Shibata Zeshin
"This is a True Artist"
Shibata Zeshin 柴田是真 (March 15, 1807 – July 13, 1891)
PROFILE
Known as the last master of surimono (privately commissioned prints, often commissioned by poetry clubs), Shibata was a prolific artist of many talents - an innovative lacquerer (having been called "Japan's greatest lacquer"), a woodblock print designer, a painter.[1] He won international acclaim with his lacquer works exhibited in the 1873 Vienna International Exposition, the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition and the 1899 Exposition Universelle in Paris.[2] As a painter, he was known as one of the most distinguished Shijō school painters. His woodblock print of two crows flying at sunset (shown below) is iconic in the kachō-e genre.
The word iki is often used in describing Zeshin’s work and can be “defined as the quality of being light and unconstrained, gallant but not obstinate, playful but never tiresome.”[3]
In 1890, a few months before his death, he was honored by being named Teishitsu Gigeiin (Artist to the Imperial Household.)[4]
[1] "Zeshin Redux", Orientations, Vol. 29, No. 2, Joe Earle, March, 2008, p. 136.
[2] An Exhibition of Prints, Paintings and Lacquer by Shibata Zeshin, 25June-9 July 1976, Milne Henderson (gallery), 1976, unpaginated.
[3] Zeshin: The Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection, Joe Earle and Sebastian Izzard, San Antonio Museum of Art, 2007, p. 15.
[4] Ibid, p. 14.
Prints in Collection
click on image for details
IHL Cat. #2044
Lacquer tray with objects and poems (surimono), January 1869 or January 1870
image: 7 5/8 x 20 5/16 in. (19.4 x 51.6 cm)
sheet: 7 5/8 x 20 7/8 in. (19.4 x 52.9 cm)
IHL Cat. #2041
Pine branches and poems (surimono), c. 1865-1880s
image: 4 1/16 x 10 11/16 in. (10.3 x 27.1 cm)
sheet: 4 1/4 x 10 13/16 in. (10.8 x 27.5 cm)
IHL Cat. #2043
Morning glory vine, pin cushion and poems (surimono),
August 1877
image: 6 5/8 x 10 3/16 in. (16.4 x 25.9 cm)
sheet: 6 7/8 x 10 11/16 in. (17.1 x 27.1 cm)
IHL Cat. #2042
Morning glory flowers, calligraphy brush and poems (surimono), c. 1865-1880s
image: 6 1/16 x 10 3/8 in. (15.4 x 26.4 cm)
sheet: 6 5/16 x 11 3/16 in. (16 x 28.4 cm)
IHL Cat. #2045
Illustration of Komatsu-hiki, 1891
image: 7 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. (19.7 x 11.4 cm)
sheet: 8 7/8 x 5 1/16 in. (22.5 x 12.9 cm)
IHL Cat. #2228
Wooden rice tub and nori from Shibata Zeshin Picture Book: Yamato Nishiki
c. 1880s
image: 6 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (17.1 x 24.1 cm)
sheet: 8 1/2 x 11 7/16 in. (21.6 x 29.1 cm)
IHL Cat. #2227
Two stacks of bamboo baskets and a spray of blue iris from Shibata Zeshin Picture Book: Yamato Nishiki, c. 1880s
image: 6 1/4 x 7 7/8 in. (16.5 x 20 cm)
sheet: 8 9/16 x 11 1/2 in. (21.7 x 29.2 cm)
IHL Cat. #2226
Bird resting on a bamboo carrying device from Shibata Zeshin Picture Book: Yamato Nishiki,
c. 1880s
image: 6 7/16 x 8 1/8 in. (16.4 x 20.6 cm)
sheet: 8 9/16 x 11 1/2 in. (21.7 x 29.2 cm)
IHL Cat. #2267
Three Crows Flying at Sunset, c. 1930s (orig. 1887/1888)
image: 9 1/2 x 10 1/8 in. (24.1 x 26 cm)
sheet:9 1/2 x 10 1/8 in. (24.1 x 26 cm)
BIOGRAPHY
And so this Zeshin, master craftsman with eye of genius for little things, was perfection.
Alan Priest, Curator of Far Eastern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Biography compiled primarily from the following sources: An Exhibition of Prints, Paintings and Lacquer by Shibata Zeshin, 25 June-9 July 1976, Milne Henderson (gallery), 1976; The Art of Shibata Zeshin: The Mr and Mrs James E O'Brien Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Mary Louise O'Brien, Martin Foulds, Howard A Link, Robert G Sawers PublishersZeshin: The Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection,” Joe Earle and Sebastian Izzard, San Antonio Museum of Art, 2007
Self-portrait, 1883
woodblock print
signed: Shibata Zeshin at the age of
seventy-six
source: Zeshin: The Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection,” Joe Earle and Sebastian Izzard, San Antonio Museum of Art, 2007, p. 16.
Zeshin, was born in the Ryōgoku district of Edo on February 7, 1807 with the given name Kametarō II. The family name, Shibata, came from his mother's family, into which his father, Ichigorō, agreed to be adopted to keep the Shibata family name alive, after marrying the Shibata's only daughter Masu. His father was a master carpenter, as was his father's father. It is said that Masu for a time was forced to work as a geisha after her family fell on hard times and that this instilled in her a desire to "live simply and to avoid distinctive attire, since class could be deduced immediately from a person's dress" a way of living that was passed on to her son and could be seen in Zeshin's manner of dress for the rest of his life.[1]
Zeshin's talent for painting was evident at a young age and at the age of 11 he was apprenticed to Koma Kansai II 古満寛哉 (1766–1835), a famous lacquerer with "special arrangements with the shogunal authorities for the production of sets of boxes and utensils necessary for important ceremonies and events" and a clientele drawn from a rising urban merchant class.[2] In 1822, at the age of 15, he studied for a short while with the innovative Edo based Shijō painter Suzuki Nanrei 鈴木南嶺 (1775–1844), specifically to improve his painting technique related to his lacquer work, who would later give him his art name (gō) Zeshin, meaning "this is [a] true [artist].[3]
In 1824 he met the famous ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (1798-1861), with whom he would develop a long friendship, sometimes working together as they did on a number of surimono during the Kai era (1847-1852).
At around the age of 20, Zeshin was confident enough to establish himself as an independent lacquer artist.
In 1830, Zeshin travelled to Kyoto to study with the famous Shijō painter Okamoto Toyohiko 岡本豊彦 (1773–1845), a former student of Suzuki Nanrei, who excelled in landscape painting and is credited with shaping Zeshin's future landscape paintings. Literature, poetry and the tea ceremony would also be part of his studies while in Kyoto, with haiku, seriously studied on his return to Edo, becoming a "life-long attachment."[4] During his time in Kyoto it is reported that he became a student of the famous Confucian scholar, historian and calligrapher Rai San'yō (1781-1832).
Returning to Edo in 1832, he would move into a house in the Asakusa District, where he would remain the rest of his life. Upon returning to Edo he would undertake extensive study of the great lacquer artists which included seven months of research in Kyoto. In Edo, he would actively court private commissions, the most famous being the 1840 painted votive panel, The Demoness (Kijō-zu), based on the legend of the Ibaraki Demoness, commissioned by the Tokyo Sugar Foundation and dedicated to the Tokyo's Ōji Inari Shrine. In 1934, almost 100 years after its creation, the painting was officially recognized as an Important Art Object by the Japanese government.[5]
The Demoness (Kijō-zu 鬼女)
color and gold on wood
64.17 x 87.4 in. (163 x 222 cm)
Depicting the moment the Ibaraki demoness flies off after taking back her arm sliced off by the samurai Watanabe no Tsuna.
About Lacquered Pieces
Works by Shibata Zeshin in the Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection
The wooden core of a lacquered piece undergoes a long process of shaping and seasoning to create a stable base, which is then impregnated with raw lacquer to make it waterproof. Craftsmen apply coat after coat of progressively refined urushi resin [a toxic substance] to the wood, carefully polishing the layers with increasingly refined abrasives and drying each layer, until the resin hardens into a shiny, impermeable shell. Often, the surface is painted with delicate designs in variously colored lacquers, sometimes to complement a relief carved into the base. Other times, a design is cut into the hardened layers of lacquer then filled with color or precious metal. In the style known as maki-e, an illustration is created by applying gold, silver, tin or mother of pearl in leaf, flake, or powder form. This is sprinkled over the decorative lacquer while it is still tacky to create an opulent metallic sheen.
sources: compiled from https://www.thejapaneseshop.co.uk/japanese-lacquer-work/ and "Rêves de laque, le Japon de Shibata Zeshin," Alain Truong
images source: http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2012/04/05/23935907.html
Candy container ( kashiki ) decorated with flowers. Lacquer on calabash. Decor in black and gold lacquer, highlights with mother-of-pearl inlays, lip imitating rosewood: 9.5 x 14.6. Around 1860-1890. Signed “Zeshin” in gold lacquer.
Stationery box ( ryōshibako ) decorated with the attributes of the Seven Gods of Happiness. Colored lacquer on wood. Decor in lacquer sprinkled with gold and black lacquer, highlights with mother-of-pearl inlays. 35.6 x 26.7 x 11.4cm. About 1860—1870. Signed “Zeshin” and initials, both incised.
