roukaku sansui　楼閣山水

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Ch: louge shanshui. A type of painted landscape composed by combining a multi-story tower or viewing pavilion with natural scenic elements. One of the earliest known examples is the 706 wall painting from the tomb of Prince Yide (Jp: Itoku い徳) in Shanxi 陝西 province. The subject gained popularity in the Northern Song dynasty. In the Linquan Gaozhi (Jp: RINSEN KOUCHI 林泉高致, Lofty Message of Forests and Streams; ca 1117) the painter Guo Xi (Jp: Kaku Ki 郭煕, act. early 11c) wrote that the presence of a high tower in a landscape indicates a famous scenic spot. Whether in monochromatic ink painting or in the so-called Chinese blue and green landscapes *seiryoku sansui 青緑山水, the architectural structures are usually painted in the miniaturist techinque of fine-line drawing (see *kaiga 界画). The theme continued to be depicted through the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was adopted by Japanese artists in the Muromachi period and thouse of the later *nanga 南画 school. While most often of imaginary or unspecified locations, some depictions feature actual identifiable structures. For instance, the Yueyanglou (Jp: Gakuyourou 岳陽楼), a tower in Hunan 湖南 province that offered a famous view over Lake Dongting 洞庭, has been painted since the Song dynasty and was rendered by Japanese artists including Ike no Taiga 池大雅 (1723-76; Tokyo National Museum).

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