A Study of Edo Period Painting Schools with Official Patronage

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Until recently, art historical research of the Edo period has been solely interested in schools of painting with public patronage such as Rimpa, Bunjinga, and Ukiyoe. Indeed, the historical attitude toward painting schools with official patronage, which were viewed as the leading schools of painting during the period in question, has changed dramatically to one of cool indifference. In opposition to the general trend of art historical scholarship, this project dealt with numerous Edo period paintings for the direct purpose of studying those artists with official patronage.The groject consisted of amassing a large quantity of material on each artwork in the form of resources and reproductions (35mm color slides) attained through the examination and photographing of works held by both public and private agencies as well as private collectors. The information on each artwork was organized into a selfdesigned framework and entered into a personal computer. As a result, the project produced … More a computer data base on paintings of the Early Modern period in Japan, the core of which is the artwork of painters receiving official patronage during the Edo period. At present, the vast amount of information has been accumulated and classified according to categories such as artist, artistic school, title, date of execution. material, signature, seals, location, accession number, size, and quality evaluation. Through referencing, reorganization, and extraction of a specific range of attributes, practical application of the collected materials is now possible for a variety of purposes.Thus, the project begins to fill the gap in Edo period painting research. Moreover, by making the painting schools with official patronage and their parallels, publicly patronized schools of painting, the object of the investingation, this project also ascertains the circumstances of Japanese painting history in general. In addition, the various collations between the accumulated information and the reproduction files provide a new foundation from which one can restructure the framework of Edo period painting and its historical development. Less