真美大観/森祖仙筆猿猴圖


獮猴圖 

三幅對中の二幅
各幅竪三尺五寸一分、横一尺二寸九分
侯爵伊達宗徳君藏
森祖仙、名は守象、字は叔牙、祖仙（晩年狙仙と改む）は其號にして、又靈明庵とも稱す、延享四年（西暦一七四七年）生る、攝津西宮の人、或いはいふ九州長崎の人なりと、後、大阪に移住す、初め狩野の流れを挹み、種々の畫を作りしが、既にして大に悟る所あり、限りあるの手腕を以って力を多方に用ゆるの途に大名を成す所以にあらざるを思ひ、專ら心を寫猿の一途に傾注したりしかば、その猿の畫は能く入神の妙を極め、果たして一世の稱譽を博するに至れり、傅へいふ、其始め長崎に在るの日、一獵者に托して一猿を得たり、乃ち之を庭樹に繋ぎ、自ら其傍に横臥して、猿の形状動作を寫すこと幾回なるを知らず、一日紙上に淨寫して某士の鑑を乞う、某云く、惜むらくは是れ人家養畜の猿にして山中自在の猿にあらずと、是に於て山中に入り、切磋年を重ねて大いに得る所ありきと、而して生平の起居動作の如きも、宛然猿の如くなりきといふ、蓋し其技に熱心なるより、遂に獮猴三昧を發得して然りしにあらざるを得んや、其所作の猿圖が、逼眞の妙を極むるは、たまたま以て俗眼を悦ばしむるに足るも、未だ雅賞に値せずといふ者あれども、これ過酷の評のみ、試みに此に掲ぐる二圖を見よ、一は玲瓏たる老幹に母子の春猿を寫して自愛の情滿幅に溢れ、一は半枯の樹梢に一雙の愁猿を畫きて將に客膓を寸斷せんとするの趣きあるにあらずや、かの緻密なる寫生を以て一派を開きし圓山應舉の如きも、其動物を書くや、祖仙の筆法を參酌したりといふ、良に故ありといふ可し、而して此畫は彼れが壯年の作なる可し、祖仙の死は文政四年（西暦一八二一年）にあり、時に七十五歳なりといふ。

Monkeys 
By Mori Sosen
Two Kakemono, coloured; each, 3 feet 5½ inches by 1 foot 3 1/3 inches.
Owned by Marquis Munenori Date
Collotype
Mori Sosen, otherwise known as Morikata or Reimyôan, was born in 1747 at Nishinomiya, Settsu, or at Nagasaki according to another authority, afterwards removing to Ôsaka. 
While he was engaged in painting pictures of various sorts in the style of the Kano school the happy thought came to him all of a sudden that the application of one's whole attention to one subject is the only way for a man of limited talent to win great fame. 
From that time on he applied himself exclusively to the life-like drawing of monkeys, in which he became a famous, indeed an unrivaled artist.
While in Nagasaki he is said to have asked a hunter to catch a monkey alive. On obtaining it he fastened it to a tree in his garden, sat himself down near it and sketched it from day to day in different attitudes.
Once he showed a copy to a friend of his, who though admiring it, said that the monkey was a tame and not a wild one. 
On this he betook himself to the forest in order to draw a wild monkey, and after untiring effort for several years succeeded. 
His own manners are said to have become somewhat monkeyish throught his keen interest in the study.
The two reproductions here given are excellent specimens of his monkey-pictures.
One depicts a mother monkey with her baby on the branch of a plum tree in full bloom; the other shows two old one mourning on a pine tree.
That great realistic painter, Maruyama Ôkyo, is said to have imitated Sosen's style of painting animals.
These pictures seem to be productions of his younger days. He died in 1821 aged seventy-five.

底本 
田島志一編　『真美大観　第三册』　日本佛教眞美協會、1900年。

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