画論が収められている。内訳は巻一と巻二が中国絵画、巻三から巻五が日本絵画で構成され、題簽と目録には巻一・二が「漢画」、巻三から巻五が「和画」、巻六が「補遺（目録では「附録」）」とある。

「漢画」の巻には中国の絵師名と作品名が挙げられ、該当する作品の縮図が載せられる。例えば「王羲之筆　蘭亭図」「呂記筆　梅にいんこ」などで、絵は墨摺で大きく、巻一には十六作品、巻二には十二作品の中国絵画の縮図が収められる。

「和画」を載せる三巻分には日本の絵師名が挙げられ、同様にその絵師の作品の縮図で構成される。例えば巻三には「雪舟等楊筆　達磨・鍾馗」「曽我蛇足筆　禅僧」などが挙げられ、雪舟から狩野探幽まで十八作品が掲載される。巻四は狩野元信から英一蝶まで十四作品、巻五には探幽から土佐光信まで二十作品が収められている。「和画」の巻は日本の漢画が中心であるが、なかには土佐派などのやまと絵や風俗画の縮図もある。図はいずれも力強く、縮図を作成した雪鼎の筆力が発揮された優れた絵手本となっている。

巻六に著された「人物訣」と題された雪鼎の画論には、人物画を描くにあたっての留意事項や心得が絵とともに説かれており、美人画で一家を成した絵師の自負の思いが伝わってくる。

Selected readings:
Yamamoto Yukari 山本ゆかり, Kamigata fūzokuga no kenkyū『上方風俗画の研究』(Tokyo: Geika Shoin, 2010), 118–20, 152–53.

Copies in other collections:
Kanazawa City Library, Kanazawa
University of California, Los Angeles
Kansai University Library, Osaka
National Diet Library, Tokyo
Nagoya University
Niigata University
Ryukoku University, Kyoto
Sumiyoshi Shrine, Osaka
Tsu City Library, Mie Prefecture