Gasen 画筌

Keywords
Art History
Painting

Net of Paintings, an early 18th-century introductory text on the study of painting by Hayashi Moriatsu 林守篤 (fl. early 18th century). Composed of six volumes plus a list of contents, it was written in 1712 according to a preface, and published in 1721. Moriatsu studied painting from Ogata Yūgen 尾形幽玄 (fl. ca. 1712), a student of Kano Tan'yū 狩野探幽 (1602-74), founder of the Edo Kano school *Edogano 江戸狩野. The first volume of the work is devoted to Chinese painting theories, such as the Six Laws *rikuhō 六法, Three Classes *sanpin 三品, and Twelve Things to Avoid jūniki 十二忌, in addition to the secrets that were orally taught, kuden 口伝 by Yūgen and a discussion of pigments. The next four volumes set forth the Kano school *Kano-ha 狩野派 painting method, including detailed discussions on how to draw landscapes and plants (vol. 2), birds and animals (vol. 3), Chinese figures (vol. 4), and Japanese figures (vol. 5). Methods of mounting and appreciating painting, and even how to roll and unroll scrolls are explained in the last volume (vol. 6). Gasen is an important document revealing the teaching of the Kano school. The support of Kano orthodoxy accounts for the disparaging description about southern school, *nanga 南画, treatises such as Yanagisawa Kien's 柳沢淇園 (1704-58) Hitorine ひとりね. The text is reproduced in Sakazaki Tan 坂崎坦, ed., Nihon garon taikan 日本画論大鑑 1, pp. 5-40.