Report

On December 15, 2025, the Tōbunken Seminar Public Research Meeting: Documentary Materials Accompanying Chinese Paintings and Research on the Edo Kano School was held. Approximately 40 participants attended in person, with around 90 joining online.

As an opening statement of issues, Uematsu Mizuki (Tokyo National Museum), who initiated the preliminary research and the public research meeting leading up to this seminar, delivered a presentation entitled “The Past and Future of Research on Documentary Materials Accompanying ‘Works’: The Potential of the Tokyo National Museum Database ‘Records of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy.’”

Uematsu defined “documentary materials accompanying works” as objects and texts that are materially part of the artwork but were not directly anticipated by the original makers at the time of production, having instead been added during subsequent processes of reception and transmitted together with the work. She proposed methods for actively utilizing such materials as research resources. Taking the Chinese painting collection of the Tokyo National Museum as an example, she explained this framework by focusing on institutional functions such as storage and display, management, evaluation and research, and documentation. She also surveyed historical changes—while noting regional differences—in attitudes toward accompanying materials as they appear in catalogues and records, including painting registers, tea gathering records, meibutsuki (lists of celebrated objects), and collection inventories. Building on this overview, she discussed the scholarly significance of the database Records of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, publicly available through the museum’s research archives, highlighting its completeness and cross-search functionality, and offered proposals for its future use.

Next, Katō Shōhei (Tokugawa Art Museum), in “Beyond the Pictorial Surface: Mountings, Boxes, and Provenance,” observed that as Chinese paintings (tōga), which symbolized wealth and power, circulated over time, provenance was added to them, and elements outside the pictorial surface—such as mountings and storage boxes that visually conveyed this provenance—came to be valued and respected. While art historical research has traditionally emphasized the pictorial surface as the primary object of stylistic and authenticity analysis, information concerning mountings, boxes, and accompanying objects that protected and transmitted the work has often been omitted. In contrast, within tea ceremony cultural history, such information has long been regarded as equally important as the work itself. Although this divergence has been noted before, discussions focusing on what lies outside the pictorial surface remain limited. Katō argued for reevaluating Chinese paintings—long neglected due to issues of authenticity—through the lens of their reception history, drawing on mountings, boxes, accompanying objects, and documentary sources such as meibutsuki. Based on detailed observations of boxes and mountings, he emphasized the importance of uncovering information embedded in these peripheral materials.

Hiromi Nobuhiko (Idemitsu Museum of Arts), in “The Subtleties of Connoisseurship: Focusing on Appraisal Statements Issued by the Kobikichō Kano Family,” reexamined appraisal statements (soejō) issued mainly by the Kobikichō branch of the Kano family, which have often been dismissed under the strict standards of art historical scholarship. By interpreting them within the historical context of the Kano school, he sought to reconsider Kano connoisseurship as a human practice shaped by various circumstances. Particular attention was paid to closing phrases used in these documents. While Kobikichō appraisal statements typically end with expressions such as “muginasha nari” (“there is no doubt”), documents from the period of Koremasa (1753–1808) onward sometimes conclude with “sōrō-hitsu”. Drawing on Japanese linguistic studies, Hiromi noted that “sōrō-hitsu” can convey not only a sense of past completion but also an attitude of excessive humility, sometimes implying a reluctant conclusion to the act. Through case studies, he presented a tentative interpretation of whether such variations reflect differing degrees of confidence in the appraisal or considerations of the owner’s social status.

Kanai Yūko (Tokyo National Museum), in “Kano Appraisal Practices as Seen through Memoranda and Diaries,” examined what kinds of actions were undertaken by painters prior to issuing appraisal statements and box inscriptions—among the most important materials relating to Edo Kano connoisseurship—by analyzing internal documents of the Kobikichō Kano family. She identified three main categories of sources: (1) records (such as appraisal memoranda), exemplified by the Appraisal Records of Kano Yōshin and Masanobu (private collection); (2) diaries, including those of Yōshin (Diary of Kano Seikawain, Tokyo National Museum) and Meiji-period recollections by Tatsunobu (1815–91) and Hashimoto Gahō (1835–1908); and (3) marginal notes left on copies, which often record dates, copyists, and owners, and occasionally impressions at the time of copying. By examining these sources collectively, Kanai reconstructed appraisal practices related to shogunal collections and candidate works, judgments of lineage in the context of restoration, and appraisal requests from daimyō and art dealers, which were positioned as side occupations.

Noda Asami (Kobe University), in “The Edo Kano School’s Reception of Ma Yuan: An Analysis of Accompanying Materials, Direct Copies, and Archaising Paintings,” argued that the Edo Kano school played a major role in shaping premodern Japanese values concerning the reception of Chinese painting. Appraisal statements, outer titles, and box inscriptions attached to Chinese paintings reflect this process. By combining this perspective with her long-term research on archaising paintings, Noda demonstrated new possibilities for Edo Kano studies. She pointed out close relationships between Chinese paintings appraised by the Kano school and their own archaising works, focusing particularly on Kano Eishin’s emphasis on Ma Yuan. Through analysis of appraisals, copies, and archaising paintings, she argued that the Ma Yuan style, regarded as normative by Eishin, was incorporated into the Edo Kano style and led to stylistic transformation. She further suggested that Eishin and others actively studied the Ma Lin style as an adaptation of Ma Yuan, contributing to the completion of Edo Kano reception of Ma Yuan.

In “The Accompanying Materials of ‘Fishing Alone on a Cold River’ and Their Cultural-Historical Significance,” Tsukamoto Maromitsu (University of Tokyo) noted that the value of an artwork has long consisted not only of style but also of various accompanying materials that indicate its social functions. He argued that greater public access to and sharing of such materials will foster new conceptions of what constitutes a “work.” After surveying the history and circulation of boxes, mountings, and accompanying materials in Chinese painting, he examined the accompanying materials—specifically the outer box by Inoue Seigai—of the painting traditionally attributed to Ma Yuan, Fishing Alone on a Cold River (Tokyo National Museum). Drawing on examples ranging from Shōsōin treasures and the Niigata shipwreck scroll rods to celebrated tea objects, Zen calligraphy, Mughal and European court collections, Korean and Qing imperial collections, he situated Chinese painting storage boxes within a global perspective. He then analyzed how the accompanying materials of this painting were reinterpreted and endowed with new meanings within Japanese society, shaping collective memory and ultimately inspiring artistic creation.

In the subsequent general discussion, Itakura Masaaki (Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo) observed that over the past thirty years, information on accompanying materials such as appraisal statements, box inscriptions, and copies—once known only to a limited circle—has become widely accessible, fundamentally transforming the research environment. He emphasized the importance of adopting broader perspectives and accumulating case studies, drawing on his own research on the Asano family collections.

In the open discussion with participants, reports were shared on the current state of disclosure, photography, and cataloguing of accompanying materials in museums and institutions. While individual institutions are pursuing independent initiatives, it was noted that accompanying materials are often stored separately or not recorded in inventories at all. Despite constraints of budget and manpower, participants emphasized the importance of proactively making such materials accessible for research and future use, including post-restoration mountings regarded as the “original home.” The discussion also highlighted the need for the art historical community to share awareness of these issues, recognizing them as central to questions concerning the very nature of artworks. The meeting concluded after an extended discussion that exceeded the scheduled time.