English | 中文
Inscription
Chinese poem by the Tang dynasty literati Bo Juyi (772-846) entitled Twenty Rhymes composed for the strange and unequaled Taihu rock sent by Li Suzhou, followed by a Chinese colophon - Painted in the late autumn of gengchen year (1880), with the poetic intention of Bai Letian (Bo Juyi), and in the fourth hour written under the southern window of hanxuelou (House of Containing Snow) for the elegant enjoyment of Wusanweng.
Signed Rozan An Yo [Chinese: Loshan An Yang], with four seals:
[in Japanese] Nihon Yasu Rozan shoga no in (Japan Yasu Rozan book and painting seal), Banri-o (courtesy name),
[in Chinese] Yun shan wo shi (cloud and mountain are my teachers),
Ting che zuo ai feng lin wan, shuang ye hong yu er yue hua (I stop my carriage and sit in appreciation of the maple grove in twilight; the frost-covered leaves are redder than the spring flowers. - Two verses excerpted from a poem written by Tang dynasty poet Du Mu (803-852)
Artist Bio
Born 1830 in Mino, Yasuda Rozan did not adopt his father's medical career and instead traveled to Nagasaki to study literati painting under Hidaka Tetsuo (1791-1871) and Xu Yuting (1824-?). Disguised as a Chinese merchant, he traveled to Shanghai in early 1867, becoming one of the first Japanese artists to study art techniques in China, a dangerous undertaking since he could have been executed for defying the exclusionary policies of Shogunate rule. In Shanghai, he committed himself to his studies with Hu Gongshou (1823-1886), soon becoming his top disciple. After six years of study, Rozan returned to Japan in 1873 (Meiji 6) where he achieved almost instantaneous acclaim and wealth in Tokyo as one of the most important painters of the early Meiji period, even requested to paint in front of the Meiji emperor. After his early death in 1883, at the age of 53, his reputation eventually began to diminish due to the nationalistic fervor beginning to permeate Japanese society in the Taisho and early Showa eras. His works were criticized for their 'contemporary Chinese style' partially derived from the Shanghai school (Haipai) with its bold, casual quality. Still a figure of controversy, Rozan's paintings have recently been the subject of reassessment by numerous scholars of Japanese literati painting in Japan and the West.
Literature
Paul Berry, "The Meeting of Chinese and Japanese Literati: Hu Gongshou, Yasuda Rozan, and the Controversy over National Style," in Literati Modern Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan: The Terry Welch at the Honolulu Academy of Arts," by Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka (Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2008), pp. 16-27.
Joshua A. Fogel, "Lust for Still Life: Chinese Painters in Japan and Japanese Painters in China in the 1860s and 1870s," in Acquistion: Art and Ownership in Edo-Period Japan, edited by Elizabeth Lillehoj (Warren, CT.: Floating World Editions, Inc., 2007), pp. 149-168.
Museum Collection
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Honolulu Museum of Art
Poem by Bo Juyi (772-846) in the inscription
《奉和思黯相公以李蘇州所寄太湖石奇狀絕倫因題二十韻見示，兼呈夢得》
錯落複崔嵬，蒼然玉一堆。峰駢仙掌出，罅坼劍門開。
峭頂高危矣，盤根下壯哉。精神欺竹樹，氣色壓亭台。
隱起磷磷狀，凝成瑟瑟胚。廉棱露鋒刃，清越扣瓊瑰。
岌嶪形將動，巍峨勢欲摧。奇應潛鬼怪，靈合蓄雲雷。
黛潤沾新雨，斑明點古苔。未曾棲鳥雀，不肯染塵埃。
尖削琅玕筍，窪剜瑪瑙罍。海神移碣石，畫障簇天臺。
在世為尤物，如人負逸才。渡江一葦載，入洛五丁推。
出處雖無意，升沉亦有媒。拔從水府底，置向相庭隈。
對稱吟詩句，看宜把酒杯。終隨金礪用，不學玉山頹。
疏傅心偏愛，園公眼屢回。共嗟無此分，虛管太湖來。
Chinese poem by the Tang dynasty literati Bo Juyi (772-846) entitled Twenty Rhymes composed for the strange and unequaled Taihu rock sent by Li Suzhou, followed by a Chinese colophon - Painted in the late autumn of gengchen year (1880), with the poetic intention of Bai Letian (Bo Juyi), and in the fourth hour written under the southern window of hanxuelou (House of Containing Snow) for the elegant enjoyment of Wusanweng.
Signed Rozan An Yo [Chinese: Loshan An Yang], with four seals:
[in Japanese] Nihon Yasu Rozan shoga no in (Japan Yasu Rozan book and painting seal), Banri-o (courtesy name),
[in Chinese] Yun shan wo shi (cloud and mountain are my teachers),
Ting che zuo ai feng lin wan, shuang ye hong yu er yue hua (I stop my carriage and sit in appreciation of the maple grove in twilight; the frost-covered leaves are redder than the spring flowers. - Two verses excerpted from a poem written by Tang dynasty poet Du Mu (803-852)
Artist Bio
Born 1830 in Mino, Yasuda Rozan did not adopt his father's medical career and instead traveled to Nagasaki to study literati painting under Hidaka Tetsuo (1791-1871) and Xu Yuting (1824-?). Disguised as a Chinese merchant, he traveled to Shanghai in early 1867, becoming one of the first Japanese artists to study art techniques in China, a dangerous undertaking since he could have been executed for defying the exclusionary policies of Shogunate rule. In Shanghai, he committed himself to his studies with Hu Gongshou (1823-1886), soon becoming his top disciple. After six years of study, Rozan returned to Japan in 1873 (Meiji 6) where he achieved almost instantaneous acclaim and wealth in Tokyo as one of the most important painters of the early Meiji period, even requested to paint in front of the Meiji emperor. After his early death in 1883, at the age of 53, his reputation eventually began to diminish due to the nationalistic fervor beginning to permeate Japanese society in the Taisho and early Showa eras. His works were criticized for their 'contemporary Chinese style' partially derived from the Shanghai school (Haipai) with its bold, casual quality. Still a figure of controversy, Rozan's paintings have recently been the subject of reassessment by numerous scholars of Japanese literati painting in Japan and the West.
Literature
Paul Berry, "The Meeting of Chinese and Japanese Literati: Hu Gongshou, Yasuda Rozan, and the Controversy over National Style," in Literati Modern Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan: The Terry Welch at the Honolulu Academy of Arts," by Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka (Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2008), pp. 16-27.
Joshua A. Fogel, "Lust for Still Life: Chinese Painters in Japan and Japanese Painters in China in the 1860s and 1870s," in Acquistion: Art and Ownership in Edo-Period Japan, edited by Elizabeth Lillehoj (Warren, CT.: Floating World Editions, Inc., 2007), pp. 149-168.
Museum Collection
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Honolulu Museum of Art
Poem by Bo Juyi (772-846) in the inscription
《奉和思黯相公以李蘇州所寄太湖石奇狀絕倫因題二十韻見示，兼呈夢得》
錯落複崔嵬，蒼然玉一堆。峰駢仙掌出，罅坼劍門開。
峭頂高危矣，盤根下壯哉。精神欺竹樹，氣色壓亭台。
隱起磷磷狀，凝成瑟瑟胚。廉棱露鋒刃，清越扣瓊瑰。
岌嶪形將動，巍峨勢欲摧。奇應潛鬼怪，靈合蓄雲雷。
黛潤沾新雨，斑明點古苔。未曾棲鳥雀，不肯染塵埃。
尖削琅玕筍，窪剜瑪瑙罍。海神移碣石，畫障簇天臺。
在世為尤物，如人負逸才。渡江一葦載，入洛五丁推。
出處雖無意，升沉亦有媒。拔從水府底，置向相庭隈。
對稱吟詩句，看宜把酒杯。終隨金礪用，不學玉山頹。
疏傅心偏愛，園公眼屢回。共嗟無此分，虛管太湖來。