Solitary Fisherman

Artist/Culture Totoki Baigai (1749-1804)

Date1801

MediumHanging scroll, ink on silk

Dimensions27 x 76 cm (10 5/8 x 29 15/16 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

MarkingsSeals: Toki Shi no In (square/intaglio), Hanin (square/relief)

Credit LineAlexander H. Bullock Fund

Terms

Object number1993.1

Label TextThe powerful brushwork and command of tonal variations evident in this scholar-official painting suggest the stylistic influence of the great second-generation Nanga school painter Ike Taiga (1723-76). Baigai’s work is however more straightforward and closer in feeling to Chinese literati models. The inscription refers to the romantic notion that a fisherman wearing a sheepskin coat is a recluse: “A fishing pole—what will it obtain? For a thousand years, one sheepskin coat.” Baigai was a sociable, literary man (bunjin) who enjoyed entertaining friends with poetry, games, dancing and the playing of musical instruments. Born in Osaka, Baigai studied painting in Kyoto with Ike Taiga and Minagawa Kien before traveling to Edo where he gained an education in Chinese classics, calligraphy and seal carving. In 1784 Baigai was summoned by Masuyama Sessai, the feudal lord of Ise Province, who offered him the position of Confucian scholar and schoolmaster for samurai children, with the opportunity to paint during his free time. Baigai frequently visited Osaka and Kyoto where he could meet his friends, the Nanga painters Uragami Gyokudō (1745-1820), Okada Beisanjin (1744-1820) and Nagamachi Chikuseki (1747-1806). In 1890, having overstayed a leave to Nagasaki, he was forced to leave his position and returned to Osaka. ProvenanceAndreas Leisinger, Kanagawa-ken, Zushi-shi, Zushi 5-3-39, Japan 249

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