Maruyama Okyo
A painter active in Kyoto in the mid-Edo period. He valued shasei, painting from careful observation of real things, and founded the Maruyama school, training many pupils. "Pine Trees in the Snow" at the Mitsui Memorial Museum is a National Treasure.
Maruyama Okyo was born in 1733 (Kyoho 18) into a farming family in Anao Village, Kuwata District, Tanba Province (now Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture). In his teens he went to Kyoto and studied under Ishida Yutei, of the Kano school lineage. In his youth he supported himself by painting megane-e, pictures that look three-dimensional when viewed through a lens, and so came into contact with Western perspective and shading.
Okyo valued above all shasei, drawing flowers, birds, insects, and animals from life, and left many sketchbooks. With the backing of Yujo, abbot of Enmanin in Otsu, he began to receive many commissions in his thirties. His manner of rendering natural forms as seen, tastefully arranged, was liked by the people of Kyoto, and outstanding pupils such as Nagasawa Rosetsu and Goshun gathered around him. The line came to be called the Maruyama school and continued into the Meiji era. "Bamboo in Rain and Wind" screens at Enkoji in Kyoto are also among his major works.
The Mitsui Memorial Museum's "Pine Trees in the Snow" screens show snow-laden pines on a gold ground. In the snow areas almost no paint is applied, and the white of the paper is used as it is. With only the gold ground and gradations of ink, he expressed the light of a winter morning and the weight of snow. Wall paintings by Okyo and his school also survive at Daijoji in Kami, Hyogo Prefecture, and at Kotohiragu in Kagawa Prefecture. He died in 1795 (Kansei 7). Daijoji is also called the "Okyo Temple."
