[Introduction to Materials for Study] Mori Tetsuzan, "Pastoral Children under Willows" (Kansai University Library)

Mori Tetsuzan (1775-1841), "Pastoral Children under a Willow Tree," is one of the "Pastoral Children" paintings that were popular in the late Edo period. This painting was painted in the latter half of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century during the Edo period, and it has a compliment written in ink by Kan Chazan (1748-1828), a Confucian scholar and Chinese poet from Hiroshima. Mori Tetsuzan may have seen Nagasawa Rosetsu\u27s "Pastoralist Whistle" (Kyūshōin-jiin, Kyoto). It is not so surprising that Tetsuzan, who was counted as one of the ten philosophers of Omon along with Rosetsu among the disciples of Maruyama Ōkyo, visited Kyūshoin, one of the pagodas of Kenninji Temple in Higashiyama, Kyoto, where the paintings of Rosetsu, his senior, are kept. Mori Tetsuzan was from Osaka and was the son of Mori Shuhō, but in the 1790 (Kansei 2) edition of Naniwa Kyōyūu Roku, he is described as the son of Mori Shuhō, Sosen\u27s younger brother, so we know that he was adopted by Sosen. For a time, he left the Mori School in Osaka to become a disciple of Maruyama Ōkyo. He painted "Figure of Pastoral Children and Cows", which was a popular painting theme in the late Edo period, suggesting his relationship with Rosetsu and also showing the exchange Rosetsu, and also showing the exchange between painters in Kyoto and Osaka and the atmosphere of the same period