Label Text:
Born in Kanazawa, Kishi Ganku was a prolific painter known for his paintings of tigers during the late Edo period. As a teenager, he had begun to study new painting styles both by Nanga artists, who worked in styles inspired by Chinese literati painting, and by Maruyama-Shijō artists, who fused ink painting techniques with realistic rendering. Kishi moved to Kyoto in his early twenties and soon received attention from noble patrons.
This delicate portrait in color, dated in the inscription represents the early style of this artist. It depicts Lord Guan Yu—a legendary third-century Chinese general famous for his valor, righteousness, and loyalty—sitting on a chair and looking to the side. His imposing appearance is based on Chinese folk imagery, which often shows the general with his characteristic features: a pink face, a confident gaze, and a long, flowing beard.
Above the portrait is a five-character, eight-line poem that praises Lord Guan’s military prowess and noble virtue, which were particularly venerated by Japanese samurai warriors. This poem was quoted from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a famous work of fiction in Ming and Qing China. The inscriber, Mawatari Gouki of the Satsuma prefecture, must have been familiar with the story associated with this poem, in which Lord Guan spared the enemy Cao Cao because he wished to show gratitude to his previous benefactor even if they met as rivals on the battlefield. Lord Guan appeared in narrative and theatrical arts and was worshiped as the god of war in China. In Edo Japan, Guan became not only a famous character in literature and kabuki theater, but also a popular subject of screen paintings, woodblock prints, and netsuke carvings.
F. Zhang
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1917.3.13 |
