Lake Shi of Suzhou Modelled after West Lake Scenery Considered as a Nagasaki Print

長崎版画としての《姑蘇石湖倣西湖勝景》

2016年、中国の蘇州美術館で展示された《姑蘇石湖倣西湖勝景》は、乾隆期に制作された蘇州版画の代表作として扱われたが、その制作地についてはかねてから意見が分かれていた。本稿では、蘇州版画の都市景観図の特徴と、その日本への伝播の状況を踏まえて、画中に描かれた景観表現と描写技法の特徴から、《姑蘇石湖倣西湖勝景》が十八世紀後半の長崎で制作されたことを明らかにする。

Lake Shi of Suzhou Modelled after West Lake Scenery is a large woodblock print that depicts a bird's eye view of the city of Suzhou. Because this print has no inscription identifying the printer or the place of production, there are two different opinions on where it was produced. One view is that this print was created in Suzhou, which was the most prosperous Chinese city in the eighteenth century. However, some researchers are of the view that the print was created in Nagasaki in the late eighteenth century. The purpose of this essay is to show that the expressive techniques and scenery depicted in the print lend support to the latter view.
Suzhou prints produced in the eighteenth century were known for their representations of bird's eye views of the city, adopting the perspective of a Western style painting. At first glance, Lake Shi of Suzhou Modelled after West Lake Scenery appears to be one of these Suzhou prints. However, the details expressed do not reflect an accurate perspective in their depiction of the positional relationship of each motif. The drawing techniques and the kinds of features depicted are not thought to be those associated with Suzhou prints. Rather, this print is similar to those produced by Toshimaya, a printmaker who was active in Nagasaki during the late eighteenth century. Toshimaya's technique was to connect two sheets of printed paper to produce the entire composition. The use of this method has never been seen in Suzhou prints, whereas another bird's eye view print produced using a method attributed to Toshimaya suggests that this Japanese printmaker produced both prints.
Lake Shi of Suzhou Modelled after West Lake Scenery depicts Lake Shi, the Hanshan temple, and the cityscape around the area of Changmen Gate in Suzhou, as if these three places were adjacent to each other. In fact, they are scattered at some distance from each other.
This print's' title, ‟Lake Shi of Suzhou Modelled after West Lake Scenery”, probably indicates the artist's intention of comparing the scenic beauty of Suzhou with that of Hangzhou, the old capital city facing West Lake, which was famous not only in China but also in Japan.
However, a problematic issue is the print's depiction of a tower rising up in the center of the scene. This tower bears the inscription ‟Hanshan Temple.” In fact, Hanshan Temple burnt down in 1711 and had entirely lost its influence in the eighteenth century. The Suzhou artists and printmakers are highly unlikely to have considered this dilapidated temple to be a landmark of Suzhou. Hanshan Temple was famous because of references to it in an ancient poem of the Tang dynasty and from medieval times onward, it was familiar to many Japanese. The image in the print is that of a stunning temple that did not match the reality of the existing temple. Thus, it can be concluded that the print was an unexpected but genuine expression of the admiration felt by the Japanese for Suzhou, which was the largest East Asian city at the time.