The Historiography of Jesuit Art in Japan

The Historiography of Jesuit Art in Japan: Inside and Outside Japan
Noriko Kotani
They have gold in great abundance, because it is found there in measureless quantities. And I assure you
that no one exports it from the island, because no trader, nor indeed anyone else, goes there from the
mainland. 1
An island covered with gold as described in Marco Polo’s Il Milione ― that
was how Europeans pictured Cipangu (Zipangu). Whether Cipangu was indeed Japan or
not, 2 there is no doubt that this tantalizing image of Cipangu served as a great impetus
for Europeans to explore the “unknown” hemisphere. 3 The pursuit of Cipangu led
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and the Spanish to reach America via the Atlantic
Ocean, 4 and the Jesuits on the Portuguese carrack to reach Japan via the Indian Ocean. 5
In 1549, with the arrival of the Spanish Jesuit St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552)
at Kagoshima, the Society of Jesus began proselytizing the Japanese. Officially, the
Jesuits continued their missionary work for 65 years, until 1614, when the Tokugawa
1
Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, translated with an introduction by Ronald Latham, London
1958, 244.
2
For several centuries, Cipangu has been believed to be Japan, but in a recent study, the Japanese
historian Setsuko Matoba argues the possibility that Marco Polo’s Cipangu may have referred to an
archipelago in the South China Sea around Luzon and Visayas. She points out that it was the Jesuit priest
João Rodrigues (1561-1634) who first claimed that Cipangu was Japan. For further information, see
Setsuko Matoba, Zipangu to Nihon: nichiō no sōgū, Tokyo 2007, 1-46 (的場節子、
『ジパングと日本：
日欧の遭遇』、吉川弘文館、2007, 1-46).
3
Il Milione was published in Lisbon in 1502 as Marco Paulo by the publisher Valentim Fernandes.
Hisashi Kishino discusses the Portuguese reception of Il Milione, including the Portuguese depictions of
Cipangu. See Hisashi Kishino, Seiō-jin no Nihon hakken: Xavier rainichi mae Nihon jōhō no kenkyū,
Tokyo 1989, 1-17 (岸野久、
『西欧人の日本発見：ザビエル来日前日本情報の研究』、吉川弘文館、
1989, 1-17).
4
A recent study reveals that Il Milione was not in Columbus’ possession until after his return from the
second journey in 1498. This casts doubt on the theory that holds that the depiction of Cipangu in Il
Milione provided the impetus for Columbus’ first voyage. What is certain is that Columbus did read Il
Milione later in his career and died in 1506, believing that the New World he discovered was Asia.
Therefore, it is still plausible that Marco Polo’s description of Cipangu played some kind of role in
Columbus’ exploration. For further information regarding the relationship between Columbus and Il
Milione, see Juan Gil and Consuelo Varela ed., Cartas de particulares a Colón y relaciones coetáneas,
Madrid 1984; Setsuko Matoba, op. cit. 2007.
5
Some scholars claim that the Portuguese who arrived in Japan were not motivated by the description of
Cipangu in Il Milione. Kiichi Matsuda makes this claim and supports his opinion by referring to the fact
that Fernão Mendez Pinto, Jorge Álvares, and Francis Xavier did not mention Cipangu in their letters,
reports, or other writings. For further information regarding this matter, see Kiichi Matsuda, Nippo
kōshō-shi, Tokyo 1963, 3-8 (松田毅一、
『日葡交渉史』
、教文館、1963, 3-8).
1
Shogunate issued an edict prohibiting Christianity in Japan. From the very beginning,
the Jesuits had to face a number of problems in the process of proselytizing the Japanese,
as the language barrier and cultural differences were extremely arduous to overcome. In
fact, these two issues are still persistent even in this modern era when one deals with
Japan and the Japanese. Japanese literature on Jesuit art in Japan, which is the topic of
this paper, is not an exception. Still, I believe it is worthwhile to investigate the
Japanese literature, as Japan and the Japanese have long striven to live up to the
tantalizing image provided by Marco Polo.
In this paper, I will provide an overview of the historiography of Jesuit art in
Japan from the early modern period. The so-called Christian Century, 6 the period
encompassing the Jesuits’ presence in Japan (1549-1614), was an extremely fertile
period for art production: a number of different artistic movements arose at the time.
These many different styles and schools of art generated as part of or under the
influence of Christian missions in the “Christian Century,” are all grouped together
under the rubric of Namban (南蛮 Southern Barbarian) art. 7 Jesuit art in Japan has thus
been categorized in such a way as to disguise salient aspects of its unique cross-cultural
style, and scholarship on the subject has been subsumed into the study of Namban art.
Due to the broad definition of the term “Namban,” scholarship on Namban art has
addressed works from a wide variety of different artistic movements, including, for
example, so-called Namban-byōbu works, painted by Japanese artists working in
traditional aesthetic parameters 8 Writings on Namban art have thus encoded confusions
6
The term “Christian Century” was coined by C. R. Boxer, the foremost scholar of Portuguese and
Dutch maritime history. See Charles Ralph Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650, Berkeley
1951. The Christian Century begins with 1549, the year St. Francis Xavier arrive in Japan, and it ends
with the last communication between Portuguese King João IV (1603-1656) and the Tokugawa
Shogunate ― King João IV’s ambassador arrived in Nagasaki in July 1647 and finally received a
dismissive reply from Japan in 1650. There are, however, some issues regarding the definition and the
usage of the term; see Thomas W. Barker, “Pulling the Spanish out of the ‘Christian Century’:
Re-evaluating Spanish-Japanese Relations during the Seventeenth Century,” in Eras 11, December-2009,
(http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/publications/eras); and George Elison, Deus Destroyed: The Image of
Christianity in Early Modern Japan, Cambridge (Mass) 1973.
7
The term “Namban” originally comes from a series of terms used in ancient Chinese to describe the
other ethnic groups surrounding the Han Chinese in four directions: Dongyi (東夷 eastern barbarian),
Xirong (西戎 western barbarian), Beidi (北狄 northern barbarian) and Nanman (南蛮). These four terms
implicitly carried the racial connotation of “non-Han” in their original usage, and they all conveyed a
strong pejorative tone. When the term “Namban” was imported to Japan, however, it gradually evolved to
signify the Portuguese and other Catholic Europeans, as well as things associated with them, while
retaining the original derogatory connotation.
8
For further information regarding the term “Namban,” see Noriko Kotani, Studies in Jesuit Art in Japan,
Ph.D. diss., Princeton University 2010, 21-53.
2
regarding the “Christian Century” more broadly.
Unfortunately, Jesuit artworks in Japan have also suffered from being labeled
Kirishitan art, which is the generic term for Christian art in Japanese. This designation
has led to Jesuit productions being insufficiently distinguished from Franciscan,
Dominican, and amateur works of the period. Moreover, these works have been
discussed in the context of Japanese Export Art, 9 which circulated through European
merchants, mainly those of Dutch origin. Because of these imprecise categories and the
lack of effort to distinguish within the Japanese/European cultural sphere of the time,
there has been a serious confusion regarding Jesuit art in Japan and its scholarship. My
goal in this paper is to excavate Japanese literature on Jesuit art in Japan, which has
been categorized under Namban and Kirishitan studies, in order to place the works done
by some Japanese scholars in the canon alongside non-Japanese literature on the same
subject.
On October 1st, 1920, the Osaka-Mainichi newspaper featured a research
project conducted by Mr. Daichou Fujinami (藤波大超) and Prof. Tadasu Hashikawa
(橋川正) on Christian tombs and monuments in the Sendai-ji (千提寺) area in Osaka.
They discovered some paintings by the Jesuit Seminario, a Jesuit institution in Japan,
where Italian painter Giovanni Cola/Nicolao/Niccolò (ca. 1558-1626) and his students
produced artworks during the Christian Century. 10 A year later, Hashikawa published a
paper on this discovery, making it the first publication on Jesuit art in Japan. 11 In 1923,
a more thorough academic report of the same discovery was written by the linguist
Izuru Shinmura (新村出). 12 Shinmura was the major author of the Kōjien (『広辞苑』),
the most authoritative Japanese dictionary, and wrote many books on Namban studies.13
In fact, Shinmura’s nickname was “Dr. Namban,” as he was fascinated with the
9
During the early modern period, when Japan was not so easy to access, Japanese lacquerwares were
very popular among European elites, including Queen of France Marie Antoinette (1755-1793). There is a
group of scholars who study on Japanese objects, mainly lacquerwares, which were exported to Europe
from the late-sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century. The term “Japanese Export Art” indicates
these objects. For further information, see Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer
1580-1850, Amsterdam 2005.
10
For further information regarding Giovanni Cola, see Noriko Kotani, op. cit., 87-95.
11
Tadasu Hashikawa, “Kita-settsu yori Hakken-shitaru Kirishitah-ibutsu,” Shirin 6.1, 1921 (橋川正「北
摂津より発見したる切支丹遺物」『史林』第 6 巻第 1 号、1921).
12
Izuru Shinmura, Kyoto-teikoku-daigaku bungaku-bu kōko-gaku kenkyū hōkoku dai-7-satsu
Kirishitan-ibutsu no kenkyū, Tokyo 1923 (新村出、
『京都帝国大学文学部考古学研究報告第 7 冊吉利
支丹遺物の研究』
、岩波書店、1923).
13
See Noriko Kotani, op. cit., 28-29.
3
terminology and culture associated with Namban. He published Namban-ki (『南蠻記』)
(1915), Namban-sarasa 『
( 南蠻更紗』) (1924), and Namban-kōki 『
( 南蠻廣記』) (1925),
which, alongside the dictionary Kōjien, established the current academic understanding
of the term Namban.
Shinmura’s involvement with Hashikawa’s discovery of Jesuit paintings was
definitely a major factor in the categorization of artworks under the term Namban art. In
1928, Tokutarō Nagami (永見徳太郎), an art collector and historian in Nagasaki,
published a book entitled Namban-bijutsu-shū (『南蛮美術集』). This contained fifteen
pages of text and fifty illustrations of what the author imagined Namban-bijutsu
(Namban art) to be: Christian paintings (including works by the Jesuits), lacquerware
objects, Namban-byōbu, crosses, medallions, fumi-e plaques, cards, prints, clocks,
armor, landscapes and maps of Nagasaki, and edicts of state. Shinmura Izuru wrote the
introduction, leaving his seal on the way the term Namban was to be employed in art
historical
publications.
In
1933,
just
five
years
after the publication
of
Namban-bijutsu-shū, a teacher and author from Nagasaki, Seki Mamoru (関衛),
published another book with Namban in its title: Seiiki Namban-bijutsu tōzen-shi (『西
域南蛮美術東漸史』), which can be translated as: “Namban art that came to the East
from the West.” 14 It was a historical work, and its publication following Nagami’s
achievement helped spread the term Namban art, which was further affirmed when
Nagami’s book was reprinted in 1943.
Meanwhile, a group of Japanese scholars, working alongside European Jesuits,
most notably Johannes Laures, Georg Schurhammer, and Josef Franz Schütte, engaged
in the study of Japanese Christian culture of the early modern period. Together, these
Japanese and European scholars formed a school called Kirishitan kenkyū-kai
(Kirishitan Studies Association). Among researchers connected with the kenkyū-kai,
Hubert Cieslik, Diego Pacheco, Yakichi Kataoka (片岡弥吉), Takeo Yanagiya (柳谷武
夫) and Chizuko Kataoka (片岡千鶴子) studied the Jesuit Seminario. Specifically, they
focused on its location, organization, classes, teachers, and students. 15 However, it was
14
Mamoru Seki, Seiiki Namban-bijutsu tōzen-shi, Tokyo 1933 (関衛、
『西域南蠻美術東漸史』
、建設社、
1933). For further information regarding Seki and his writings, see Yasue Kōno, Seki Mamoru kenkyū:
Seki Mamoru (1889-1939) to Taishō-ki geijutsu kyōiku sisō no tenkai, University of Tsukuba Ph.D. diss.
1994 (向野康江、『関衛研究：関衛 (1889-1939)と大正期芸術教育思想の展開』、筑波大学博士論
文、1994).
15
Hubert Cieslik, “Seminariyo no kyōshi-tachi,” in Kirishitan kenkyū 11, Tokyo 1966, 27-138 (フーベル
4
Georg Schurhammer who first discussed the Seminario’s art production by providing
brief biographies of Giovanni Cola’s students and a list of their works. 16 His article,
“Die Jesuitenmissionare des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts und ihr Einfluß auf die japanische
Malerei,” (1933) became the most significant “guidebook” for scholars working on
Jesuit art production in Japan. In 1940, following Schurhammer’s footsteps, Joseph
Franz Schütte, another German Jesuit associated with Kirishitan kenkyū-kai, wrote the
article, “Christliche japanische Literatur, Bilder und Druckblatter in einem unbekannten
Vatikanischen Codex aus dem Jahr 1591,” which also made a major contribution to the
field of Jesuit art in Japan. 17 It is important to note that these two German historians
never used the term Namban in their papers. 18 Their articles have become the
authoritative literature for scholars in the field: everyone —Jozef Jennes, John McCall,
Grace Vlam, and Gauvin Bailey, for example— referred to them.
Among them, John McCall was the first art historian, at least in the West, to
make a major contribution to the field of Jesuit art in Japan. Gauvin Bailey, in his article,
“Le style jesuite n’existe pas: Jesuit Corporate Culture and the Visual Arts,” has pointed
to the fundamental importance of McCall’s work. 19 Before McCall, the two
authoritative articles previously written by Schurhammer and Schütte had already
presented significant information regarding Jesuit art production in Japan, 20 but they
left the art historical arguments to art historians: Schurhammer and Schütte were
ト・チースリク、
「セミナリヨの教師たち」
、
『キリシタン研究』第 11 輯、吉川弘文館、1966, 27-138);
Hubert Cieslik, “Leonardo Kimura: ekaki, shūdōshi, junkyōsha,” in Kirishitan kenkyū 25, Tokyo 1985,
3-56 (フーベルト・チースリク、
「レオナルド木村：絵描き、修道士、殉教者」、
『キリシタン研究』
第 25 輯、吉川弘文館、1985, 3-56); Ryōgo Yūki (Diego Pacheco), “Arima no Seminariyo 1595-1614,” in
Kirishitan kenkyū 21, Tokyo 1981, 187-202 (結城了悟、
「有馬のセミナリヨ」、
『キリシタン研究』第
21 輯、吉川弘文館、1981, 187-202); Yakichi Kataoka, “Iezusu-kai kyōiku-kikan no idō to iseki,” in
Kirishitan kenkyū 11, Tokyo 1966, 1-26 (片岡弥吉、
「イエズス会教育機関の移動と遺跡」、
『キリシタ
ン研究』第 11 輯、吉川弘文館、1966, 1-26); Takeo Yanagiya, “Seminariyo no seito-tachi,” in Kirishitan
kenkyū 11, Tokyo 1966, 139-164 (柳谷武夫、
「セミナリヨの生徒たち」、
『キリシタン研究』第 11 輯、
吉川弘文館、1966, 139-164); Chizuko Kataoka, Hachirao no Seminariyo, Tokyo 1970 (片岡千鶴子、
『八
良尾のセミナリヨ』、キリシタン文化研究会、1970).
16
Georg Schurhammer, “Die Jesuitenmissionare des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts und ihr Einfluß auf die
japanische Malerei,” Jubiläumsband Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens 1,
1933, 116-126.
17
Josef Franz Schütte, “Christliche japanische Literatur, Bilder und Druckblatter in einem unbekannten
Vatikanischen Codex aus dem Jahr 1591,” Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu ix 1940.
18
Georg Schurhammer, op. cit. 1933; Josef Franz Schütte, op. cit. 1940.
19
Gauvin Alexander Bailey, “‘Le style jesuite n’existe pas’: Jesuit Corporate Culture and the Visual Arts,”
in John W. O’Malley et al. ed., The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts 1540-1773, Toronto, Buffalo
and London 1999, 38-89, 52.
20
Georg Schurhammer, op. cit. 1933; Josef Franz Schütte, op. cit. 1940.
5
historians working on biographies of Francis Xavier and Alessandro Valignano
(1539-1606), respectively, and their interest in art history was incidental. After McCall,
Grace Vlam discussed Jesuit art production in her Ph.D. dissertation of 1976, as did
Gauvin Bailey in his book of 1999. 21
In 1931, Tokutarō Nagami’s collections of Namban related arts and artifacts
were inherited by Hajime Ikenaga (池長孟), 22 who edited the catalogue raisonné
entitled Namban-bijutsu sō-mokuroku (『南蛮美術総目録』) in 1955. 23 Prior to that, he
had published Hōsai-banka dai-hōkan 『邦彩蠻華大寳鑑』
(
) in 1933, 24 and Namban-dō
yōroku 『南蛮堂要録』
(
) in 1940. 25 These publications were all products of his purchase
of Nagami’s collections, yet they did not have the impact that the 1955 book did. This
may be because it bore the official imprimatur of the Kobe Municipal Art Museum (市
立神戸美術館 Ichiritsu Kobe bijutsu-kan 1951-1965). The book contained some
curatorial information about the collection, including rudimentary provenances, which
was very rare for Japanese collections in the mid-twentieth century. After World War II,
Ikenaga’s Namban related collections in the Ikenaga Art Museum (池長美術館
1940-1944) were transferred to the Kobe Municipal Art Museum, as Ikenaga was
worried that the collection would be scattered. 26 In order to reflect the character of the
collections, the Kobe Municipal Art Museum changed its name to Kobe Municipal
Namban Art Museum (神戸市立南蛮美術館 1965-1982) in 1965, and functioned under
this name until it was incorporated into the Kobe City Museum (神戸市立博物館
1982-present) in 1982, thus dignifying the term Namban with official recognition by an
art institution. At the beginning of Ikenaga’s catalogue raisonné, the author defines
Namban art: “(1) These are works of art produced by Japanese and not by Westerners
21
Grace Alida Hermine Vlam, Western-Style Secular Painting in Momoyama Japan, Ph.D. diss.,
University of Michigan 1976; Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin
America, 1542-1773, Toronto 1999.
22
Ikenaga purchased the entire collection of Tokutarō Nagami, which consisted of approximately 250
pieces, for 50,000 yen. For further information regarding this deal, see Toshihiko Ōtani, Zoku Nagasaki
Namban yojō: Nagami Tokutarō no shōgai, Nagasaki 1990 (大谷利彦、
『続長崎南蛮余情：永見徳太郎
の生涯』
、長崎文献社、1990). 1990, 321.
23
Hajime Ikenaga ed., Namban-bijutsu sō-mokuroku, 2nd edition (1st edition printed in 1955), Tokyo
1994 (池長孟編、
『南蛮美術総目録』
、第二版(初版は市立神戸美術館発行 1955 年)、東洋書院、1994).
24
Hajime Ikenaga ed., Hosai-banka dai-hōkan, Osaka and Tokyo 1940 (池長孟編、
『邦彩蠻華大寳鑑』、
創元社、1933).
25
Hajime Ikenaga, Namban-do Youroku, Kobe 1940 (池長孟、
『南蛮堂要録』
、神戸：池長美術館、1940).
26
Ikenaga’s personal reflections and the whole story of this transfer are summarized in the catalogue. See
Hajime Ikenaga ed., op. cit. 1994, 3-4.
6
and South Pacific Islanders. 27 (2) They have some kind of relationship to Europe,
America, and China. They represent a taste for exoticism. (3) They are works of art. The
works of literature are few.” 28 His definition of Namban art definitely includes Jesuit
artworks produced in Japan.
A few years after Ikenaga’s catalogue raisonné, the art historian Tei
Nishimura wrote a book entitled Namban-bijutsu. 29 Nishimura’s use of the term in
1958 deserves serious attention, as it is a revision of an earlier work published in 1945
under the title of Nihon shoki yōga no kenkyū 『
( 日本初期洋画の研究』Studies of Early
Western Paintings in Japan). 30 Both books feature Christian ― including Jesuit ―
art in Japan between the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries. The use of
the term “Namban-bijutsu” to replace the more technical and descriptive term “shoki
yoga” (Early Western/Westernized Painting) is a milestone in the historiography of
so-called Namban art. Following Nishimura, Yoshitomo Okamoto published a book
entitled Namban-bijutsu (『南蛮美術』) in 1965 as the nineteenth volume of a series on
Japanese art (『日本の美術』Nihon no bijutsu) organized by Heibon-sha. 31 Okamoto
was a historian whose interest originally lay in the study of cultural exchange between
Japan and European countries. 32 Like Nishimura, he had written a book on the subject
of Christian art entitled Kirishitan yōga-shi josetsu (『吉利支丹洋画史序説』The
Introduction to the History of Westernized Christian Art) which was published in 1953.
Here the author did not use the term Namban to describe this particular group of
artworks. Both Nishimura and Okamoto changed their terminology from yōga/yōfū-ga
27
Here Ikenaga refers to Micronesians, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Filipinos. South Pacific is a literal
translation of Nanyou (南洋), which is no longer current as a term in Japan, as it is related to Imperial
Japan and colonialism.
28
The original text in Japanese is as follows:南蛮美術とは／一.日本人の作品である。西洋人南洋人
等の作品ではない。／二.外国すなわち欧米や中国と関係の深いもの。異国趣味の品。／三.美術
品である。文献類は少ない。For further information, see Hajime Ikenaga ed., op. cit. 1994, a page prior
to p.1.
29
Tei Nishimura, Namban-bijutsu, Tokyo 1958 (西村貞、
『南蛮美術』
、大日本雄弁会講談社、1958).
30
Tei Nishimura, Nihon shoki yōga no kenkyū, Osaka 1945 (西村貞、
『日本初期洋画の研究』、全国書
房、1945).
31
Yoshitomo Okamoto, Namban-bijutsu: Nihon no Bijutsu 19, Tokyo 1965 (岡本良知、『南蛮美術：日
本の美術』
、第九巻、平凡社、1965).
32
Okamoto’s contributions to this field of study deserve further investigation, but I will limit myself to
referring to some of his writings related to cultural exchange and maps in the 1930s. They are: Yoshitomo
Okamoto, Portugal wo tazuneru, Tokyo 1930 (岡本良知、
『ポルトガルを訪ねる』
、日葡協会,1930);
16-seiki Nichi-ou kōtsū-shi no kenkyū, Tokyo 1936 (『十六世紀日欧交通史の研究』
、弘文荘、1936);
16-seiki sekai-chizu-jō no Nihon, Tokyo 1938 (『十六世紀世界地図上の日本』、弘文荘、1938).
7
to Namban-bijutsu around 1955, at the time that Izuru Shinmura’s Japanese dictionary,
Kōjien, and Ikenaga’s catalogue raisonné, Namban-bijutsu sō-mokuroku, were
published.
In the 1950s, Japan was struggling to re-establish its national pride in the
wake of its defeat in World War II. The kyōdo-kyōiku (郷土教育) or kyōdo-shi (郷土史)
movement, which was a Japanese version of Heimatkunde (the study of regional history
and geography), was again encouraged by the government, this time without reference
to Imperial Nationalism. 33 Japanese academic elites, including Izuru Shinmura,
consciously or unconsciously promoted the usage of the term Namban without
reassessing its discriminatory tone ―most likely merely in order to preserve a Japanese
tradition of usage that dated to the sixteenth century, though it is possible that they
hoped the term would, by reestablishing a pre-World War II Japanese perspective,
contribute to the redevelopment of national pride after the shameful loss of the war.
In 1970, Mitsuru Sakamoto, Tadashi Sugase, and Fujio Naruse wrote a book
entitled Namban-bijutsu to yōfū-ga as the 25th volume of the series of Japanese art
(Genshoku Nihon no bijutsu) published by Shōgakkan. 34 Here, the terminology
Namban-bijutsu is established to refer to European-related art made during the period
between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, while the term yōfū-ga is
used to describe art produced much later, around the eighteenth century, with the
presence of Dutch trade and the Rangaku culture. Most Jesuit artworks that survived
were included in this book and officially categorized as Namban art in the curatorial
information.
Nanban/Namban started to appear in English in the mid-twentieth century,
especially in the writings of C. R. Boxer and John McCall. Both of them referred to
Izuru Shinmura to legitimate the term. Perhaps the two writers were merely transmitting
the conventional terminology they encountered among Japanese scholars: C. R. Boxer
dedicated his book, The Christian Century in Japan 1549-1650, to Yoshitomo Okamoto,
while John McCall, who based his research on Ikenaga’s Namban art catalogue and Tei
Nishimura’s research, was mentioned in the acknowledgements of Nishimura’s 1958
For further information regarding the kyōdo-shi or kyōdo-kyōiku movement and the Japanese
government, see Junrō Itō, Kyōdo-kyōiku undō no kenkyū, Kyoto 2008 [1st edition 1998] (伊藤純郎、
『郷
st
土教育運動の研究』、思文閣出版、2008 [1 edition 1998]).
34
Mitsuru Sakamoto et al., Namban bijutsu to Yofu-ga: Genshoku Nihon no Bijjutsu 25, Tokyo 1970 (坂
本満他、
『南蛮美術と洋風画：原色日本の美術』
、第 25 巻、小学館、1970).
33
8
book. When C. R. Boxer discusses the Japanese screen paintings, he refers to the
“so-called Namban-byobu” to address the Japanese screen paintings, which seems to
indicate a certain distancing from the term, as though Boxer recognized its problematic
status. The definition and the usage of the term are precisely stated here and the author
clearly separates Jesuit art productions from Namban-byobu in the discussion. Boxer
states:
Apart from the foregoing more or less slavish copies of European art, Western influence can be discerned
in other directions. Chief among the artistic productions of the Keicho era (1594-1618) were the so-called
Namban-byobu or Southern Barbarian picture screens, painted by masters of the Kano, Tosa, and
Sumiyoshi schools. They owed nothing to Western inspiration in their technique, distinguished by a lavish
use of gold leaf, paints made from powdered malachite, lapis-lazuli, and so on, but the motifs were
directly inspired by European objects. 35
Here, he described Jesuit art production as “more or less slavish copies of European art”
to express his prejudice towards this type of art, but at least he distinguished the two in
terms of stylistic traditions, and provided concise but accurate definitions. John McCall
also mentioned the term Namban at the end of an article published in 1947:
Perhaps the best of the Namban paintings with churches is the fan painting by Kano Motohide in the
Ikenaga collection. It shows the Nambanji in Kyoto, granted by Nobunaga to the Jesuits who are walking
in the courtyard before the two and a half story building typical of its kind. 36
This passage presented the only use of the term Namban in a series of five articles on
Jesuit art he published at this time. 37 It is not clear what he meant by “Namban
paintings” here, but it seems to describe a painting of the Kano school featuring a
European object. In any case, the passage was inserted as additional information at the
35
C. R. Boxer, op. cit. 1951, 200.
John E. McCall, “Early Jesuit Art in the Far East. III: The Japanese Christian Painters,” Artibus Asiae
10.3, 1947, 283-301: 301.
37
John E. McCall, “Early Jesuit Art in the Far East. I: Pioneers,” Artibus Asiae 10.2, 1947, 121-137;
“Early Jesuit Art in the Far East. II: Nobukata and Yamada Emonsaku,” Artibus Asiae 10.3, 1947,
216-233; “Early Jesuit Art in the Far East. III: The Japanese Christian Painters,” Artibus Asiae 10.4, 1947,
283-301; “Early Jesuit Art in the Far East. IV: In China and Macao before 1635,” Artibus Asiae 11.1/2,
1948, 45-69; “Early Jesuit Art in the Far East. V: More Discoveries,” Artibus Asiae 17.1, 1954, 39-54.
36
9
end of the third article, and the term Namban does not appear in his argument on Jesuit
art production in Japan.
In the 1970s the term Namban began to be used more frequently in Western
languages. The initiative was taken by Michael Cooper, who published a book entitled
The Southern Barbarians: The First Europeans in Japan (Tokyo and Palo Alto, 1971).
This book focused mainly on the history of the Jesuits in Japan during the early modern
period, yet it also encompassed a discussion of so-called Namban art, which Cooper
used to describe Namban-byōbu, Jesuit art, Christian objects, lacquerware, and
Western-style genre paintings. In the following year, an even more influential
publication became available to English speaker: the translation of Yoshimoto
Okamoto’s 1965 book Namban-bijutsu (The Namban Art of Japan), which discussed
so-called Namban art, including Jesuit artworks. 38
Since the 1980s, use of the term has become standard in art historical
discussions throughout the world, which is perhaps thanks to the dissemination of
Okamoto’s book. Maria Helena Mendes Pinto, for example, published a book called
Biombos Namban: Namban Screens in 1986 and Namban: Lacquerware in Portugal,
the Portuguese Presence in Japan (1543-1639) in 1990, 39 and João Paulo Oliveira e
Costa wrote Portugal and the (sic) Japan: The Namban Century in 1993 in Portugal. 40
Mendes Pinto also published Art Namban: les Portugais au Japon = Nambankunst:
Portugezen in Japan in Bruxelles in 1989. 41 An exhibition called Arte Namban was
held in Madrid in 1981, 42 and another one called Namban: ou de l’européisme japonais,
XVIe-XVIIe siècles was held in Paris in 1980. 43 In 1993, Luiz Carlos Lisboa and Mara
Rúbia Arakaki published Namban: o dia em que ocidente descobriu o Japão in São
Paulo, Brazil. 44 Jorge Welsh of the Jorge Welsh Oriental Porcelain and Works of Art
38
Yoshitomo Okamoto, The Namban Art of Japan, translated by Ronald K. Jones, New York 1972.
Maria Helena Mendes Pinto, Biombos Namban: Namban Screens, Lisbon 1986; Maria Helena Mendes
Pinto, Namban: Lacquerware in Portugal, The Portuguese Presence in Japan (1543-1639), Lisbon 1990.
40
João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, Portugal and the Japan: The Namban Century, Lisbon 1993.
41
Maria Helena Mendes Pinto and Pedro Canavarro, Art Namban: les Portugais au Japon =
Nambankunst: Portugezen in Japan, Bruxelles 1989.
42
Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes, Archivos y Bibliotecas, Arte Namban:
influencia, española y portuguesa en el arte japonés siglos XVI y XVII: [exposición] Museo del Prado,
Madrid, febrero-marzo 1981, Madrid 1981.
43
Musée Cernuschi, Namban: ou de l’européisme japonais, XVIe-XVIIe siècles: [exposition], Musée
Cernuschi, 18 octobre – 14décembre 1980,Ville de Paris, Paris 1980.
44
Luiz Carlos Lisboa and Mara Rúbia Arakaki, Namban: o dia em que ocidente descobriu o Japão, São
Paulo 1993.
39
10
also published two books on the subject: After the Barbarians: An Exceptional Group of
Namban Works of Art (2003), and After the Barbarians II: Namban Works of the
Japanese, Portuguese and Dutch Markets (2008). 45 In 2005, Rodrigo Rivero Lake
published El arte Namban en el México virreinal in Spain,46 and in 2007, Alexandra
Curvelo da Silva Campos wrote her Ph.D. dissertation, Nuvens douradas e paisagens
habitadas a arte Namban e a sua circulação entre a Ásia e a América: Japão, China e
Nova-Espanha. 47 In 2010, the Museu da Fundação Oriente in Lisbon published an
exhibition catalogue called Encomendas Namban: os Portugueses no Japão da Idade
Moderna = Namban Commissions: the Portuguese in the Modern Age Japan. 48 In 2011,
the Nikkei News Paper published Namban bijutsu no hikari to kage, which was
accompanied by the exhibition held in Suntory Museum in Tokyo in 2011 and Kobe
City Museum in 2012. 49 Most recently, Lacas Namban: Huellas de Japòn en España.
IV Centenario de la Embajada Keicho was published by the Ministerio de Educación,
Cultura y Deporte and the Fundación Japón in Madrid in 2013, accompanied by the
exhibition held in Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid. 50
In 1997, another institution-sponsored publication on this topic appeared in
Japan: a catalogue raisonné published by the National Museum of Japanese History,
entitled Namban-bijutsu sō-mokuroku yōfū-ga hen (『南蛮美術総目録：洋風画篇』). 51
The book dealt with sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries European paintings found in
Japan as well as European-style paintings made in Japan called yōfū-ga (Western-style
painting). Namban-byōbu and lacquerware were not included. However, the perplexing
45
Jorge Welsh and Luísa Vinhais ed., After the Barbarians: An Exceptional Group of Namban Works of
Art, London and Lisbon 2003; Jorge Welsh and Luísa Vinhais ed., After the Barbarians II: Namban
Works of the Japanese, Portuguese and Dutch Markets, London and Lisbon 2008.
46
Rodrigo Rivero Lake published the same book in English as well. See Rodrigo Rivero Lake, Namban
Art in Viceregal Mexico, Madrid 2005.
47
Alexandra Curvelo da Silva Campos, Nuvens douradas e paisagens habitadas a arte Namban e a sua
circulação entre a Ásia e a América: Japão, China e Nova-Espanha, Ph.D. diss., Universidade Nova de
Lisboa 2007. This dissertation was defended in 2008.
48
Maria Manuela d’Oliveira Martins ed., Encomendas Namban: os Portugueses no Japão da Idade
Moderna = Namban Commissions: the Portuguese in the Modern Age Japan, Lisbon 2010.
49
Suntory Museum of Art, Kobe City Museum, Nikkei Newspaper ed., Namban bijutsu no hikari to
kage: Taisei ōkō kibazu byōbu no nazo = Light and Shadows in Namban Art: the Mystery of the Western
Kings on Horseback, Tokyo 2011(サントリー美術館、神戸市立博物館、日本経済新聞者編、
『南蛮
美術の光と影：泰西王侯騎馬図屏風の謎』
、日本経済新聞社、2011 年).
50
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte y La Fundación Japón in Madrid ed., Lacas Namban:
Huellas de Japòn en España. IV Centenario de la Embajada Keicho, Madrid 2013.
51
This book has an official English title: “An Essay of Catalogue Raisonné of Namban Art, Part one:
Japanese Early [sic] European-Style Painting.”
11
term Namban is still used to classify the works in the catalogue, which defines yōfū-ga
as a subdivision of Namban art. The book includes a variety of works, such as maps,
equestrian and genre paintings, portraits, and Christian art ranging from the Jesuit to the
Dominican schools. Suffice it to say that this well-researched catalogue raisonné
provides rich curatorial information with an informative essay written by Mitsuru
Sakamoto, but it still is infected with the problems arising from the use of the term
Namban art. In 2001, Sakamoto referred to Jesuit art production in Japan in the book
entitled Kirishitan:
Presumably Niccolò [Giovanni Cola] started to teach painting in the 1590s, and according to the Jesuit
reports of 1591 and later, there were art workshops at Hachirao and Arima in the Simabara bay area and
at Shiki in Amakusa-Shimoshima island, where they produced oil paintings, water-colors, engravings and
so on……I shall call this group the Jesuit School of Painting in Japan. 52
This statement appeared in the section subtitled “Christian Art Workshop, Jesuit School
of Painting in Japan (聖画工房、日本イエズス会画派),” and it explicitly demonstrated
Sakamoto’s effort to distinguish Jesuit art in Japan from what has been identified as
Namban art. 53 However, this book is a small encyclopedia on the history and culture of
Christianity in Japan, which did not have the influence of his other books, such as
Namban bijutsu to yōfū-ga (1970) and the catalogue raisonné, Namban-bijutsu
sō-mokuroku yōfū-ga hen (1997).
In the twenty-first century, a number of significant books dealing with Jesuit
art in Japan have been published thus far. Among them, The Jesuits and the Arts
1540-1773 edited by John W. O’Malley, et. al.; Novos Mundos: Neue Welten: Portugal
und das Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, edited by Michael Kraus and Hans Ottomeyer;
Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850 edited by Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jörg; and
Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th & 17th Centuries edited by
52
Mitsuru Sakamoto, “Kirishitan to kaiga: Christian Art Workshop, Jesuit School of Painting in Japan,”
in Hubert Cieslik and Yoshiko Ota ed., Kirishitan, Tokyo 1999, 154-157, 155: ニッコロの画技指導は
1590 年代に入ってからと思われるが、1591 年以後のイエズス会報告によると島原半島の八良尾、
有馬、天草下島の志岐などに工房が設けられ、油彩画・水彩画・銅板画などの製作が行われ
た・・・・・この製作集団を日本イエズス会画派と呼ぶことにする。
53
Ibid., 154-157.
12
Jay A. Levenson must be noted. 54 Since the work of Alexandra Curvelo da Silva
Campos, many Ph.D. dissertations discussing Jesuit Art in Japan have emerged.
Examples are: The Shape of Conversation: the Aesthetics of Jesuit Folding Screens in
Momoyama and Early Tokugawa Japan (1549-1639) by Naoko Frances Hioki; When
Worlds Collide—Art, Cartography, and Japanese Nanban World Map Screens by Joseph F.
Loh, and, if I may include my own, Studies in Jesuit Art in Japan. 55 I am sure that the
last decade especially has seen many other important publications on Jesuit Art in Japan,
which I have had to neglect.
In the early modern period, the Japanese viewed the technology and culture of
the so-called Namban people, the southern barbarians, as desirable and made efforts to
copy it. With the compass, carrack, gunpowder and musket, Europeans were capable of
traveling around the world ― as far as the Far East. Moreover, it was the European
Jesuits who first founded institutions such as orphanages, hospitals, and schools, as well
as set up the first printing press in Japan. Given such historical facts, it is ironic that the
Japanese called Europeans ―the more civilized ones at the time― southern barbarians.
It is this paradox that has made the term Namban attractive to recent scholars. It is fair
to say that Jesuit art in Japan and its scholarship ― categorized under Namban art ―
were not well-represented in the twentieth century. However, art historical achievements
of the past decade lead me to believe that they are on the path to gain broader
recognition.
54
John W. O’Malley, et al. ed., The Jesuits and the Arts 1540-1773, Philadelphia 2005; Michael Kraus
and Hans Ottomeyer ed., Novos Mundos: Neue Welten: Portugal und das Zeitalter der Entdeckungen,
Dresden 2007; Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jörg ed., Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, Amsterdam
2005; Jay A. Levenson ed., Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th & 17th Centuries,
3 vols., Washington D. C. 2007.
55
Naoko Frances Hioki, The Shape of Conversation: the Aesthetics of Jesuit Folding Screens in
Momoyama and Early Tokugawa Japan (1549-1639), Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley
2009; Joseph F. Loh, When Worlds Collide—Art, Cartography, and Japanese Nanban World Map
Screens, Ph.D. diss. Columbia University 2013; Noriko Kotani, op. cit. 2010.
13

Download Report