Toba Sōjō

Toba Sōjō (鳥羽 僧正, Toba Sōjō^? 1053 - October 27, 1140), also known as Kakuyū (覚猷, Kakuyū^?) was a Heian-era Japanese Buddhist priest, astronomer, and cartoonist who lived all his life in Kyoto. He served as a high dignitary of the Tendai sect. He is famous for his cartoon animal drawings called Chōjugiga , which are currently considered the direct ancestor of Japanese manga (comics).

With the Tosa school

Toba Sōjō was among the precursors of the Yamato-e school of Japanese painting, but he must also be credited with authoring a very curious animal scroll, as well as the start of the school that in the 13th century would take the name of Tosa School, because of a descendant of the old Fujiwara family, Fujiwara no Nobuzane (1168-1256), who, while governor of Tosa, devoted himself brilliantly to painting.

The Tosa style is a pure style and is characterized by the synthesis of character with delicacy. The signs, pioneered by Toba Sōjō, used to contain the Sutra along with commemorative descriptions of temple foundations, which are called Engi-Emakimono.

Among these Engi-emaki stands out, of course, that of Shigisan by Toba Sōjō, based on the tales of the Uji-shui-monogatari and the Shintoist one of Kitano-tenjin painted by Fujiwara no Nobuzane.

The animalism, which makes its appearance thanks to Toba Sōjō, continues in the brush of Kawo, the author of a graceful vision of buffaloes bathing, in which it is worth noting something very characteristic of art Japanese, in opposition to what usually happens in the West: the absence of a horizon, due to a curious aerial way of seeing fragmentarily.