Tessai, Tomioka said, “Read a thousand books and walk a thousand miles.” He was an educated Edo man, born in 1836. He studied with the artists of the Bunjin-ga, literati painters. He was also a calligrapher of merit. He usually wrote on his paintings and expected people to read his writing before looking at his painting. He lived all the way thru the long Meiji Era, a time of great change. By the time he died the average Japanese could not read his writing. It had become archaic.
I was lucky to attend an exhibition of his paintings at the National Museum of Modern Art, the one near Takebasi, in 1997. the paintings were wonderful as were the English translations of the titles. My favorite made me laugh out loud was for a paintings of dozens and dozens of men talking , “Meeting of Hermits.” Where I come from hermits don’t have meetings. Different cultures.
This painting is based on one of the titles, Dong-po Giving Three Lessons to his Maidservants. I put Dong-po in Yanaka, at the top of the Fuji-mi-zaka hill. I hope he and Tessai will forgive me. These sorts of things happen when yo are locked in avoiding the virus.
1997, hard to believe it has been 23 years ago I attended that exhibition. Ill be as archaic as Tessai’s writing soon.
