Japanese Art and the Aesthetics of Maruyama Ōkyo
Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795) was highly innovative in his use of artistic media, leaving a significant mark on the Japanese art scene during the Edo period. He blended influences from traditional Japanese aesthetics, Chinese (Middle Kingdom) artistic principles, and his limited exposure to Western art.”
The MET Museum says (art above), “This painting was created in the tenth month of the lunar calendar—at the beginning of winter, when maple trees begin their transformation to brilliant crimson. Deer in Japanese poetry are connected with autumn, and these were painted with exacting detail; the texture of the fur has an almost tactile quality. The use of trees to frame the image echoes Kano-school conventions, while foliage and river elements reflect the ink-mottling technique (tarashikomi) used by Rinpa artists. The realism of the scene would have been a novelty to audiences at the time, but Maruyama Ōkyo handled the arrangement with subtlety. Contrasting this work with deer paintings by Yosa Buson (1716–1783) in the Literati mode allows us to see how radically Ōkyo departed from the idea of brushwork as the primary method of expression.”
His life followed a natural progression from his farming roots to studying under the renowned Ishida Yutei. Like his mentor, he embraced an eclectic approach to art.
Maruyama Ōkyo specialized in close observation of nature, drawing heavily on the traditions of Chinese bird-and-flower painting, which he fused with distinctly Japanese aesthetics.
The Cleveland Museum of Art says, “Okyo was the most influential painter and teacher of his time in Kyoto. His mastery of brush and ink found expression in a variety of Chinese and Japanese subjects, painting styles, and formats. This depiction of a heron on a willow branch is done in a classical Japanese painting (yamato-e) style, utilizing flat areas of colorful pigments set against an expansive background with little or no spatial depth.”
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