kinki shoga　琴棋書画

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

The four accomplishments celebrated by the Chinese scholar-literati elite as elegant pastimes : playing the qin (Jp; kin 琴); playing Chinese chess or qi (Jp: ki 棋); practicing calligraphy (Ch: shu, Jp: sho 書); and painting (Ch :hua, Jp: ga 画). They probably arrived in Japan in the 14c and, as a painting subject, were extremely popular. The painting by the Yuan period artist Ren Renfa (Jp: Nin Jinpatsu 任仁発) now in the Tokyo National Museum, probably typifies Chinese paintings of kinki shoga first known to Japanese. The earliest Japanese depiction is unknown, but according to the ZOKUSUI SHISHUU 続翠詩集, Kousei Ryouha 江西竜派 (1374-1446) inscribed a poem about kinki shoga on a painted fan. Among Muromachi period paintings, a pair of screens in the Ryoukouin 龍光院 and another attributed to Sesshuu 雪舟 (1420-1506) are well known. Large numbers of works exist from later times, including notable examples by *Kanouha 狩野派 painters Kanou Motonobu 狩野元信 (1543, Reiun-in 霊雲院), Kanou Eitoku 狩野永徳 (1556, Jukouin 聚光院), and Kanou Tan'yuu 狩野探幽 (Nagoyajou 名古屋城), as well as by Kaihou Yuushou 海北友松 (1599, Kenninji 建仁寺; etc.). Yuushou's many paintings of the theme sometimes feature Chinese court beauties accompanying the scholars or engaging in the four accomplishments themselves. As with many other Chinese themes in Japanese painting, the original values attached to kinki shoga paintings gradually diminished in this case to a generalized image of the scholar in nature. *Ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists created parodies *mitate-e 見立絵 of kinki shoga, typically with stylish courtesans in the place of Chinese scholars.

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