White Plum Blossoms and Moon

One patch of white resembles snow. Plum blossoms are alone, Unknown even to spring. Spring, second month, Year of the Boar, fifth year of the Horeki era [1755] —Jakuchū Kin

In the stillness of a moonlit night stands an old plum tree in bloom; white flowers fill the dark sky. Except for the unpainted full moon, the entire background is dark gray. The tree branches are a darker gray, with occasional touches of green for the clinging moss and dabs of brown for the knobby hollows. Petals are white, pistils and stamens yellow.

Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800), who painted this extraordinary, dreamlike scroll, was the eldest of the Three Eccentrics of the Edo period, the others being Rosetsu and Shōhaku (cat. nos. 118, 121). Jakuchū was less outrageous in his behavior and in the expression of his talent than the other two artists, and his reputation as an eccentric seems to have been based on his tendency to combine incompatible elements in his paintings—realism, for example, with brilliant color and decorative abstraction.

Jakuchū was the eldest son of a wholesale grocer at Nishikikōji, Kyoto, the bustling section of the old city where vegetable and fish markets still operate.[1] Much of what we know about his life is found in the Tō Keiwa gaki (Notes on Paintings by Tō Keiwa), written by his religious mentor, the monk-poet Daiten Kenjō (1719–1801) of Shōkokuji.[2] According to Daiten's account, Tō Keiwa (a name Jakuchū often used) as a young man disliked studying and was not a good calligrapher He did, however, have a talent for painting. Jakuchū inherited the family business and ran it for more than fifteen years after the death of his father in 1738. During this period he seems to have developed an interest in Buddhism, becoming a disciple and friend of Daiten, whose artist friends included the painter Taiga (cat. nos. 157–159). The name by which he is best known, Jakuchū (Like the Void), was given to him by Daiten; he combined it with the lay title koji.

Jakuchū is believed to have studied painting initially with a minor master of the Kano school, Ōoka Shunboku (1680–1763), who is known primarily for his books with woodblock reproductions of Chinese and Japanese paintings, including many in the Shōkokuji collection.[3] Much has been made of the fact that the early works of Jakuchū are in the Kano-school tradition, which valued the study of early masters above individual expression. His originality, according to this argument, was the result of his rebellion against this discipline.[4] Nevertheless, he appears to have benefitted enormously from the old masters, both Chinese and Japanese.[5] Indeed, Jakuchu's bird-and-flower paintings, often densely packed, two-dimensional, and bursting with brilliantly contrasting colors, are reminiscent of this genre as painted by artists of Ming China, or even as they were mass-produced for a broader market.

The earliest date inscribed on a painting by Jakuchū is 1752. Two years later, he persuaded his younger brother Hakusai to take over the family business so that he could devote himself to painting. Focusing his attention on the natural world, Jakuchū began his career by painting birds, wildflowers, and shellfish—humble subjects that had never been considered important enough for the painter's brush. No doubt the time he spent as a youth in the lively markets of Kyoto contributed in part to his aesthetic, but as was the case for many artists of the eighteenth century, exposure to Chinese and European books on botany, zoology, and mineralogy—only recently made available in Japan—was even more significant. The effect in Jakuchū's paintings of the juxtaposition of realistic detail and two-dimensional, strongly decorative pattern is somewhat like that of the paintings of Kōrin (cat. nos. 132, 133). At the same time, his work is livelier, with an emotional power not found in the more straightforward style of the realist painter Maruyama Ōkyo (cat. no. 115).

About 1757, Jakuchū launched an ambitious project to paint a set of large hanging scrolls-thirty paintings of flowers, birds, and fish, and three more on Buddhist themes. The paintings were donated to Shōkokuji, which in 1889 presented all but the Buddhist triad to the imperial family. Twenty years after that project he undertook a large sculpture commission for Sekihōji, south of Kyoto. Following the great fire of 1788 in Kyoto, which left him penniless, Jakuchū opened a studio. There, with the help of assistants, he produced many paintings—mostly in ink monochrome—in an attempt to recover his financial losses.[6] Jakuchū worked with great energy until his death, at the age of eighty-four, in 1800.

Jakuchū's own inscription dates White Plum Blossoms and Moon to 1755, less than a year after he left the family business. In the painting he combines a fairly naturalistic description of the blossoming flowers with decorative distortions, such as the odd knots on the trunk and the exaggerated curves of the branches. Jakuchū depicts the blossoms at their most exuberant moment, concentrating on the energy of nature itself. Earlier Muromachi ink painters, by contrast, had attempted to convey the symbolic purity traditionally associated with the flower.

At least two more, nearly identical paintings of plum blossoms by Jakuchū are known, including one in the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Tokyo.[7] The Burke painting is the earliest example, and it must have served as the model for later versions.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] On the life of Jakuchū, see Hickman and Satō Yasuhiro 1989, pp. 16–32. The present entry is indebted to this study.
[2] Reprinted in Tsuji Nobuo 1974, p. 241.
[3] Hickman and Satō Yasuhiro 1989, p. 35.
[4] See, for example, Kano Hiroyuki 1984, pp. 116–20.
[5] Tsuji Nobuo 1974; Satō Yasuhiro 1981, pp. 18–34; and Hickman and Satō Yasuhiro 1989, pp. 33–81.
[6] Kobayashi Tadashi 1972a, pp. 3–19. Jakuchū may have had at least four assistants. See Kano Hiroyuki 1993, p. 313.
[7] Mizuo Hiroshi 1968, p. 35.

Inscription: "Heian Koji Jakuchu Kin Sei"; dated to "spring, second month, fifth year of the Horeiki era" [1755].

Marking: Seals: Jokin; Toshi Keiwa; Shutsu Shin'i oite hatto no uchi.

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.

Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.

Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," July 13, 1985–August 11, 1985.

Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.

Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.

Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.

New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan I," March 1–September 21, 2003.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II," March 22–September 21, 2003.

Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," July 5, 2005–August 19, 2005.

Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 4, 2005–December 11, 2005.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," January 24, 2006–March 5, 2006.

Miho Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 15, 2006–June 11, 2006.

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. "Through the Seasons: Japanese Art in Nature," June 7, 2008–October 18, 2008.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "The 300th Anniversary of his Birth: Jakuchū," April 22, 2016–May 24, 2016.

Kano Hiroyuki 狩野博幸. Jakuchū 若冲. Kyoto: Shikōsha, 1993, p. 65, cat. no. 40.

Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, cat. no. 99.

Murase, Miyeko. Through the Seasons: Japanese Art in Nature. Exh. cat. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2009, p. 72, pl. 3.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], pp. 350–351, cat. no. 428.

Kobayashi Tadashi 小林忠, and Ōta Aya 太田彩, eds. Jakuchū: seitan 300-nen kinen 若冲: 生誕300年記念 (Jakuchū: The 300th Anniversary of His Birth). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, [2016], p. 241, cat. no. 40.

Carpenter, John T. The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, pp. 124–25, fig. 39.