10a Figure 10, detail of signature.
to the Shij o style than it does to Nanga. The inscription, dated 1861 (eight years before Seiryodied), records that it was painted in the South Wing of the Taigado. In 1787, we recall, the Taigadowas described in the Kyoto guidebook as having two six-mat rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs; now it appears that it was either enlarged to encompass a north and south wing or perhaps rebuilt or even relocated. The signature also reveals that the farther in time the Taigado Hallkeepers get from the founding artist, the more aggressively they start invoking the connection with Taigado, both the man and the building. The stewardship of the Taigado passed from Seiryo to his son Teiryo (1839-1910), also a priest of Sorinji. It is ironic that the closer the generations of Taigado Hallkeepers come to our own time, the harder it is to find information about them. To judge from the few paintings that have surfaced at Kyoto dealers, even though Teiryopainted in a manner quite different from the artist we should now perhaps designate as the origina l Taigado, his paintings remain within the literati mode and exhibit a consistent style. Teiryoknew Taiga's oeuvre and dedicated himself to re-interpreting it while maintaining his own independent manner, based on a delicate, miniaturistic sensibility close to
certain contemporary painters in China. He painted an album using the theme of the "Ten Pleasures and Ten Conveniences of Living in the Country," for example (fig. 11 ), taking as his basis the album Taiga and Buson had illustrated in 1771 (fig. 12). He usually signed his paintings Taigado Teiryo in a calligraphic style eeri ly similar to Taiga's. It was under Teiryo's watch that vicissitudes hit the Taigadoone after another, despite Teiryo's earnestness in carrying out his duties. He faithfully held the annual memorial services and courted the participation of well-placed people. A bread-and-butter letter (in the form of a poem) from Tessai to Teiryoon the occasion of the 118th memorial service for Taiga held in 1894 refers to tea and cakes served to the "Friends of the Society." 26 Tessai also refers to the dilapidation of the Taigadoand the process of raising funds for its repair. One can see the sorry condition of the gate behind Tessai in the photograph (fig. 2); money was in short supply. Sasaki posits that by this time over half of the objects in the Taigado had been sold off.27 But the coup de grace came at the hands of the Kyoto City bureaucracy. In 1905, in the Meiji spirit of civilization and enlightenment, the city began confiscating temple lands for public parks, including the plot on which the Taigado sat. The Taigado was torn down. Teiryo moved to Nara, and handed over the title of Taigado the Sixth to his second son Kason (1885-1953). Even though he had no historical building from which to operate, Kason pursued his mission as keeper of the Taiga flame. 94
11 Taigado Teiryo, Convenience of Running Water, from Ten Conveniences of Living in the Country, album leaf, ink and color on paper, private collection, United States.