Current Location:
Shelf D4 (CS1) -> Box 12
Location Notes:
IDC; Compressed Shelving Unit 1; Section D; Shelf D4; Box 12

Scroll of Frolicking Animals

Artwork
Identifier:
2007.255.1
Artist:
Toba S j
Credit:
GVSU Collection
Medium:
Ink on Paper
Dimensions:
Artworks - Height: 4.5 in Width: 1.5 in
Note: 4.5h x 1.5w (rolled)
Description:
Monkeys, rabbits, frogs, and other animals, behaving as human beings. They are engaged in various merriment/activities such as swimming or grooming.
Historical Context:
Kozanji Monastery owns the Choju-giga, a set of four picture scrolls traditionally ascribed to the priest Kakuyu, more popularly known by his honorary title Toba Sojo. Unlike other scroll paintings the Kozanji scrolls do not have any text inscribed but consist entirely of black monochrome pictures, drawn in a free and animated style. Each scroll deals with different subjects. The first scroll depicts monkeys, hares, frogs, etc. behaving as human beings engaged in various merriments; the second shows other birds and beasts; the third deals with priests and laymen enjoying various sports in the first half, and with animals mimicking their behavior in the second half; the fourth scroll, like the first half of the third scroll, shows clerics and laymen playing games of performing rituals. The first and second scroll are decidedly by the same artist, while the first and second halves of the third and fourth scroll reveal different styles, probably indicating different artists. The first two scrolls are the best among them in their vivacity and easy, flowing brush strokes. Similarity of the style of brushwork to that of Buddhist images and scroll-paintings of the Fujiwara Period indicates that the first two scrolls were painted in the twelfth century. The other two scrolls are believed to have been added early in the Kamakura period of the thirteenth century. These scrolls have traditionally been ascribed to Kakuyu, a noted priest---painter who died in 1140, but they can not all have been done by a single artist as indicated above. Presumably, however, the first two scrolls date from approximately the lifetime by a professional painter working for a Buddhist monastery. The later scrolls also must have been done by a similar artist judging from the subject matter which is chiefly Buddhist priests or matters relating to Buddhism. There are many different theories regarding the interpretation of these pictures. It is generally believed that the cartoons of monkeys, frogs, and other animals in the first scroll and second half of the third scroll mean to satirize decadent social and religious forms of the eventful transitional epoch between the ancient and Middle Ages of Japan. The scenes of humorous and not very decent games in the first half of the third scroll and in the fourth scroll may be understood as reflecting the fin-de-siecle- atmosphere of the time.

Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus Terms:
drawings
ink
works on paper