Soga Shōhaku
Mid-Edo Period (18th century)
Donated by Homma Yūsuke
This picture scroll is meant to conjure up the imagery of the 12th/13th century Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, a famous set of four picture scrolls featuring frolicking animals. It portrays whimsical scenery, characters, and flora and fauna, including sumo matches between octopi and frogs. Also featured are various parrots situated on a Burmese rosewood. Shōhaku’s art tends to feature his particular eccentricities, and this painting is overflowing with humor and adorable character. It serves as a charming way to see an unexpected side of Shōhaku.
Soga Shōhaku (1739-81) is said to have been born into a merchant family in Kyoto. He also went by the name of Teruo, and also used the sobriquet Dasoku Ken. He studied art under the tutelage of Takada Keiho of the Kyoto branch of the Kanō School. He also went by the title of Dazoku the 10th, proclaiming himself an artistic descendent of the Soga School, which had been active in ink wash painting hundreds of years earlier during the Muromachi era. The eerie expressiveness of his character work and his intense sense of color, coupled with anecdotes of his atypical personality, allow Shōhaku to stand out as an individualistic painter.