厳島神社：厳島八景
この絵の巻物に描かれた「厳島の8つの風景」は、1700年代初頭に宮島の光明院の僧、恕信により選ばれました。ある場所を代表するいくつかの風景を選ぶ風習はアジア本土から導入されたもので、宋朝中国(960-1279)の詩、図面、絵画の人気の主題である瀟湘八景に由来します。瀟湘は自然の美しさで有名な中国中南部(現在の湖南省)の地域です。8つの風景の概念はおそらく14世紀後期に日本に導入されたもので、多くの旅行者、司祭、文学者が影響を受け、旅に出て全国各地で自分の好きな風景を選びました。この伝統は後に変更・拡大されていき、北斎(1760-1849)の富士山三十六景のような有名な連続作品にそれが見られます。厳島八景の巻物の水墨画には、島の自然美が高度に図案化された描写を見ることができます。
Itsukushima Shrine: Eight Views of Itsukushima
The “eight views of Itsukushima” depicted in this picture scroll were selected by the Buddhist priest Joshin of Miyajima’s Komyoin Temple in the early 1700s. The practice of choosing a number of iconic “views” to represent a place was introduced from mainland Asia, where it originated with the eight views of Xiaoxiang, a popular subject of poems, drawings, and paintings in Song China (960–1279). Xiaoxiang is a region in south-central China (present-day Hunan Province) famed for its natural beauty. The eight views concept was likely introduced to Japan in the late fourteenth century and inspired a great number of travelers, priests, and literati, who went on to pick out their own favorite views in various parts of the country. This tradition was later modified and expanded upon, as demonstrated by famous serial works such as Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai (1760–1849). The ink paintings in the Eight Views of Itsukushima scroll offer a highly stylized depiction of the island’s natural beauty.
