The Politics of Reclusion
Painting and Power
in Momoyama Japan
The Chinese themes of the Four Graybeards of Mt. Shang and the Seven Sages of The Bamboo Grove figure prominently in the art of Momoyama period Japan (ca 1575-1625).
Kendall Brown proposes that the dense and multivalent implications of aesthetic reclusion central to these paintings made them appropriate for the patrons of all classes -- the military, who were presently in power, the aristocracy, who had lost power and the Buddhist priesthood, who forsook power.
These paintings, and their attendent messages, thus serve as dynamic cultural agents that elucidate the fundamental paradigmns of early modern Japanese society.
Unlike traditional art history studies, which emphasize the style and history of art objects, The Politics of Reclusion sets out to reconstruct the possible historical context for the interpretive reception and use of Chinese hermit themes within a specific period of Japanese art.
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