On Soga Shōhaku’s “Hanshan and Shide screens”

江崎, ゆかり, Ezaki, Yukari

From the meticulous and delicate rendering of the landscape to the depiction of the scroll and broom associated with Hanshan and Shide, Soga Shōhaku’s “Hanshan and Shide screens” is considered to be a unique example among the numerous paintings on this theme. However, to date, there has been no scholarship that discusses the idiosyncrasies of this painting.This paper examines the development of visual representations of “Hanshan and Shide” by comparing images of this theme to textual resources such as the “Hanshan’s Poetry”, Lu Jiuyin’s preface of the “Hanshan’s Poetry”, and inscriptions by Zen monks. This comparison questions the connections between text and image and looks at how Hanshan and Shide were visually interpreted. There are many extant inscriptions on Hanshan and Shide that reveal diverse images of the two fi gures,among them, an inscription by the Nanboku period Zen monk, Chūgan Engetsu. Focusing on Chūgan’s text, I demonstrate that Shōhaku appropriated the depictions of Hanshan and Shide from this source and incorporated it into his own painting.Besides text, I explore the relationship between Shōhaku’s “Hanshan and Shide screens” and the mid-Edo period Zen monk, Hakuin Ekaku’s Zenga （“Zen paintings”）. Scholars have discussed the infl uence of Hakuin’s paintings on Shōhaku’s works. For instance, they have pointed out the similarities in brushstroke between Shōhaku’s “The Four Sages of Mount Shang”, currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Hakuin’s “Daruma”. However, Hakuin’s paintings could have been just one of many visual sources that Shōhaku used.Based on the textual and visual sources above, my paper attempts to re-position Shōhaku’s “Hanshan and Shide screens” within the genre of Hanshan and Shide paintings.

On Soga Shōhaku’s “Hanshan and Shide screens”

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