Metempsychosis
Illustration — Detail of Metempsychosis (1923) by Yokoyama Taikan; a dragon rises from the surging waves of the ocean Metempsychosis, alternatively translated as The Wheel of Life, is a painting by Japanese Nihonga artist Yokoyama Taikan. First displayed at the tenth Inten exhibition in 1923, it forms part of the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and has been designated an Important Cultural Property.
Metempsychosis
Yokoyama Taikan, died in 1958 · Scanned from Gallery Guide to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo," 2002, pp. 22-23. · Public domain
- Creator
- Yokoyama Taikan.
- Date
- 1923.
- Genre
- ink wash painting.
- Held by
- The National Museum of Modern Art and Tokyo.
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Illustration — Detail of Metempsychosis (1923) by Yokoyama Taikan; a dragon rises from the surging waves of the ocean Metempsychosis, alternatively translated as The Wheel of Life, is a painting by Japanese Nihonga artist Yokoyama Taikan. First displayed at the tenth Inten exhibition in 1923, it forms part of the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and has been designated an Important Cultural Property.
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History
History
In a break from his usual practice, Yokoyama Taikan undertook detailed preliminary studies for Metempsychosis, drafting both a preparatory sketch and a practice roll (now in the collection of the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall). For half a year from March 1923 he worked on the final scroll; over eighty metres of silk were used in the process. The final forty metre scroll was first displayed at the tenth Inten exhibition, which opened on 1 September 1923. Just hours later the exhibition closed due to the Great Kantō earthquake, which struck at 11:58. The artist is said to have recovered the scroll himself. Several months later the painting went on display in Kyōto. Acclaimed a masterpiece, it has been frequently exhibited and studied ever since and a full-size facsimile edition has been published. Yet, according to James Cahill, the painting, "hailed in its time as a masterwork... from [a] more critical viewpoint might be seen as misusing the handscroll form by offering less of interesting visual material per running foot than handscrolls traditionally had offered".
Detail from Metempyschosis by Yokoyama Taikan, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Yokoyama Taikan (186-1958)
History of the document
Dated record
History of the document
The full dated record · 2 entries
1923
Metempsychosis created.
1923
Metempsychosis is recorded from 1923.
Description
In his choice of title, Yokoyama Taikan returned to the same Buddhist-infused conceptual world as drawn on for his earlier Selflessness. His vision of nature sees transience and cyclical rebirth represented by the flow of water. In the mountain haze, amid the pines (traditional symbol of longevity), blossoming cherries (symbol of transient beauty), and sporting deer (beings that mediate between the secular and the spiritual), a drop of moisture on a leaf grows into a mountain stream. The burgeoning, life-supporting river flows past communities of monkeys and of men, past obstacle-spanning bridges, down to the sea, where a pair of cormorants direct the viewer's gaze to the sky and the tornado or "whirling dragon" that rises from the surging waves, before turning again to mist. Along the way the long landscape scroll is populated by human figures – woodcutters, travellers, and fishermen – and suggestions of the divine, a stone lantern and a torii. In the scroll, Yokoyama Taikan reworked the ink paintings of Sesshū and Sesson while drawing also on the traditions of Yamato-e. His varied shading includes the one-sided katabokashi technique and effects akin to Western chiaroscuro; a few years later, during his 1930 visit to Italy, he would be struck by Leonardo's use of sfumato. Yet despite the artist's innovations, the traditional clothing worn by the figures that people the scroll and their pre-industrial trades "may suggest that the changes in society brought about by contact with the West are only superficial to the fundamental continuities rooting modern Japan to its traditional past". At the end of the scroll is the inscription "Taishō Water Pig (1923), eighth month, by Taikan", along with the artist's Shōkodō seal.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Agency for Cultural Affairs.
- 2.Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art.
- 3.National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Masterpieces.
- 4.Fujimoto Yōko. Kokka. 117. 11. 52–4. 2012.
- 5.Weston, Victoria Louise. Modernization in Japanese-style painting: Yokoyama Taikan (1868–1958) and the Mōrōtai style. Ann Arbor. 46–9. 1998.
- 6.The Aesthetic of Transience. Japan Echo. 34. 6. 2007.
- 7.Gerhart, Karen M. The Eyes of Power: Art and Early Tokugawa Authority. University of Hawaii Press. 25ff. 1999. 0824820630.
- 8.Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. University of Chicago Press. 2002. 978-0-226-62091-6.
- 9.Long, Hoyt. JAPANimals: History and Culture in Japan's Animal Life. University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies. 21–60. 2005. 978-1929280315.
- 10.Inoki, Linda. The heartfelt works of Taikan Yokoyama. The Japan Times. 6 March 2002.
- 11.Sullivan, Michael. The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art. University of California Press. 148f. 1989. 0520059026.
- 12.Kitaibaraki City Library.
- 13.Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall.
- 14.Asahi Shimbun. 7 February 2008.
- 15.National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
- 16.Cahill, James. Cahill Lectures And Papers. James Cahill.
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Metempsychosis is associated with Japan. Recorded from 1923.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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