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 Maruyama Okyo
(Japan, 1733-95)
Puppies among
Bamboo in the Snow;
Landscape in Snow
1784 Two six-panel screens, ink and light color on paper
Each: 64 x 140 in.
Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch Fund, M.58.9.1-.2
Maruyama Okyo was a master at
depicting snow, using the sotoguma (outside shading)
technique of applying ink and washes around areas of blank paper
to give the effect of white drifts. Okyo's paintings of
puppies were extremely popular. Puppies gamboling in the snow
were one of the pleasing sights of the New Year in Japan, and
this painting may have been placed on display either during a
dog year in the East Asian zodiacal cycle, or it could have been
commissioned by someone born in a dog year. The other screen in
the pair, Landscape in Snow, shows Lake Biwa, renowned for its
natural beauty. For its native themes and landscape and its
exclusion of any trace of Chinese influence, this pair of
screens is considered to be in Okyo's most
"Japanese" style. The types of brushstrokes Okyo
employed differ from those in Chinese literati painting, in
which the brush is held in the upright manner used to create
calligraphy, the highest art. Okyo wielded his brush in any
manner suited to creating a naturalistic impression. This set
him at odds with many painting masters of his time, but it also
made him one of the most influential artists of the eighteenth
century.
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