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Gallery Text

Shōhaku’s unconventional paintings, together with tales of his disheveled appearance and bizarre behavior, have made him one of the best-known "eccentric" painters of the Edo period. His unorthodox paintings were thought to be the product of a self-taught individualist, but he may in fact have trained with Takada Keiho (1674–1755), whose work is displayed nearby. Shōhaku employed extreme contrasts between light and dark, also used by Keiho, to create this surreal landscape populated by a lone scholar seated before the pavilion in the foreground, his face eerily blank. Shōhaku signed this work "Tenth Generation Jasoku," a reference to the painter Soga Jasoku. The prestigious Soga lineage evaporated in the 17th century, and there is no evidence of any link with Shōhaku, who also claimed association with the aristocratic Fujiwara house and even the first Ming emperor.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
TL42642.8
People
Soga Shōhaku 曾我蕭白, Japanese (Ise 1730 - 1781 Kyoto)
Title
Ink Landscape
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting, hanging scroll
Date
c. 1770–81
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
Period
Edo period, 1615-1868
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/340558

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2600, East Asian Art, East Asian Painting and Decorative Arts
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Hanging scroll; ink on silk
Dimensions
painting proper: H. 127.8 × W. 53.4 cm (50 5/16 × 21 in.)
overall mounting, including roller ends and suspension cord: H. 213.5 × W. 74.5 cm (84 1/16 × 29 5/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: 蛇足翁十世曾我蕭白 [Old- Man Jasoku, Tenth- Generation Soga Shōhaku]
  • seal: round, relief: 暉一 [Kiichi]

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
Object Number
TL42642.8
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, exh. cat., Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo, 2013), p. 134, cat. 64
  • Kit Brooks, "'A School unto Himself'? The Formation of Soga Shohaku (1730-81), Orientations (September 2015), vol. 46, no. 6, p. 108, fig. 5
  • Yukio Lippit, "An Interview with Japanese Painting Collectors Robert and Betsy Feinberg", Orientations, Orientations Magazine (Hong Kong, January/February 2020), vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 34-43, p. 43, fig. 10
  • Rachel Saunders and Yukio Lippit, Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, 2020), p. 65, fig. 54
  • Rachel Saunders, ed., Catalogue of the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 201-202, cat. 201

Exhibition History

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu