@article{oai:icu.repo.nii.ac.jp:00004296,
 author = {ウィルソン, リチャード and 小笠原, 佐江子},
 issue = {47},
 journal = {人文科学研究 : キリスト教と文化},
 month = {Mar},
 note = {A revolutionary ceramic product, one that looked more like a painting than a 
pot, made its debut in Kyoto in the opening years of the eighteenth century. 
These rectilinear dishes and trays were decorated with monochrome painting, 
poetic inscriptions, and personal signatures. The designer and frequently the 
calligrapher for these works, Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), understood the codes of 
poetry, painting, and writing that had evolved in China and Japan. His 
knowledge was mediated by the reproduction of those codes in contemporary 
painting and especially in illustrated literature. His products were functional 
ceramics, which means that these images had now migrated from the tokonoma 
to the tatami, so to speak; at the same time, the decidedly “non-ceramic” shapes 
and impromptu painting-poetry provided the work with a performative aura 
that resonated with the consumers, specifically that segment of the population 
who, from the 1680s, had begun to learn Chinese and use it in their pastimes.
　This article is the first of two installments that survey this genre of Kenzan 
ware, hich the authors call the “gasan” style after the Chinese expression for 
inscribed aintings, or hua zan. Kenzan-ware gasan ceramics from the Narutaki 
(1699-1712) and Nijo-Shogoin workshops (1712-mid-18th century) are the focus. 
Judging from the number of surviving works, the style was remarkably popular, 
and it came to be mass produced at Shogoin, first under Kenzan himself and 
then under his adopted son and successor Ogata Ihachi (dates unknown).
　This installment on Kenzan-ware gasan treats landscape, human figures, and 
animal subjects. The article begins by reviewing the Chinese locus classicus for 
the combined arts of poetry, painting, and calligraphy, with special attention to 
the way in which this synthesis articulated the values of the scholar-official class. 
A discussion of the appropriation of that tradition in Japan follows.
　In the data section, surviving works and archaeological specimens are 
studied in terms of their inscriptions, including sources and meanings, and 
painted decoration, including styles and lineages. Landscape themes are the 
most numerous, and they divide into panoramic scenes descended from the Xiao 
and Xiang river tradition (J: Shosho hakkei) and close-up views of “pavilion 
landscapes” (J: Rokaku sansui). The former type, which occurs most frequently in 
Kenzan’s first decade of production, features full-length poems and rather 
detailed painting in the Kano style. The latter type, which is common to Kenzan’s 
later production and also the work of his adopted son Ogata Ihachi, typically 
features single-line excerpts and highly abbreviated, often amateurish painting.
　Figural themes constitute the second category. Here too the subject matter is 
orthodox, drawing from the Muromachi-based line of Chinese “saints and sages” 
that had become increasingly popularized in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. The poetic excerpts for this category are typically couplets, and the 
painting is either by or in the style of Ogata Korin (1658-1716). This approach is 
also limited to Kenzan’s first decade of production.
　The last category, animals, makes use of creatures associated with Buddhist 
or literati values; the wares are inscribed with couplets or one-line excerpts, and 
most of the painting is quite abbreviated. Wares decorated with animals appear 
at the end of Kenzan’s first decade of production, specifically in association with 
Korin, but they also appear in later work as well.
　For all three categories, the poetic inscriptions are taken from the Yuan-
dynasty anthology Shixue dacheng (J: Shigaku taisei) and its Ming successor Yuanji 
huofa (J: Enki kappo). Both of these collections enjoyed considerable popularity in 
Kenzan’s day.
　In selecting the poems for his pottery Kenzan exhibited a preference for those 
that had been originally composed as ti hua shi (J: daiga shi), that is, poems that 
were written upon the viewing of a painting. Those “versed” in the code of gasan 
could appreciate an experiential quality in such work. Yet, conversely, both the 
painting and poetry clearly access a well-developed archive of popular 
reproduction. Additionally, the lofty images of solitary and religious pursuits 
were now being employed in the decidedly communal and secular spaces of 
wining and dining. The appeal of Kenzan ware gasan must derive from these 
incongruities. In any case, with such a literary load Kenzan clearly diverted 
ceramic appreciation away from the materiality of the object to its “conception” 
(yi) embodying poetic traditions, thoughts of the maker, and the moment of 
execution.
　Assuming that Kenzan ware reached a broad public—which is increasingly 
validated by urban archaeology—and chose poetic excerpts and themes that 
would be recognized by that public, the ceramic works also document cultural 
literacy in the mid-Edo period. They show how an ever-growing consuming 
class could read and savor selections of poetry from the Tang, Song, Yuan and 
Ming dynasties together with painting. Basho and Chikamatsu wove the same 
verses into their haikai and joruri. A plethora of how-to books like Shirin ryozai 
(Handy materials for the world of poetry; 1684) ensured popular access to these 
quotations.
　Until quite recently (see vol. 35 of this journal), the poetry-painting synthesis 
in Kenzan ware was bypassed by researchers. The authors hope that this article 
will serve as a reference for understanding Kenzan’s distinctive appropriation of 
the gasan lineage and its reception in the mid-Edo period.},
 pages = {(1)--(127)},
 title = {乾山焼　画讃様式の研究（一）──山水・人物・禽獣──},
 year = {2016}
}