dc.description.abstract | Knowing as the goddess of life and immortality, the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) is an ancient Chinese goddess and formally adopted into the Taoist pantheon in Liang Dynasty. The origin of the Queen Mother can be traced back to pre-Qin mythology. She was widely worshipped from Han Dynasty onward and is still worshipped as a today in the Greater China Area. In Momoyama-Edo Japan, numerous images of Queen Mother were produced by Japanese artists. Why they were made? For whom they are made? And what did they mean? Those questions have not been answered. In academic researches, previous researchers have studied almost all the legends of Queen Mother and her images in Han Dynasty in detail. However, scholars barely noticed the images of Queen Mother after Han Dynasty. Moreover, the numerous images of Queen Mother produced by Japanese artists are also ignored in art history. The aim of this thesis is to explain the importance, to analyze the evolution, and to figure out the source of images of Queen Mother of the west in Momoyama-Edo Japan.
This study would investigate Chinese and Japanese legends of Queen Mother, and her images in post-Han in China and in Momoyama-Edo Japan, especially on the works by Kanō artists and Maruyama Ōkyo (1733-1795).
The results of my research indicate that images of Queen Mother of the west were known as a symbol of life and immortality in both China and Japan. In Yuan and Ming China, images of Queen Mother were closely related with birthday parties, and paintings of Queen Mother were usually presented as birthday gifts, especially gifting for elder women. In Japan, Queen Mother appeared in a Heian-period story and also appeared as a leading role in Noh plays since Muromachi period. In Momoyama-Edo period, owners of Queen Mother images, who are emperors, samurais, and monks familiarizing themselves with content of Noh plays, regarded her as a symbol of both “peaceful and prosperous times” and “life and immortality,” and applied the theme of Queen Mother to public and private spaces. In Edo period, the images of Queen Mother were usually used as decoration in Hinamatsuri, as dowry at the time of marriage, and as gifts on birthdays, with the hope of longevity.
Kanō artists in Muromachi-Momoyama Japan set up the standard images of Queen Mother of the West. Absorbing the decorative elements from woodblock printings in Ming dynasty, which were exported from China, Kanō artists in early Edo period formed the image model of Queen Mother. In middle Edo Period, Maruyama Ōkyo created his unique Queen Mother images, and the attractive, volumetric, and lifelike images were visually distinct from all the previous Chinese and Japanese Queen Mother images. It seems like his works exhibit a Western understanding of perspective. Actually, Ōkyo’s Queen Mother images inherited some elements from traditional Kanō-centered Queen Mother images. The presence of abundant images of “Queen Mother of the West in Ōkyo-style” indicates that the “Ōkyo-style” were very popular with people of different social status throughout the country. ”The Queen Mother of the West” was one of the most popular and frequently-chosen theme in Edo painting. Almost every school in Edo period dealt with this theme.
In summary, this study discovered that the Queen Mother of the West became a very popular theme because she, as an auspicious and beautiful symbol, had a strong correlation with life in Momoyama-Edo Japan.
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