Kusumi Morikage, who studied with Kano Tan`yu, a painter by appointment to the shogun, swiftly stood out from his fellow Kano school artists. Having one character from Tan`yu`s given name, Morinobu, bestowed upon him, he was permitted to take the name Morikage and begin his artistic career. He was regarded, with Tsurusawa Tanzan, Momota Ryuei, and Kotari Joan, as one of Tan`yu`s “big four” students. Given how highly the Kano school valued kinship ties, that Morikage was able to marry Tan`yu`s niece, establishing an affinal relationship between himself and his master, indicates the high expectations Tan`yu had of him.

Morikage`s position as a principal Kano school artist can also be seen in his being chosen to create partition or interior wall paintings for the back room at the Chion`in temple and the guest hall at the Shojuraikoji temple. That promotion, which set him apart from among his fellow students, indicates how highly he was regarded within the Kano school. He also contributed to work at Zuiryuji, the family temple of the Maeda clan, rulers of the Kaga domain; that temple had deep ties with leading Kano school artists, most notably Tan`yu. Morikage`s Landscape of the Four Seasons, a fusuma (sliding-door) painting that survives at Zuiryuji, is believed to be an official work in whose creation that he participated as a member of the Kano school.

The honest, conscientious style of ink painting that Morikage learned from the Kano school was the critical, indeed the indispensable foundation for establishing his own style. This section thus introduces Morikage`s activities as a Kano-school artist.

Paintings of rural manners and customs, depicting peasants at work in the fields, were regarded in China as an ethical theme suitable for a statesman to address. Transmitted to Japan in the late fifteenth century, this subject was taken up by many schools of painting. The Kano school was no exception; Tan`yu and his nephew Tsunenobu, for example, produced paintings of rural manners and customs. In Japan, shoguns and daimyos, seeing the peasants depicted producing crops in those paintings as the people in their own domains, regarded such paintings as presenting edifying lessons for themselves.

Since their subject originated in China, such paintings usually depicted Chinese scenes, but Morikage also created paintings of rural manners and customs in which he depicted scenes in Japan, with people in Japanese clothing and following Japanese customs. Almost all such paintings follow the progression of the four seasons, but, in a further twist, Morikage reversed the order of the seasons in most of his works. By making his own highly individual transformations of a classic subject, Morikage created paintings that are uniquely his own.

This section introduces the paintings of rural manners and customs of the four seasons that have become almost synonymous with Morikage`s oeuvre.

Morikage, having left Tan`yu`s atelier, was invited by the Maeda clan of the Kaga domain to work and reside in Kanazawa, the Maeda castle town. His work on the fusuma paintings at Zuiryuji, in which he participated while still Tan`yu`s pupil, was carried out by order of Maeda Toshitsune, and records exist of his lodging at that time in the households of two of the Kaga domain`s senior retainers, the Imaeda and Obata families. His return to Kaga later in life may have been based on relationships formed at that time. It is said that his second stay in Kaga occurred during the Enpo era (1673-81), when he was invited by Maeda Tsunanori, the fifth-generation lord of Kaga, and stayed for six years, lodging with not only the Imaeda and Obata families but also with Kataoka Magobee, a city magistrate. Two of his masterpieces, Family Enjoying the Evening Cool and Falconry, both folding screen paintings, appear to date from his stay in Kanazawa. Morikage`s art made a major leap forward during his time in Kaga. He then moved, in his last years, to Kyoto, where he is said to have spent the rest of his life. His The Ritual of Racehorse at Kamigamo Shrine and Picking Tea at Uji folding screen paintings are based on seasonal events in Kyoto and vividly present images of people of a great variety of ranks and statuses.

This section explores the quintessence of Morikage`s oeuvre, the pinnacles he reached in his last years.

Judging from the bold lines and architectural compositions of his landscape paintings, one is tempted to imagine Morikage as having a rather stiff, upright, and straightforward character. Turning to his works depicting human beings, animals, and plants, however, we discover his witty choice of subjects and fascinating, humorous style.

People depicted in Morikage`s own interpretations of legends and literary sources, animals whose expressions are abundantly human, and plants rendered with a wet brush reveal the breadth of his artistic terrain.

This section presents the hanging scrolls, albums, handscrolls, and other works in which Morikage`s rich array of ideas are visible.

Morikage`s daughter, Kiyohara Yukinobu, was the greatest woman artist in the Kano school; she studied, as her father had, with Kano Tan`yu. Yukinobu faithfully carried on the Tan`yu style and became popular for her elegant style, with a very feminine delicacy of line and precise use of color. We can infer from a mention of her name in Ihara Saikaku`s The Life of an Amorous Man that Yukinobu`s work was widely appreciated. She was also evidently a passionate woman: she is said to have eloped with Hirano Ihee Morikiyo, a fellow student in Tan`yu`s atelier who was the son an Amagasaki official.

Hikojuro, Morikage`s son, was also an artist who studied with Tan`yu. Tan`yu expelled him, however, for visiting houses of ill repute, and he was later arrested for fighting with another artist from Tan`yu`s atelier and exiled to the island of Sado. His surviving work reveals that, despite his tumultuous life, he worked in a style faithful to the Edo Kano school brushwork and continued to receive commissions and produce paintings even while in exile on Sado.

This section concludes the exhibition by introducing paintings by Morikage`s son and daughter.