Chapter 25 second quarter
"I want to ask you something." Nara arrived at the restaurant to order a meal, and looked at Tsuda solemnly, "I'm ashamed to say, what is Akita Ranga?"
"Well, let me think about how to put it... Generally speaking, it is the Japanese landscape paintings created by the first Japanese painters who learned Western painting techniques."
Then, Tsuda gave a detailed explanation.
In the second year of Ernst & Young (1773), Gennai Hiraga visited Akita, and Akita orchid paintings came into being.At the time when the shogunate was ruled by Eiji Tanuma, Yoshitoshi Satake (Akeyama), the lord of the Akita domain, wanted to increase the production of the copper mines in the territory, and proposed technical guidance from Igennai, a rare mine at that time.Moreover, Gennai is a famous confidant of Tanuma Giji, and Akeyama's move is also to use this as an opportunity to get close to Tanuma.Gennai was ordered by Tanuma to go to Akita, and the destination was the Aren Copper Mt.On the way, he came to Kakunodate, the city of Akita Domain.
Here, Gennai met Naotake Odano.Naotake was a feudal vassal, serving Satake Yoshiko at Kakunodate.The process of the two's meeting is impossible to trace, but Naotake is very good at painting, and no one in Kakunodate Castle knows his name, but Gennai likes painting, or he met Naotake through someone's introduction.There is such an anecdote that is widely circulated: Gennai asked Zhiwu to "draw a mirror cake that can be seen from top to bottom". Add shadows to the painting. "This is a Western painting method" - Naotake immediately bowed down when he heard this, and lamented that he met someone worthy of apprenticeship for the first time in his life.The story sounds exaggerated, but judging from Gennai's character, it may not be fiction.
Gennai was very fond of Naotake. Although there is no historical record, Gennai, who was able to meet with Shushan after the work of Aren Tongshan, must have praised Naotake's painting talent.After Gennai returned to Edo, Naotake was ordered to go to Edo immediately under the title of "Investigator of Copper Mountain Area Products".Akeyama himself studied the Kano school and had a great interest in sketching. I'm afraid it was arranged by him, hoping to take the opportunity to let Naotake come to learn Western painting under Gennai's school.However, Shushan's move was not simple, and the route of getting close to Yiji through Gennai was of great significance at the time.It is definitely not a loss for the Akita clan to put their own clan members under the Rennai sect.
When Naotake came to Edo, he immediately became a teacher of Gennai, and stayed at Gennai's home in Okawacho, Kanda.Gennai loved Naotake's painting talent very much, and introduced his works whenever he had the opportunity. As a result, Naotake's name spread throughout Edo in less than a year. illustration.Gennai's strong recommendation to his editor friend Sugita Genbaku was certainly the factor that contributed to this, but the fundamental reason was that Naotake himself was capable enough to do the job.Its precise and accurate description made "Disintegration New Book" highly praised, and Naotake also became a famous painter.That year, Naotake was only twenty-six years old.
In the sixth year of Ernst and Young, Naotake ended his five-year life in Edo and returned to China for the time being.Naturally, Naotake has learned all the techniques of Western painting from Gennai in the past five years, and undoubtedly he also learned from Song Zishi, who is acquainted with Gennai.
Song Zishi is a sketch painter who inherited Shen Nanping's ilk, and is good at "boneless method", which is the method of removing contour lines and shadows.Although it is different from Western painting, the basic idea is the same.It was after seeing Zishi's sketches that Gennai commissioned him to draw illustrations for his book "The Gap of Objects".
Gennai is famous as a naturalist and a herbalist, and "Materiary Gaps" is the book that best embodies his characteristics.The book consists of five volumes. The products, ores, and plants of various countries gather together a large number of rare objects and give explanations. Now it should be called a collection of natural science catalogs.It is conceivable that such books have requirements for the accuracy and detail of illustrations, and Song Zishi is the painter who meets Yuannei's requirements.
On the other hand, Naotake, who returned to his hometown of Kakunodate, received an unexpected order and was asked to go to Kubota Castle (Akita City) of his domain to serve as a servant in the inner house of the lord Satake Akebono, which can be described as an extraordinary promotion.
Naotake moved to Akita to instruct Akeyama in Western painting.Akiyama already possessed the literacy of painting, and he was able to use it freely in a short time, and Akita Lanhua was born since then.The feudal lord likes how to allow the feudal vassals to say no, and the large number of people who ask for apprentices makes Naotake a big headache.
One year later, in October of the seventh year of Yong'an, Naotake went to Edo again to visit Gennai with Shushan Sanqin's confession, and talked about the flourishing of Akita orchid painting.Yuan Nai was very pleased.The two wished goodbye and talked about the future development of Western painting.During the same period, Sima Jianghan, a disciple of Song Zishi, went to Yuan Nei Zhai to learn Western painting techniques from Zhiwu.
However, Naotake, who was considered to have a bright future, suddenly cast a shadow over Xiaobu.During this period, Gennai's spirit gradually became abnormal. He not only quarreled with publishers and funders over trivial matters, but also feared that his talents would be stolen by his disciples, and forbade everyone from entering his room.
The abnormality of Gennai spread to the outside world. Although he was favored by Tanuma Yiji, his disciple Naotake was criticized by the feudal clan.Then, in November of the eighth year of Ernst & Young, Gennai was arrested and imprisoned for homicide, the details are unknown.It is said that an apprentice who happened to visit Gennai's residence strayed into his room, was caught by Gennai while looking through the materials at hand curiously, and was beheaded.
In any case, this incident was a fatal blow to Naotake and Akita Ranhua.According to the official records of the Akita clan, Naotake received a "dismissal proposal" from the clan in the same month, but did not mention the reason for the dismissal.This is actually an avoidance of responsibility by those in power, in order to erase the relationship between the perpetrator Gennai and the Akita Domain. The "dismissal proposal" sounds high-sounding, but in fact it is to send Naotake back to China for confinement, and he is not allowed to step out of the house.For Naotake, it was like being cast into hell.
Naotake, who returned to Kakunodate, was abandoned by the world, lived in despair and pain, and finally passed away on May 17 of the following year at the age of 32.Suicide by harakiri, taking poison, going mad... Rumors spread everywhere, and people speculated about the cause of his death.
His legal name is "The True Believer of Absolute Learning".In the Kakunodate Shoan Temple where Naotake was buried, the list of the dead only records "Juekaku Genshin, son of Oda Noheichichi in May of the ninth year of Yasuyoshi" - Naotake's name is avoided, so it can be seen that after his death, his name is even more unknown. willing to mention.
Akita Ranga was wiped out with Naotake's death, and it took less than ten years for it to live and die.
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