来源 | 译笔译画 （公众号：译笔译画)
Today’s Painting
今日画作
Shibata Zeshin, Japanese master of lacquer, loved mice. He painted them in groups and one by one; he painted one as a monk, another on the shoulder of the god Daikokuten. The one from the British Museum is this fluffy one.
日本漆艺大师柴田是真钟爱老鼠。他画过成群的老鼠，也画过单只的老鼠。他曾把老鼠画成一个和尚，还画过一个老鼠在大国天神的肩膀上。大英博物馆的这幅画里面是一只蓬松的老鼠。
Zeshin was one of the first Japanese artists to became known in the West while alive. He began his training in the arts in 1817 at age eleven. Along with instruction in traditional painting he apprenticed to a lacquer maker and he learned the centuries-old craft.
是真是第一批在世时就在西方闻名的日本艺术家之一。1817年，11岁的他就开始学习艺术。他在接受传统绘画教学的同时，还在一名漆匠那里做学徒，学习了数百年的漆工艺。
Drawn to European oil paintings, which had begun to trickle into Asia as in his times Japan opened itself for the West, he started to mix these two traditions. He took the viscous resin and turned it into a painting medium.
在他所处的时代，日本向西方开放，西学文化开始流传到亚洲，他受到欧洲油画的吸引，开始将这两种传统融合在一起。他把粘性树脂当作绘画的材料。
He painted with the lacquer on panels and on paper in exhilarating colors that had heretofore not been seen. He stayed loyal to traditional subject matter, however, and to his favorite subject, the mouse.
他用漆在面板和纸上作画，产生了在当时从未有人见过的颜色，令人耳目一新。然而他忠于传统主题，也忠于他最喜欢的绘画主题：老鼠。
Artist Introduction
画家简介
Shibata Zeshin was a Japanese lacquer, painter and print artist of the late Edo period and early Meiji era. He has been called "Japan's greatest lacquerer", but his reputation as painter and print artist is more complex: In Japan, he is known as both too modern, a panderer to the Westernization movement, and also an overly conservative traditionalist who did nothing to stand out from his contemporaries.
柴田是真是江户时代末期和明治初期的日本漆器大师，画家和版画家。他曾被誉为“日本最伟大的漆器大师”，而他作为画家和版画家的声誉却更为复杂：日本人认为，他太过现代，是西化运动的鼓吹者；他又太过保守传统，在同辈人中丝毫没有脱颖而出。
Despite holding this complicated reputation in Japan, Zeshin has come to be well regarded and much studied among the art world of the West, in Britain and the United States in particular.
尽管柴田是真在日本声誉复杂，但他还是在西方艺术界，尤其是在英国和美国受到了广泛的重视和研究。
Vocabulary
单词解析
lacquer
英 [ˈlækə(r)] 美 [ˈlækər]
n.
漆;头发定型剂;喷发胶
v.
给(木制品或金属)涂漆
apprentice
英 [əˈprentɪs] 美 [əˈprentɪs]
n.
学徒;徒弟
v.
使某人当(某人的)学徒
viscous
英 [ˈvɪskəs] 美 [ˈvɪskəs]
adj.
黏稠的;黏滞的
resin
英 [ˈrezɪn] 美 [ˈrezn]
n.
树脂;合成树脂
vt.
用树脂处理;涂擦树脂于
exhilarating
英 [ɪɡˈzɪləreɪtɪŋ] 美 [ɪɡˈzɪləreɪtɪŋ]
adj.
使人兴奋的;令人激动的;令人高兴的
heretofore
英 [ˌhɪətuˈfɔː(r)] 美 [ˌhɪrtuˈfɔːr]
adv.
在这之前
