Chapter 7 Chapter VII

According to my idea, Mencang found a house for Jiuju Fengyue.Just take the elevated tram line of the Chuo Line at Kokubunji Station and get off at the third station.There used to be miscellaneous wood from Musashino, and although some of them have been turned into fields now, there are still some dense forests here and there.Leaving the main road that can be used by traffic and walking on the forest path, there are still a few farmers in a place surrounded by trees like a screen. Here, too, it has been affected by Tokyo's residential building plans, and here and there you can see some beautiful new houses and apartments, but there are also a few old villages and fields here and there, stubbornly resisting the onslaught of outsiders.What Mencang found here was a thatched-roof farmhouse. The rented room was actually converted from a building used for raising silkworms, but the light was very good, which was very suitable for painting. Menhe made an agreement with this farmhouse. Yue's food was also contracted by them.

"Yes, it's very nice here. It's so far away from the city of Tokyo that it's almost like a retreat. I'm afraid no one will notice it. It's a wonderful place to do that kind of painting." Mencang told me this when he took me to check. He thought this place was very good, so Fengyue must be able to paint quietly.And the people living downstairs are peasants, they must also regard Feng Yue as an ordinary painter without doubting it.Kadokura was very happy and said: "Sir, your vision is really not bad." It has been ten days since Jiu Jufeng came to Tokyo from Kyushu.He was holding a heavy old leather suitcase, and his long hair was covered with white sand, disheveled and without any luster.

It was already evening when the train arrived in Tokyo.When he got off the train, he didn't have time to appreciate the bustling lights of Tokyo he saw for the first time, so he pointed to the suitcase and said: "Almost all of them are painting tools!" He spoke with a smug smile, and his high nose was wrinkled again.His thin lips made his mouth look very wide, and even when he was not smiling, there were always deep wrinkles at both ends. Just like the impression when he met in Kyushu, this long face always had a bit of bitterness. After Fengyue spent two nights at a farmer's house in the countryside of Kokubunji, I said to him:

"From now on, you can just paint Wangtang, just learn from this man. Do you know Yutang?" "Is it Hehe Yutang?" Feng Yue replied foolishly. "It's Urakami Yudo. Have you ever drawn Yudo's stuff?" "Not drawn." Feng Yue lowered his head and said. "It's better if you haven't painted it before. Let's go and see Yutang's works together, which are now on display in the museum." I took Fengyue to the Ueno Museum.Along the way, I explained to him in detail where to change trams, which road to take, and so on. "You have to remember it firmly. From now on, you have to go to this museum every day. The display of Yutang's works is only the last week. During this period, you have to go to the museum from the morning until it closes. Staying here, I had no choice but to bring my lunch box here to persevere."

Feng Yue nodded. We walked through the corridors of the museum as dark as the bottom of the sea, and came to the exhibition room No. 1.Bright light from overhead fell on huge glass display cases. Yutang's works are all gathered in a cabinet, which is a screen and three huge paintings. The screen is "Yushu Deep River Picture"; "Road Map", all of which are designated important works of art, I stood in front of this window, Feng Yue stood beside me, both of them stared into the window with wide eyes. "Take a good look, this is Yutang." I whispered. "You'll have to learn it all in the next few days."

Feng Yue nodded, his tall body slightly bent forward, staring inside.The tip of his nose almost touched the glass of the window, and there was a puzzled look in his eyes. "Urakami Wangdo passed away at the age of seventy in the third year of Bunsei ①." I introduced him in a voice that was too small to alarm other visitors. "He was born in Bizen ② and once served Ikeda Hou, the official to the chief priest and Omotsuke ③, and often came to Edo ④. He ① AD 1820. ② Part of Imaoka Mountain View. ③Guotou, Daimupay, official titles of the Edo Shogunate in Japan. ④ Edo, the old name of Tokyo.

At the age of fifty, he resigned from his official position and traveled around the world with his Guqin and painting brushes.Therefore, there is no traditional master in his paintings, but free and unrestrained, not bound by any painting method. However, in this careless approach, he not only reflects nature, but also shows the long-standing spirit of nature.If you take a closer look at these landscapes, trees, and figures, the techniques of expression seem to be very rough and clumsy, not even like a painting, but if you look at them from a distance, his handling of space and distance is really perfect. The point, and there is no sense of slack in the composition.It has a charm that goes deep into people's hearts. "I don't know if Feng Yue understands these words, but he stares at these works with a blank expression.

"Also, if you look at the calligraphy of Huazan, some of them are like official script, some are like cursive script, especially those official scripts, which have their own unique style in elegance and simplicity. These characters are also important factors in the identification, so You have to learn it well." I went on to say: "These paintings are the only bases for your copying. When you come here every day, you have to observe carefully like Damo Xibi. Yutang's ①The country here refers to the administrative division in the county system. Works, such a good thing is not often displayed here, you just happened to come to Tokyo at this time, how lucky you are. "Was the one who got lucky? It was actually me.

I feel that I am full of hope for Fengyue's education. I have not seen the four works of Yutang on display for a long time. It was nearly 30 years ago. I followed Mr. Jinshan to the collectors to see these real objects or studied them carefully. Its photos, facing these things now, I have such an illusion, as if Mr. is pointing and explaining to me beside me. However, I didn't tell Feng Yue immediately what I knew, it would be dangerous to do so.For Feng Yue, it would be better to just let him spend more time gazing at these objects with full attention. Coming out of the museum, I asked Feng Yue:

"Basically, do you understand something?" "It seems to understand a little bit." Feng Yue said so.I took out two more albums, a book, a magazine and a scrapbook for him. "This is a critical biography about Yutang Urakami. After reading it carefully, it will be easy to understand Yutang's personality and habits." I explained to him one by one. "There is an article "Appreciation of Art in the Tokugawa Period ①" in this magazine, which can help you understand the meaning of art in the Yutang era. The author of this article is my mentor.In this information scrapbook, all short essays about Yutang are collected. Read them carefully, and then you can have a general idea of ​​Yutang. "Then I showed him page by page of the album.

"The collection here is all paintings by Yutang, but not all of them are genuine. There are also many fakes in it. Which one is good and which one is not, you have to see it yourself. You go to the museum every day. , your vision for Yutang's works should gradually improve." Feng Yue looked at me with a bewildered expression. After this time, I haven't been to the farmer's house in Musashino surrounded by miscellaneous forests for two weeks. It seems that Jiugu Fengyue must be lying down every day and looking at the album repeatedly. It seems that Kadokang visited him often, and every time he reported to me what he saw. "I admire such enthusiastic people. After all, people in the interior are more tenacious than ordinary people when they use their energy." Mencang spoke highly of Fengyue. ①The period in Japanese history ruled by the Tokugawa family is called the Tokugawa era (1603-1867). "He seems to be studying Yutang's paintings desperately. It is said that he gradually understands it, so he really wants to try to draw one. It is said that he is also practicing calligraphy, but he said that he can't show it to me until he meets Mr. .He respects sir very much." When I heard it said respect, I couldn't help but smile to myself in my heart.I'm preparing something for Feng Yue.In fact, what I really want to give to others is my favorite and substantial knowledge and learning, and the target is not Feng Yue, but another kind of person. This is the wish I dreamed of when I was young.I should not have had the wisdom to educate a pseudo-writer.There is a piece of mud in front of my eyes, but now there is no other way but to bite the bullet and walk through it. Two weeks later, I went to the farm again. Summer was almost over, the cicadas in the woods had become weak, and the rice fields had been dyed golden. Feng Yue's thin cheeks were covered with mustaches, and his hair was longer.I want him to open those two picture albums. "Can you see what's not working?" Feng Yue flipped through the pages, pointed at the plate with his slender fingers and said, this one is probably not genuine, and that one is probably fake too.Some of what he said was right, and some of it was not right.However, he did not make the truth false, and there are only a few who are wrong. "Not enough eyesight," I said. "Let's take a closer look and study carefully to see what things are not allowed. I'll come back in three days." A bewildered expression appeared on Feng Yue's long face again, but the expression was much more stable than before. This situation happened two or three times in succession. His judgment was much more correct than before, and he also corrected many past mistakes.Works that were considered authentic in the past are now corrected as fakes.Of course, it would be too much to ask of him to have a more correct eye.I am satisfied with what I have achieved so far. "Your judgment is much better than it used to be," I said. "But look, this painting is really good, isn't the brushwork very skillful?" I pointed to a "Picture of Rooms in the Mountains" and said this. "However, Yutang's brushwork should be more rough. If you look closely, you will feel: Is this a noodle? But the sense of distance and nearness in the work itself is very obvious. Now, this painting is imitating In Yutang's so-called grass-gray drawing method, the brushwork is somewhat similar, but because the details are too complete, it appears to be lacking in force. This is because the artist who painted this forgery has not been able to get rid of the technical constraints that dominate him. Therefore." Feng Yue knelt on the ground with his hands propped up, staring at the painting, nodding silently. "Look at this picture again." I pointed to a picture of "Fisherman in the Stream" and said. "This painting is very good. No wonder you take it as real. In fact, many people think so. The infiltration of Su Mo and the tone of burnt ink are very good, and the composition is not bad. , but it doesn’t have the taste of rural paintings. Because the artist’s intentions are too much. Yutang’s works are all improvisational paintings, which are more intuitive, but this painting is too complete. The reason is that this fake The painter carried out a process of thinking about the scenery objectively in his mind. But Yutang's method of grasping the scenery is more intuitive and abstract. Do you understand?" Hearing me say "Do you understand", Feng Yue's thin cheeks moved slightly again. "Besides, there is another person walking on the bridge here. Yutang has never drawn this kind of feet. Although he tries to imitate as much as possible, he often shows his feet in such small places. Because he draws based on intuition, he usually draws his feet. They just put the characters on the two lines that make up the bridge, and they won't make people walk in the middle of the bridge. This is also Yutang's habit, so you must remember it well. The calligraphy of Hua Zan is also not good. The appearance is a bit similar, but these The characters don’t have that wobbly posture at all, Yutang has never written like this. In short, in order to pursue that kind of sentiment and only focus on the shape of the characters, the result became this way.” As I said this, I finally explained all the pictures in the album to him. When I was explaining, Feng Yue sometimes responded with "uh, huh".But most of them just listened quietly. I was really moved by his unexpected simplicity and enthusiasm. "Next time, I will come back in a week. During this period, you can try to draw a picture according to your own ideas." As soon as I said that, Feng Yue answered me forcefully. "Okay, let's try it." In fact, his expression was already full of this desire. After leaving the farmhouse, Feng Yue accompanied me to the main road with traffic.His tall body was slightly bent forward, with a towering forest behind him, which gave him a very lonely feeling. "Is there a letter from your wife?" I asked him. "Yes. I got a letter from her yesterday." As Feng Yue said, he wrinkled his nose and smiled again. "I sent her the money Mencang gave me, and this is her reply." The sun was shining brightly on my face, and I frowned, thinking of his wife's gesture; she stood looking at us with an uneasy expression.I was thinking in my heart, this kind of suspicious eyes shot here from Kyushu!Feng Yue bowed to me and stood still by the side of the road.