dodonaus in japanscenes on the kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear...

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D O D O N A U S IN JAPAN TRANSLATIONANDTHESCIENTIFIC1IND INTHETOKUGAWAPERIOD Edited by W.f: VandeWalle Co-editorKazuhi oKasaya LeuvenUniversityPress InternationalResearchCenterfor JapaneseStudies Kyoto "Reinterpretation of the Western Linear Perspective in Eighteenth- and Ninteenth-Century Japan: A Case of Cultural Translation," W.F. Vande Walle(ed.), Dodonaeus in Japan, Euven University Press, 2001, pp.149-165.

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Page 1: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

DODONAUS IN JAPAN

TRANSLATION AND THE SCIENTIFIC恥1IND

IN THE TOKUGAWA PERIOD

Edited by W.f: Vande Walle

Co-editor Kazuhi長oKasaya

Leuven University Press

International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto

"Reinterpretation of the Western Linear Perspective in Eighteenth- and Ninteenth-Century Japan: A Case of Cultural Translation," W.F. Vande Walle(ed.), Dodonaeus in Japan, Euven University Press, 2001, pp.149-165.

Page 2: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

VII

REINTERPRETATION OF THE

WESTERN LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

IN EIGHTEENTH-AND

NINETEENTH-CENTURYJAPAN:

A CASE OF CULTURAL TRANSLATION

Shigemi Inaga International Research Center for ]apanese Studies, Kyoto

"Reinterpretation of the Western Linear Perspective in Eighteenth- and Ninteenth-Century Japan: A Case of Cultural Translation," W.F. Vande Walle(ed.), Dodonaeus in Japan, Euven University Press, 2001, pp.149-165.

Page 3: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

Can the canon of one culture be translated into that of another with-

out violating the integrity of the criteria that govern the latter? Here is

a vital question pertaining to cultural translation. Let me take up the

case of Western linear perspective and its reinterpretation in Tokugawa

japan as a case study in the cultural translation of a canon in non-verbal communications. 1

In a sense the linear perspective was more than a technique, it was a

culture. For a long time, it represented, as a metaphor or a metonymy, Western science as a whole and incarnated the progress of modern

knowledge. By virtue of its monopoly of the pictorial plane in West-

ern academic education of the fine arts, its exclusive dominance as the unique grammar of architectural drawing, its rational determination and reduction of the three-dimensional space into two-dimensionality, its panopticonlike regime du regard, the linear perspective has occupied a position comparable to that of a kind of secularised monotheistic

theology. Symbol of advanced technology, the linear perspective was believed to be universally valid and served not only as the measurement

for the stage of psychological development of an individual, but also, in a larger context, as a sign of mental evolution and enlightenment of the

races and mankind. Thus the linear perspective spread hand in hand

with European expansion into the world. 2

However, this absolute criterion in spatial construction was gradu-ally to lose its supremacy over Western painting in the second half of

the nineteenth century. Curiously enough, this period coincided with the vogue of japanese art in Europe. It has been asserted that japa-

nese art served as a catalyst to Western artists by suggesting to them

a new type of pictorial plane free from the restraint of the academic linear perspective. However, this assertion overlooks the fact that the linear perspective had been introduced in japan in the second half of

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"Reinterpretation of the Western Linear Perspective in Eighteenth- and Ninteenth-Century Japan: A Case of Cultural Translation," W.F. Vande Walle(ed.), Dodonaeus in Japan, Euven University Press, 2001, pp.149-165.

Page 4: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

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REINTERPRETATION 01" TIIF WFSTFRN LINEAR PERSP!'仁川 口

the eighteenth century and was widely applied by uki)り -cprint design- 'J' [!i

ers.3 Here the problem of cultural translation can be raised. How did

the japanese craftsmen of the Tokugawa period (1600-1868)“trans-late" Western linear perspective? To which extent was this translation meaningful for the reconstruction of the pictorial plane and visual cul-

ture in Tokugawa japan as well as in the late nineteenth-century West? What was the contribution of this“translation" to the transformation of the space conception and configuration in the context of the cultural

exchange between East and West, as well as in terms of the formation of“九10dernistaesthetics"?

To answer these questions, let us briefly analyse the process of adap-tation of the linear perspective in Tokugawa japan. 01くull1ura~;1a", a- 引

nohu (1686-1764) appears to have claimed for himself the title of ini-tiator of the linear perspective (uki-c I~()ngen). Enjoying the Cool at ; J'七六日

Ryogoku-Bridge (代}'()g()ku!JushiylIsuzumi, ca. 1745) IILl・ 11,one of hisμγ

typical pieces, enables us to see Okumura's way of“understanding" . and applying a new technique from abroad. While faithfully imitating

the linear perspective in frontal projection to depict the interior space

in the foreground, Masanobu could not apply, or rather did not feel it necessary to apply the same principle to the exterior landscape, lying in the background. The popular quarter of Ryogoku-Bridge is depicted from a bird's-eye view, the traditional and virtually only possible view-point known to japanese painters since the eleventh-century ;¥'f(J1]けがー 均

tan-cmaたior sixteenth-century Rukuchu-rukugdi-ごli17)心huscreens. As J;~[II 行外;:([弘

one can also see in View of the Port of Nagasaki IILl工1,attributed to 九1a ru う'~ll l1 a ()k yo (17η-1795), the bird's-eye view was the only way of 11 ‘ず:

depicting panoramic scenery available to the Oriental artist.

Looking at Enjoying the Cool at Ryogoku-Bridge, modern viewers will immediately detect a lack of unity between foreground and back-

ground. The bold superposition of the newly adapted Western tech-nique upon the conventional pictorial space gives us the impression that the hall in the foreground is floating in the air. Incidentally, uki-e meant“floating pictures". Modern mentality would find in this arbi-trary composition evidence of a lack of understanding of, or a neglect

of the principle of the linear perspective.

However, what characterises Okumura's way of translating precisely

Part 11 Translatiol1 al1d the Articulatiol1 of the Modern Ftisteme il1 Iati711

1号l

Page 5: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

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Page 6: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

轟翠ーし軍何事・1

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REINTERPRETATlO N OF THE WE~TERN LINEAR PFRSI'ECTlVE

consists in the arbitrariness of this fanciful combination. Or more accu-rately, Okumura and his public probably did not find any inconven-ience or arbitrariness in this combination. As is well known, in the Rakuchu-rakugai-zu byobu screens of the sixteenth century as well as in the View of the Port of Nagasaki, the artist's (and the viewer's) point of view shifted easily and moved around on the pictorial plane. While the general scenes of the quarters of downtown Kyoto or the artificial islet of Dcshima in the Nagasaki Bay were depicted from a bird's-eye IILI:,'j

view, the details of the human figures on the streets as well as the ships that are minutely depicted in the Nagasaki Bay appear to be taken from a horizontal point of view. In addition, this constantly shifting view-point also accounts for another feature, i.e. the lack of a五xedhorizon line in these japanese bird's-eye view panoramas.

Capriciously shifting viewpoints and the lack of horizon, both of these “japanese" characteristics still remain intact in Masanobu's West-ern-style trompe l'oeil, and would look inconsistent and confusing to our modern eye. Still, these features may have contributed to accentu-ating the unexpected illusion of a receding background and may have aroused excitement among the contemporary public of孔1asanobu.Let us note that versatile adaptability in cultural translation was already at work in this experimental tentative of Masanobu. The superimposi-tion of two pictoriallayers enabled the combination of heterogeneous elements without taking into account the incompatibility of the linear perspective with such an offhanded combination. Instead of a struggle for supremacy or parasitic relation between Oriental conventions and Western criteria, a sort of symbiosis (or“cohabitation") is realised, which we can compare, at least in a metaphorical sense, to the phe-nomenon named sumiwake by japanese eco-biologists like Imanishi Kinji and Miyaji Denzaburo.

Theoretical-minded scholars wil1 wonder what the origin of this jap-anese trompe l'oeil was. A pioneering work in this field,“The Origin and Development of japanese Landscape Prints," an unpublished Ph.D. thesis by julian Lee (Washington, 1977), points to a Latin treatise by Andrea Pozzo, Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (1693-96), trans-lated into Chinese for the first time in 1729 and again in 1735 with illustrations. As Tokug;l¥va Yoshimune had been promoting the impor- i:と、lil,l;,;:tation of foreign scientific books since 1720, the Chinese translation of this work could theoretically have been accessible. However, no evi-dence has been found as to its diffusion and influence in japan. Practi-

Part II Trans/atioll alld the Articu/atiοnο(the Mυdern土ρistemein Japan

Page 7: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

154

SIIIGEMI INAGA

cally speaking, some examples of Westernised SuχhOll prints, of which copies are known, were enough for Okumura Masanobu and other print designers to conceive and realise the imitations of linear perspec-tive in their uki-e prints.4

It is noteworthy that this first generation of uki-e producers was not so much interested in the principle as in the effect of the linear perspec-

川え本 tive.As I¥.ishiトlImik3ZlIhas recently pointed out, the early trompe ポフ九 /'oei/ prints depicting the interior of I¥.ahuk i theatres did not necessarily

search for an accurate application of the linear perspective. Instead of becoming progressively faithful to its principle, they rather manifested increasing deviation from it IILL・3.41・Theunique vanishing point was sacrificed for the sake of the visibility of the famous characters and scenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis-appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines, just as had been the

オ氏 fl case in Heian period (lfciaJl jiddi, 794-1185) scrolls. Even the framing technique was introduced in the editing process. While reutilising again and again the same wood block for the theatre interior, the part of the block representing the stage would be cut out and replaced by a new block that was inserted into the old one, in an effort to catch up with the latest popular performance and favourite actors. Clearly, it was not the accuracy of linear perspective per se but the rapid printing with its possibilities of wide diffusion that was the primary concern of the ]apanese editors (then and now). 5

1I

While the Edo theatre uki-e declined in the 1750'S, from the end of Hj汁げj, that decade on Maruyama Okyo executed severa11lleg(we-e, i.e. prints

destined for optical view, which was then in vogue all over the world. h

The “naturalness" with which Okyo could combine architecture in linear perspective with natural sceneries is “remarkable," given the fact that such kind of integration was out of the question for the former

uki-e prints. Still, one work, The Vendetta of the 47 Samurai IILI. 51

betrays that Okyo's understanding was no“better" than that of his predecessors. There are unnatural double vanishing points in the fron-

,1) n !i1'( ;1' tal projection of the interior of the mansion of ト~ira I¥.ozukCll(同uke.

As a result, the elements situated in between the double vanishing lines confuse us. If we try to restore the building into a three-dimensional model, or simply to plot it on a floor plan, this part would remain inde-terminable and impossible to explain.

園田園圃・

Page 8: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

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Page 9: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

SHIGEMI INAGA

156

Once again, what is at stake here is not the lack of coherence in geo-metrical operation, but the lack of consciousness to feel this incoher-ence as incoherent. Okyo was not so much interested in the objective rendition of the space in linear perspective as in the dramatic effect created by the illusion of depth. Rather than the homogeneous space that is presented to the fixed monocular viewpoint, it was the aesthetic singularity and supernaturalness of the bloody and atrocious scene of revenge that was pursued by the artist at the price of revealing his lack of respect for the principle of the linear perspective.

埼玉

::fi:ili f,:~1 h Shortly after Okyo's vue d'optique, lJragawa -1'0)'υharu (1735-1814) fijj +il renovated the trompe l'oeil in the Edo of the !¥:1ei'lud period (J 764-J 772).

Lノペ/勺 ( View of a Western Port ( Lノrki-eKりmβ F1t1-(川んl十1111川 toBanげがんyο !l()

出 i]Ip品川471〈! と11)1"" ・61has already been identified as an imitation of a copper etch-ing of the Canal Grande in Venice by Antonio Vicentini. 7 Harmonious in general, the details betray Toyoharu's carefree attitude toward the original. The stairs on the quay at the right side, depicted either in par-allel or even in diverging lines, do not follow the supposed vanishing lines, which remain di伍cultto locate. The vanishing point is also dif-

ficult to locate, and anyway would not converge on the horizon. This lack of consistency clearly reveals that the notion of horizon line was lacking when Toyoharu copied the original. Needless to say, the hori-zon line, as the viewer's standpoint projected to the infinite distance, is the base line for the linear perspective construction as a whole. What interests us, in the context of cultural translation, however, is not Toyo-haru's evident “incomprehension" of this principle but rather the fact that Toyoharu, either consciously or unconsciously elected to ignore such principle in his adaptation of the linear perspective.

ILL凸

Later, Toyoharu did take notice of the horizon as the base line of the whole composition Enjoying the evening Cool at the Shijogawara in

f片L,市弘liLJわ刀打!万 Kyoto (l次i-cRakllYo Shij(Igl-1U1(lrcl y1Isuzumi-こ1t)[ILL・71being an exam-γμ; ~ ¥三 ple.Still, the viewpoint is raised as if to reconcile it with the bird's-eye

view tradition. What are intriguing, however, in the generally seamless composition, are the lines of people walking across the foreground. As the Kamogawa River is flowing from the rear to the fore, a bank on which people are strolling seems to dam up the stream. Why did the artist make such an absurd and incomprehensible addition to the fore-ground? Toyoharu seems not to have been satisfied with leaving the foreground empty and filled it up with the mentioned motif. Although not reasonable from a realistic point of view, these additions were

ILL 7

Page 10: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

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Page 11: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

SUIGEMI INAGA

made so as to satisfy his aesthetic sensibilities. As we shall see, this apparently superfluous addition will account for the “japanization" of the linear perspective in the following period.

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The first attempt to formulate the rules of Western linear perspec-{J..i'rA;えんれ tive was made by Satake Yoshiatsll (1748-1785), d(.lImyピ)of Akita, also

的 /j、消111 known by his artistic sobriquet ShOZ3n, in a pair of short essays com-、I'-i:'川!,,/I'l pleted in 1778. Probably initiated by Hir弐gaCennai (1728-1779), a

polymath and Westernist, who had visited Akita in 1773, lord Satake began his study of Western painting. Among their main references that have been identified figure the so-called Groote Schilderboek by Gerard de Lairesse (1707), a pupil of Rembrandt, and Naeukeurige beschry-ving van de natuur der viervoetige dieren, vissen en bloedloze water-dieren, lノogelen,kronkel-dieren, slangen en draken (1660) by jan jon-ston日ohnjohnstonJ, known as the “Zoo叶logicalalbum". In his treatise

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cal utility 0ぱfp仰aintingas visual information and severely cαn比ti比Cl臼se吋d the conventions of Oriental painting, which could not discern either the colour or the convexity and concavity. He also attacked the absurd-ity of translating the relation of far/near in terms of upper/lower on the pictorial plane. He boasted that by his study of the principles of Western painting he could clearly discern far/near, high/low and clear/obscure etc. It is also in this treatise that the horizon is singled out and defined for the first time in japan as the base line of the linear perspective.8

A striking implementation of this manifesto is the Pine Tree with Parrot [ILL・ 8[.Exaggerated foreshortening, clear-cut shading, contrast between the foreground in vivid colours and the background in pale blue, extremely lowered horizon line, dichotomic contrast between clear and obscure in the modelling, which gives the impression that the trunk of the pine tree is rectangular rather than round ... However the most striking feature in this work is the superposition of the giganti-cally magnified foreground on the extremely miniaturised background. It is possible that some etching illustration of fauna and flora in the Western encyclopaedias at his disposal had inspired this disproportion-ate contrast. Still the fact remains that Shozan perceived such a con-trast as the essential lesson of Western science. In my view, here is the vital point in the reception and cultural translation of the linear per-spective in Tokugawa japan.

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Page 12: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

RFINTFRPRETATION OF THE WESTERN LINEAR PERSPF仁 TIVF

~e , this ion" of

The linear perspective had been conceived and elaborated as a device for constructing a homogeneous pictorial plane. By projecting on a screen in front of the eye the configurations of the objects to be rep-resented, it aims at determining their relative distances and positions on the two-dimensional plane by a series of purely geometrical and mechanical operations. By contrast, Shozan interpreted the same device as a tool of differentiation, exaggerating the heterogeneity between what is near and what is far away. Instead of establishing a unified homogeneous pictorial plane, Shozan took advantage of the linear per-spective to realise polyvalent space, brought about by the contrast of heterogeneous elements, which he could clearly “discernぺashe proudly put it.

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Symptomatic in this regard was the term adopted by Shozan to des-ignate linear perspective:“degree of far/near" (el1kill n() d()均).Shiha i主J!Jゾ ι

Kokan (1748唱 1818)also spoke of the “reason of far/near" (enlull ll() "J_I!Ji 1 i'J

r叶j什i)in his S巧抗ル;立rげげClη,ヅヅ寸i“吋t白ar/near"(νcf仰fワ引FηlたわlJηyη川1け)waおsthe only Chinese te白rma坑ttheir disposal tωot汀rans- i't~ i I

late the idea of“perspective". Still, it is undeniable that this definition in dichotomic terms, typical of Chinese thought, contributed to under-lining the effect of differentiation and contrast between the near and far. In Shozan's case, the pine tree in the foreground derives from the Kano school screen painting, while the landscape in the background i臼s j引ηγ川川fペけ巾,ぺ'i1うT町粁!ド打打lj'引jiμIγ{バi

an imitation of Dutch etching. These two contrasting elements could be put in the same pictorial plane thanks to the lack of an intermedi-ate joining space in the middleground, which by its absence served as the transitional space. 9 In this process of cultural translation, what was supposed to be faithful understanding of the Western linear perspective by Shozan himself, actually resulted in a remarkable deviation. What then does this deviation imply?

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As early as 1978 1 proposed to call this typical composition of the Akita school a stilllife-Iandscape combination, which marked the birth of a new genre in the history of Japanese painting. The Pond of Shi-nobazu [ILL・91by Odano Naotake (1749-1780), one of Shozan's samurai 、ill1t'I'li'ij]¥、

subjects, shows more clearly the implication of this new combination. Here the peony flowers in the foreground “borrow," as it were, as their convenient “background" the Pond of Shinobazu. This “borrowing of the natural background" inevitably reminds us of shakkci, or “borrow- 11'1 ;;::

Part 1I Translation and thc Articulatioll of thc Modcrn Etistcme in .Iatan

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Page 14: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

REINTERPRETATlON OF THE WESTERN LINF.AR PERSI'ECTlVE

ing of the natural scenery," a technique practised in the garden design of East Asia IILL・101.Curiously enough, the adaptation of the linear per-spective by the Akita school consequently amounted to the pictorial version of the shakkei garden, both of them sharing one and the same deep structure. ]ust as in the shakkei garden heterogeneous elements 1 h 1

were set side-by-side in terms of far/near superimposition to constitute an entity for contemplation, the linear perspective, imported from the West, was transformed and reduced into the matrix that served the same effect of visual montage. 10

Here is a case of circular interplay between the translation of cul-ture and culture of translation. While the linear perspective helped the Akita school inventing a new Westernised pictorial plane, the new pic-torial plane in question turned out to be the manifestation of the way Far Eastern culture on the archipelago had incorporated the exterior elements. Thus, the linear perspective as it was translated by the Akita school, paradoxically revealed one of the constants of ]apanese culture as a culture of translation. Here we can probably detect a secret in the mechanism of“]apanization". And retrospectively, we now can see that not only the re-interpretation of the linear perspective by the Akita school, but also the spatial superimposition of Okumura Masanobu or the editing technique of wood block insertion practised by the Tori i _i',j 1,':民

school were governed by the same principle, which consists of juxta-posing heterogeneous elements without respecting the governing prin-ciple of each of the incorporated elements. 11

V

In connection with this“constant" in ]apan's culture of translation, 1 want to advance my last hypothesis as to the combination of a human figure and a landscape in the ukiyo-e prints. Early examples of this combination can be traced back to SuzlIki Harunobll‘s (-r770) series of 鈴木 hL

Eight Scenes of Edo (f計 yuEdo haたんどi).]ust take one print, Enjoying 凶iMiL11八;;:the Evening Coo/ at Ryδgoku-Bridge (Ryogokuhashi:v白51にltmi)IILl・ 111, 11 1 '11'品先タ II\~where the beauties in the foreground are directly superimposed upon the background of Ryogoku Bridge in bird's-eye view. Still, it is impos-sible to find here any explicit trace of Western linear perspective.

Harunobu is remembered as the inventor of the l1ishiki聞の orthe poly- j;;;\f~~ chrome prints, which he first produced around 1765, and ~'lorishirna .t'i,I:.'jlj'H

Churyo (r754-r808) has suggested Gennai's involvement in this inven-

Part 1I Translation and the Articulation of the Modern Episteme in .Iapan

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162

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tion. Curiously enough there are several prints signed Harunobu, which show an awkward application of the linear perspective IILL・121.Special-

作1ft ists unanimously agree that these pieces were made by Harushige, as a substitute, after the sudden death of Harunobu in 1770. In some cases, Harushige even intentionally and ostentatiously introduced the hori-zon line to a composition borrowed from Harunobu. Suzuki Harushige was, in reality, nobody else than Shiba Kokan, a scholar of Dutch stud-ies, who seems to have known Odano Naotake of the Akita school per-sonally -a surprising connection.

Characteristic in Harunobu's later works was the trope named lllitate. In the case of Returning Sail at Shinagawa (Shillι19ιlU乍1Kihan), the title evokes one of the eight poetic views of Xiao-Xiang in China (Ch. Xiao-Xiullg ba;ing, ]ap. Sh/j-shu hukkei), i.e. Returning Sail at Yuan PU (f~nþ() Kihan), which was transposed in a diminutive version into Returning Sail at Yabase ('iuhclse Kihull), a scenic spot on Lakc Biwa, of which Returning Sail at Shinagawa is an Edo version pastiche. Here we see a kind of rebus. In the foreground, a girl is looking at the bowl floating on the basin, which evokes and is echoed by the return-ing fishermen's boat depicted in the background. In this way, there is a secret correspondence between the foreground and the background. 12 Although Harunobu himself does not seem to have been directly influ-enced by the Western linear perspective, this trope of mitate, or aesthet-ics of “seeing as," had something in common with the spatial combina-tion invented by the Akita school of Western style painting. Curiously enough, a vue d'optique in a Westernised style, quite similar to the style of Odano Naotake, is known to exist, and seems to have served as a prototype of the Pond of Shinobazunoilくein many ukiyo-e prints. An example by Toyoharu, with timid but typical small五gures10 proces-sion in the foreground borrows for its background the same landscape around the islet Bentenjirna, foreshortened in a strongly Western style.

But more striking is an example in a series by Isoda Koryusai enti-tled Eight Views of Edo (FurylI王dohdkkei) IILL. 131. The landscape of the Pond of Shinobazunoilくe,clearly reflecting the foreshortening in the style of Odano Naotake, is evidently chosen as a relevant background and associated with the human figures in the foreground to evoke the secret meeting of the couple (shinohi-ai), faithful to the tradition of wordplay (shinobu / shinobazu connoting“secrecy") that typifies the trope of mitate. If Odano Naotake has borrowed the scene of the Pond of Shinobazunoike for the background of his stilllife of peony flowers,

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Page 16: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

which pecial-

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REINTERPRETATION 01' THE WESTERN LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

Koryusai seems to have replaced the flowers by the human figures of

beauties.

In this way the landscape depicted in Western linear perspective finally served as the background to the ukiyo-e prints of beauties as a“borrowed landscape". Thus, we may assume that the stilllife-land-scape and the figure-landscape were as it were twins and both were born from the translation and re-adaptation of linear perspective into japan's cultural climate.

It seems that one of the greatest influences that the japanese ukiyo-e prints had on Western painters in the second half of the nineteenth century was exerted by the type of composition 1 have defined as still life-landscape and figure-landscape combinations. As 1 have tried to demonstrate in this pape巳thesecombinations were mostly realised as the result of japan's translation of the Western linear perspective into “japanese" pictoriallanguage. However, this translation did not mean a passive acceptance of things Western. On the contrary, in the proc-ess of its translation into japanese, Western linear perspective lost the supremacy it had enjoyed for several centuries as the absolute gram-matical canon in Western fine arts. However this does not mean, any more, that the Western linear perspective was reduced to a mere vocab-ulary at the disposal of the japanese. On the contrary, the translation of linear perspective did change the syntax of spatial configuration in japanese painting. And yet, it cannot be denied that this change fol-lowed the same“transformation rule" (N. Chomsky) as was observed in the shakkei aesthetics.

The way japanese painters translated Western linear perspective seems to have imparted a far-reaching lesson to the avant-garde West-ern artists in search of modernist aesthetics. They were convinced they would find in japanese art some of the keys to get rid of the yoke of the academic tradition. Let me close this paper by quoting a statement that Ernest Fenollosa made in the last year of his life: “The Oriental influence was no accident, no ephemeral ripple on the world's art stream, but a second main current of human achievement sweeping around into the ancient European channel, and thus isolat-ing the three-hundred years-long island of academic extravagance." Ll

“The Oriental influence" here must be understood not in its essentialist sense but in terms of the Oriental art of translating Western culture.

Part Il Translatioll and the Articulation of the Modern fpisteme in .Japan

藍蓮書官

163

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2 1

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1 Thi~ is an abbreviated and modified vcrsion of my“La transformation de la pcrspective lin白 ireau Japon

(1740-1810) et son rerour en FranceぺActesde /a recherche en sciences socia/es 49 (1983): 2.9-46, which was based on my M.A. dissertation presented tO the Universiry of Tokyo in 1979・

2. On the“politics" of the linear perspective, see a.o. Pierre Francastel, Peintllre et /a soclete (Paris: DenoeV Gonthier, 1951 119771); Hubert Damisch, L'origine de /aρerstective (Paris: Flammarion, 1987) and James

Erkins, The Poetics o( Perstective (Ithaca: Cornell Universiry Press, T994). 3 On ]aponisme, see a.o. Yamada Chizaburoh 111111 f<,I .Ul:, ed., Jaρonisme in Art (Tokyo: Kδdansha Inter-

national, 1981).

Page 18: DODONAUS IN JAPANscenes on the Kabuki theatre stage, where vanishing lines suddenly dis- appear and are replaced by parallel lateral lines , just as had been the オ氏 fl case

au ]apon

4白、 whiじh

s: Denoel/

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RE[NTERI'RETATION OF THE WESTERN L[NFAR PFR凡I'F仁rIVE

4 ]ulian J. Lee, "The Origin and Developn附 ltof ]apanese Landscape Printsぺunpuhlishedl'h.l工、 Washing

ton State University, 1977・

5 Kishi Fumikazu ハー ミf:1,Edo no enkin-hδ, ukie no shikaku , ーヘ 、 円 (ThePers{Jectil'e

in J-:do. thc I'erccption of Uki-e) (Tokyo: Keisoshoho, 1994)

6 Timon Screech,“The Meaning of Western Perspective in Edo Popular Culture", Archiucs of Asiun Art 47

(1994): 58-69・Alsohy the same author, Thc 肱estcrnScicntific GuZc and Po{Jular ImageT}' in I,ute Edo

japan (Camhridgc: Camhridgc Univcrsity Prcss, 1996).

7 Okano Keiichi iにれ"‘EineVenezianische Vedute im japanischen HolzsじhnittぺPantheon27 (1969)

8 Reproduced in facsimile in Takchan品 Rintar民対!日 H 、Akitaranga い、 ぷ (Akita: Akita Saki-

gake Shinpo-sha, 1992), 134-1 4 1.

ザ O.Ito丁目ji ザ , Nihon dczain nm i jょ ・イ (Studies in the D目 ignin Japan) (Tokyo

Kωhil11a shuppanlはし 1969)ιh.2

loFor a reじentcriticisl11 on the aesthetics of mitate, see Karatani Kojin " ノド, へ, "Shュkkeini tsuite no

kosatsu" マ Y:ク;: (Reflection on the Borrowed Landscape)、Hihyokukan

(CritiじalSpaじe)17(1998)・35-47;an English version of this article in: K訂正ItaniKojin /,叫ん行 4 人,“Uscsof

Aesthetics: After Orientalisl11ぺ βounduηvol.巧、 no.2 (1998): 145-1凸o.

1 1 For a more generュlisedhypothesis on this function of “l11ediation" in ]apanese spaピeexpenen正亡、 町 E

Augustin Bcrquc、Viure/'es{Juce uu ju{Jon (Paris: Presscs univcrsitaircs dc Fram辺、 1981)、lastchュpter.12 As for the miniaturised mitate aesthetiじsin ]apan, sec Haga Toru行入“Fukeino hikaku hunkashi,

S針仙hosf由hο Hakkα叩c引ito OIπmi Hakkcαci" 吋 ,J と以ji'<υ仁ノ 上ヘ、 :十l リ

kenkYlμI じ1中:ト::.:判IバJt;工 50(198凸):1一27

13 Ernest Fenollosa, "The Place in History of Mr. Whistler's ArtぺLotllS1 (J)ec. 190,): 1白

ILLUSTRATIONS

1 LL 1 J-:n;oyinK the Cool at RyβgOkll, hy Okumura Masanohu, ca. 1745. l'rivateωllectIo日

[LL 2 Vicw of thc Nagasaki Port, attrihuted to Maruyama Okyo. Data frol11 the Nagasaki Prefectural

Museul11; Hosono Masanohu, Yofu hanga (Western Style I'rints) (Tokyo: Shihundo、1969).

ILL 3 Interior view of a Kabuki thcatre in trom{Jc /'oeil, by Torii Kiyotada. Data from the Riccar Art

Museum, Exhibition Catalogue Uki-e (Tokyo、1975)no・4・

ILL 4 Interior view of a Kabuki Theatre in trompe /'oeil, hy Okul11ura Masanohu, Kohc City Muscum of

Nanban Art. [)ata frol11 the Riccar Art Museul11, t:xhibitum Cutuloglle, Uki-e (Tokyo, 197ヲ)no. 1

According to Kishi FUl11ikazu's hypothesis, Okul11ura col11mitted intentionally品川rthcrdevi‘1tIon

frol11 thc principlc of lincar perspectivc in his rc-adaptation of Kiyotada's theatre interior (H(;・ラ)

ILL 5 The Vendetta of the 47 Samurai, by Maruyama Okyo. Reproduced frol11 Hosono Masanobu,

Yotu hanga (Wcstern Style Prints) (Tokyo: Shibundo, 1969)

11.1凸 Viewof a Western I'ort, hy Maruyama Okyo. Privateωllection.

ILL 7 En;oying thc Eucning Cool at the Shi;οgawara in Kyoto, by Maruyal11a Okyo. Data frol11 the Riじcar

Art Muscul11, t.xhibition Catalogue Uki-e (Tokyo, 1975) no. 18

ILL 8 Pine Tree with Parrot, by Satake Shozan. Reprinted from Naruse Fujio、Edono YofUgLl (Wcstern

Stylc Painting in Edo Pcriod) (Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1977)

ILL 9 The I'ond of Shinobιu, by Odano Naotake. Reprinted from 1、JaruseFuji向上dono Yβtiなd

(¥ルestcrnStylc Puinting in Edo Pcriod) (Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1977). ILL 10 A photograph of Okochi Sanso Garden in Arashiyama, Kyoto. The garden, located near the

Tenryuji Temple、borrowsas its background thc natural sccncries of the Arashiyal11a Mount立In,

which extends across the Hozugawa River.

ILL II En;oying the t:ucning Cool at Ry6goku, by Suzuki Harunobu. Data from Ukiyoe tuikan (Tokyo

Kodansha, 1990). II.L 12 Calligraphy, by Suzuki Harushige (signed Harunobu). Data from Hosono Masanobu, Yομ hanga

(Western Style Prints) (Tokyo: Shibundo, 1969).

ILL 13 t.uening Bell at the Hill of Shinobugaoka, by Isoda Koryusai. Data from Ukiyoe tuikull (Tokyo

Kodansha, 1990).

Part Il Translation and the Articulation of the Modern Episteme in japan

165

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