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I was a third-year undergraduate when I first learned of Ito Jakuchu as a painter who had been active in Kyoto in the 18th century, and this encounter ultimately led me to specialize in Japanese art history. My recent critical biography of Jakuchu, entitled Jakuchu-den (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2019) also incorporates my own previous research into the life and art of this great artist.

Jakuchu’s paintings are beautiful and robust. That sensory joy was my starting point. Art history, however, means not getting caught up in the contemplation of one’s own feelings – it entails our desire to think about things from the other side, from Jakuchu’s standpoint. When trying to understand Jakuchu, we need to examine specific questions, such as what sorts of paintings he drew on as sources of inspiration for creating his own works. That is, unless we clarify the extent to which he drew on existing materials and techniques to learn how much can be attributed to his own individuality, we cannot really describe his expression as unique.

The painters of the Edo period were unlike contemporary artists. Being able to paint according to one’s own whims and expecting someone to buy the work – such a model of production would have been exceptional. In most cases, painters would take orders and then create works to suit their clients’ preferences. This was basically the model of production that Jakuchu pursued after he retired from running a wholesaler that lent out space to grocers to become a professional painter. On the other hand, Jakuchu’s most important work, the Doshoku sai-e [Colorful Realm of Living Beings] (now held by the Museum of the Imperial Collections Sannomaru Shozokan), consists of thirty hanging scrolls featuring intricately colored paintings of flowers and birds that he created as a personal offering to Shokoku-ji temple. Why a mere craftsman might have done something like that is a question that piques our interest.

Having uncovered a Chinese poem by a poet who saw the Doshoku sai-e during its production, sought out other instances of the use of the term sai-e, and reflected on the circumstances of the work’s production and its donation, my own inference is that this work was motivated at least in part by Jakuchu’s wish to commemorate the soul of his father. I also learned that Jakuchu was supremely confident that the Doshoku sai-e would remain worthy of appreciation in the distant future – arguably for all eternity. Furthermore, from my analysis of his expression, I also speculate that this series may serve in part as a figurative representation of the deeper contemporary anxieties and desires felt by Jakuchu and the people of Kyoto in his day. I regard painting not only as the expression of individual painters, but something woven by the societies in which they lived.