334 SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891): A HIGHLY IMPORTANT 7-METER “CHOJU-GIGA TURTLES” EMAKI HANDSCROLL By Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), signed Keio ni tsuchinoto shunjitsu Zeshin (On a Spring day in the second Year of Keio, Zeshin). With seal Tairyukyo. Japan, dated 1866 The Emakimono is humorously painted in ink and picked out in pale watercolors on paper with a continuous scene of 88 (!) turtles, all personified in a variety of human activities and pursuits including punting, sumo-wrestling, fishing, playing musical instruments, performing acrobatic feats and drinking sake.
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The work is delightfully sketched and loaded with satirical fun, overall a true fruit of native wit. The turtles, each different but altogether a symphony of sublime artistry, owe nothing to China, besides maybe a vague debt to its older artistic tradition. Instead, they are witness to that reaction against the solemnities of Buddhist art which we have noticed so rarely, yet so clearly in the past millennium of Japanese artistic tradition. Shibata Zeshin’s studio was situated on the bank of a river, providing him with ample opportunity to observe nature, and the creatures that inhabited the natural world. Like many painters of the 19th century, he was eclectic in his sources and would have been exposed to traditional styles. However, Zeshin’s skill level was such that he could fluidly mix techniques, ideas, and stylistic options, thus painting part of a composition in one manner and including elements of another to add variety and dynamics unheard of at the time.
