Description
Book SynopsisFocuses on short-story small scrolls (ko-e), one of the most complex but visually appealing forms of early Japanese painting. This book offers an examination of Tosa Mitsunobu's extensive and underappreciated body of artistic achievements.
Trade Review"McCormick has demonstrated tremendous originality in interpreting the background to each individual work, and her writing brims with the spirit of an author breaking new territory. . . . a remarkable vision of Muromachi culture . . ."
-- Masahiko Aizawa * Monumenta Nipponica *
"I found her combination of visual and literary analysis to be brilliant, bringing the various scrolls alive and resonant in the way the stories alone were not . . . This book would be a valuable additional to the libraries of all concerned with Japanese literary and visual arts."
-- Donald F. McCallum * Journal of Japanese Studies *
"… it is very welcome that Melissa McCormick has developed a full monograph to an early member of the bloodline-cum-atelier of the Tosa School…. Few works of Japanese art have been subjected to such close readings in English, and this … set of studies deserves to be widely used."
* Art Bulletin *
"This book, beautifully designed and illustrated, is indispensable for any student or scholar of Japanese art, literature, and culture. Summing up: Essential."
* Choice *
Table of ContentsNote to Readers
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION: THE SMALL SCROLL AND JAPANESE PICTORIAL NARRATIVE
1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF SMALL SCROLLS
Fourteenth-Century Examples
Large Scrolls and Short Narratives
A Theory of the Short-Story Small Scroll
Short-Story Small Scrolls in the Fifteenth Century
The Visual Language of Short-Story Small Scrolls
Small Scrolls as "Picture Books" for Children
Smallness in Late Medieval Culture
2 THE CULTURAL MILIEU OF SANJONISHI SANETAKA AND TOSA MITSUNOBU
The Reception of Miracles of the Kasuga Deity
Mitsunobu, Painting Bureau Director
Poetry Gatherings and Artistic Projects
Buddhist Icons, Mortuary Portraits, and the Court Artist
Mitsunobu, Sanetaka, and the Collaborative Process
Clouds of Mt. Koya: A Small Scroll by Mitsunobu and Sanetaka
3 A WAKEFUL SLEEP: PAINTING THE DREAM TALE
A Muromachi Period Dream Tale
Reworking the Courtly Romance in Text and Image
Visualizing a Karmic Bond
The Female Protagonist and the Romantic Ideal
A Wakeful Sleep and Aristocratic Marriage
4 THE JIZO HALL: A PICTORIAL REBIRTH
The Scroll and the Story
Combinatory Logic
The Shadow Protagonist
An Imperial Painting
5 BREAKING THE INKSTONE: AN ACOLYTE TALE FOR A YOUNG SHOGUN
The Pictorial Language of Breaking the Inkstone
Breaking the Inkstone as an Acolyte Tale
Yoshizumi and Hosokawa Masamoto
Masamoto, Mountains, and Magic
Breaking the Inkstone and Bonds between Men
Epilogue
Appendix: Translations
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
