Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 16
June 21, 2005 (Tue) - July 31, 2005 (Sun)
Highly-detailed drawings of flora and fauna became fairly popular prior to the 18th century. However, the followers of artist Shen Nanpin (1682 - ?), who came to Japan from China, had a big effect on nature illustrations. Among the painting circles of the time the Nanpin school had a more refreshing style by focusing on realistic representations of items, in contrast to the dominant Kano school, which focused on students learning through copying. Thus, many of the works of the Kano school tend to be based on recreating sketches, instead of drawing objects as the really existed.
Originally, the images in a natural history album tended to focus on the scientific rather than artistic explanations - listing the location where it was found and other details. However, if one had a sketch of the real item and a copy of one from a natural history album or similar book, it would be possible to compare the like points and decide which was closer to the original. It is necessary to take into account things like use of pigments, presentation of details and notes.
The vast scope of this exhibition is derived from tracing the progression of natural history albums, mainly from towards the end of the Tokugawa shogunate through the Meiji period. As time passed and style of each school differed, it is possible to see the various developments in art while studying natural history.
Major works in this exhibition