1760
ink
paper
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Group Pilgrimage to the Jizo Nun is a 1760 ink by Ike no Taiga, a Nihonga work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a long, narrow scroll of ink on paper: tiny pilgrims climb a steep path to a small hut where an old woman in robes sits. This is a real pilgrimage Ike Taiga watched in Kyoto. Most artists then painted gods or nobles; Taiga chose everyday people. The ink is so light you can almost see the paper breathe, yet the faces feel alive. Look up more of Ike Taiga’s work to spot how he mixed Chinese brushwork with Japanese humor.
Ike Taiga was a revolutionary known for revitalizing Japanese painting traditions in the eighteenth century. He infused the Chinese-inspired ink painting ( nanga ) that was gaining favor among intellectuals in Kyoto with a purely Japanese aesthetic and humor. Group Pilgrimage to the Jizo Nun is a snapshot of contemporary life in Japan presented from Taiga’s unique perspective. The print depicts pilgrims making offerings to the Jizo nun, a holy woman believed to be able to communicate with the bodhisattva Jizo, who had the power to save souls in the afterlife. Group Pilgrimage contains an…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Ike no Taiga (池大雅; June 6, 1723, in Kyōto, Japan — May 30, 1776, in Kyōto) was a Japanese painter and calligrapher born in Kyoto during the Edo period.
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