Pine Trees
Pine trees loom out of the mist on two six-panel screens. Most of the surface is bare paper.
Step closer and the trees dissolve into a few quick brushstrokes.
Hasegawa Tōhaku was born in 1539 in Nanao in Noto Province, on the Sea of Japan. He began as a painter of Buddhist images and later moved to Kyoto, where he became a rival of the powerful Kanō school. He received commissions from military leaders and temples. Pine Trees is his best-known work and is dated to the late 16th century. It belongs to the Tokyo National Museum and is designated a National Treasure. Wall paintings in gold and colour from his workshop survive at the temple of Chishaku-in in Kyoto, showing that he also mastered the sumptuous style.
The work consists of two folding screens of six panels each. Each screen is about 1.5 metres high and 3.5 metres wide. The screens show pine trees in mist. Some trees stand out clearly in the foreground, while others are faintly glimpsed in the background. On the left-hand screen the outline of a distant mountain can also be seen. Much of the surface is bare paper.
The composition is built on groups of trees separated by large empty spaces. The emptiness is perceived as mist or air, and it creates depth. When the screens stand in a zigzag, as they were intended to, the picture changes depending on where one stands. The trees seem to come and go in the mist.
Tōhaku painted in black ink on paper. He used different tones, from deep black to pale grey, to create distance. The needles are painted with quick, vigorous brushstrokes, often with a dry brush. Close up one sees only brushstrokes, but from a distance they become trees. He had studied Chinese ink painters of the Song dynasty, especially Muqi, and was influenced by their way of rendering mist.
Scholars have debated whether the screens were a finished work or a preparatory study. The paper consists of sheets joined in a somewhat uneven way, and some argue that the panels may originally have been mounted in a different order. The seals on the screens have also been discussed. These questions remain unresolved.
The picture has been interpreted as a memory of Tōhaku’s native Noto, where pine forests along the coast are common. Some have linked it to his grief after his son died in the early 1590s, but this is speculation. The emptiness in the picture has also been seen in the light of Zen Buddhism, in which emptiness has a positive meaning.
Pine Trees is now regarded as one of the supreme works of Japanese ink painting. The screens are shown only for short periods, usually around the New Year at the Tokyo National Museum, as they are sensitive to light. The work has greatly influenced views of Japanese aesthetics, in which what is left unsaid and empty is as important as what is shown.