Painters' Letters

Kano Tanyu, Maruyama Okyo, Sakai Hoitsu and Tani Buncho are known as master painters of the Edo period. However, compared with their works and their names themselves, there have been few opportunities for their writings receive attention.

Daily writings are expendable. Ordinary letters, in particular, lose their significance once their contents have been delivered. Because of this, they are mostly destined to be discarded collectively at certain intervals or scattered and lost with time. Therefore, the fact that letters by these painters have been handed down through various owners who were not related to the writers and, many years after, have ended up in museum display cases must be beyond their writers' imagination.

Painters' letters, which allow readers to glimpse their daily lives, often reveal the fact that they did not live solely as painters. They were also poets and scholars who may be regarded as individuals with keen curiosity, who were endowed with many talents including - but not limited to - painting. Their letters are evidence of their real lives.

Portrayals of pre-modern painters often focus primarily on their works. In contrast, we hope that this exhibition of painters' letters will shed light on some aspects of their inner selves and help to enrich their personal profiles.