Suzuki Kiitsu (1796-1858),
Birds and flowers, hanging scroll, colour on silk,
127 x 55.4 cm.
Purchased 1983
205.1983

  
Edo Painting

Most of the paintings in the Gallery's collection date to the Edo period (1614-1868), when Japan was governed by the Tokugawa clan of military rulers. The official painters to the Tokugawa shoguns were the Kano artists, who had dominated painting circles since the 15th century. The Kano painters combined dynamic brushstrokes derived from Chinese ink painting with the rich colouring of the indigenous yamato-e tradition to decorate the castles and mansions of their patrons.

The conditions of peace and prosperity in the Edo period also encouraged the development of new schools of art. These included the decorative Rinpa school; the Ukiyo-e school, which depicted life in the pleasure quarters; the Maruyama-Shijo school, with its emphasis on naturalism; and the Nanga ('southern painting') school, modelled on Chinese literati painting.

In the mid-19th century, Japan was forced out of isolation by the Western powers. The Tokugawa shogunate collapsed and the new Meiji government embarked on a course of modernisation along Western lines. Within a few years the old dichotomy of Chinese and Japanese styles of painting was replaced by a new dichotomy of Western-style painting (yoga) versus Japanese-style painting (nihonga)