2010 Erikthomsen Catalog

7/27/2019 2010 Erikthomsen Catalog

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2

Table of contents

3

5

49

79

91

102

110

120

126

Foreword and Acknowledgements

Screens

Paintings

Bamboo Baskets

Lacquers

Signatures, Seals and Inscriptions

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Japanese Paintings and Works of Art



3

Foreword and Acknowledgements

This publication, our fifth catalog in the series

Japanese Paintings and Works of Art , coincides with

two other events: our move to a larger gallery

location in New York and our inaugural exhibition

there, Screens and Scrolls of the Taishō Period .

The new gallery at 67th Street between Fith and

Madison Avenues is a purpose-built space in a newly

renovated townhouse. With double the wall space

o the previous location, it provides ample room or

showing large pairs of screens and paintings.

Our inaugural exhibition at the new location,Screens

and Scrolls of the Taishō Period , eatures paintings

rom the Taishō Era (1912 – 26). While short in dura-

tion, the Taishō Period was highly inluential and

witnessed a remarkable lowering o the arts. It was

also a period o great wealth, and all types o art

were eagerly sought by new collectors. Visionary

young artists were sometimes sponsored by

wealthy patrons, who could aord to support the

artist while he or she worked on a single painting

or work o art or a whole year or longer. The goal

of the artists and their sponsors was to exhibit

a striking work o art at one o the annual national

art exhibitions that had been sponsored by the

Japanese government and other organizations

since 1907. Artists hoped to make a reputation or

excellence through the exhibition, the critical at-

tention, and a possible prize winning o their works

at these prestigious venues. An example o such

a work which won a prize at the 8th Teiten National

Exhibition is the screen entitled Morning Quiet in

the current publication (item 7).

The catalog also eatures screens and scrolls o ear-

lier periods; exquisitemaki-e gold lacquer boxes;

and a selection o Taishō/early Shōwa-period bam-

boo baskets made or the sadō or kadō, the tea

ceremony or ikebana. I hope the viewer will enjoy

looking at and reading about the 30 paintings and

works o art we selected, spanning our centuries.

I wish to thank our Frankurt designer and photog-

rapher, Valentin Beinroth and Cem Yücetas, with-

out whom this catalog and our earlier publications

would not have been possible. Above all I wish

to thank my wife, Cornelia. It is only thanks to her

strong partnership, encouragement and support

that our move to New York four years ago and the

establishment o our gallery since then has been

possible.

Erik Thomsen

New York, September 2010



Screens



6 7

1

Kano School 狩野派

Roosters and Chicken in a Bamboo Grove

Edo Period (1615 –1868), early 17th C

H 64 ¾" × W 133 ½"

(164.5 cm × 339 cm) each

Pair o six-panel olding screens

Ink, colors, gofun, gold and gold lea on paper

From the ourth century onwards, the Chinese de-

picted sages in bamboo groves, in seclusion rom

the world and in loty conversation with each other.1

This tradition later transerred to Korea and Japan,

where the theme, Chikurin no shichiken 竹林の七賢,

became one o the traditional expressions o paint-

ers, or example o the Kano school, who painted it

widely on scrolls, screens and sliding doors.2

In this painting we see the same theme o a gather-

ing in a bamboo grove, yet here we have a play on

the genre, with roosters and hens taking the place

o learned sages. And instead o loty conversation,

we have hens clucking to one another and to their

offspring. While the parody of traditional themes

was not unusual—painters such as Harunobu placed

courtesans in place of the sages in their versions

o the bamboo grove—the depiction o chickens as

sages is rare.

The paintings also have a seasonal element, as the

artist has divided the screen pair into images of

spring and autumn. The right hal shows the spring

with newborn chicks, new bamboo sprouts and

lowering Chinese clematis (Tessen 鉄銑 , Clematis

florida), a plant blooming in late April. In contrast,

the left half shows the autumn with the chicks

ully grown, the bamboo mature and, instead o

clematis, ivy with autumn colors. The artist contrasts

spring and all, the newborn and the adult, begin-

nings and maturity.

The screens have an intricate and finely crafted

band along the top with gilt moriage patterns.

This moriage was built up with layers o gofun (sea

shell powder) and then painted with gold wash,

a phenomenon appearing in 17th century screens.3

The moriage consists o round amily crests (mon)

on a diamond pattern. Interestingly, the gilt and

chased copper hardware on the screen rame in-

corporates the same family crest design and can

therefore assumed to be the original 17th cen-

tury hardware. Further use o moriage relie can

be seen in the three-dimensional modeling on the

cockscombs and on the legs. The overall eect is

that o luxury, privilege and expense, an eect un-

derlined by the heavy use o costly mineral colors.

The screens were most likely created or the year o

the rooster by a leading sponsor o the arts, pos-

sibly by a member of the aristocracy or a daimyo

warlord.







12 13

2

Tosa Mitsuyoshi土佐光吉 (1539 –1613), attr.

Scenes rom the Tales o Genji

Momoyama Period (1568 –1615), early 17th C

H 63 ½" × W 146 ½"

(161.3 cm × 372.3 cm)

Six-panel olding screen

Ink, mineral colors, gofun, silver, gold

and gold lea on paper

This important screen displays an elaborate sel-

ection o scenes rom the eleventh-century novel

Tales of Genji. The finely detailed figures inter-

spersed throughout the composition illustrate

scenes rom dierent chapters o Genji, but are

uniied by the theme o nature, more speciically,

the link between nature and the protagonists o

the novel. Two keys to the connections are the ull

moon on the upper left and the bridge on the

upper right o the screen.

The full moon on the upper left refers to the ro-

mantic boat scene on a winter night in the Ukiune

chapter, seen in the upper center. Here Niou is

seated in the boat with Ukiune and, while looking

at the hills bathed in moon light, they pledge

undying love to each other.1

In the Asagao chapter the moon appears again as

Genji and Asagao look out at the garden on a win-

ter night and admire the allen snow. Genji asks the

page girls to go out in the garden and roll a snow-

ball, and he and Asagao enjoy the scene bathed in

moonlight.2

The moon connects these two scenes, which also

share the same season and the nocturnal setting.

Central to both cases is the joy o love when look-

ing at nature together, speciically on a winter night.

The bridge in the upper right corner refers to the

Ukiune love boat scene, which takes place close

to Uji Bridge.3 The bridge is also associated with the

excursion to Sumiyoshi Shrine in the Miotsukushi

chapter, seen on the right. Waiting inside his carriage,

Genji wants to write a love letter and his servant

Koremitsu hands him a writing box and brushes.4

The curved bridge on the screen reers to both

scenes, the Uji Bridge and the Sumiyoshi Bridge;

the red torii gate in ront o the bridge reers to

the Sumiyoshi Shrine. Bridges with their many po-

etic allusions became symbols or travel in nature

in the literal and visual culture of the Heian and

later period.5

The last two scenes that balance the composition

on the bottom let and right corners are, on the

bottom let, the emperor being presented with

pheasants taken in a hunt, bringing nature to the

palace;6 and, on the bottom right, the poignant

scene from the Yomogiu chapter where Prince

Genji visits his long-lost love, the Salower Prin-

cess, who suers rom poverty in a run-down man-

sion. Here Prince Genji is led by his servant Kore-

mitsu, who guides him to the dilapidated house

through the overgrown garden.7

In all o these scenes, we see how the igures nego-

tiate with nature and how nature relates to love,

to imperial oerings, to travel and even to poverty.

What at irst seems to be a set o non-connected

scenes are in act expertly selected moments in the

novel that connect by themes rom across the pan-

els o the screen.

The screen is attributed to Tosa Mitsuyoshi through

similarities in style, facial features, and golden

clouds. The golden clouds are made of two types

of gold—gold leaf bordered with gold wash on

gofun—and the features of the faces are superbly

expressive. Mitsuyoshi and his atelier painted a

number of Genji screens during his lifetime and

examples by him exist in the Metropolitan Museum

of Art in New York, the Honolulu Academy of Arts,

the Kyoto National Museum and the Idemitsu

Museum o Art.





16 17

3

Scenes from the Great Eastern Road Unknown artist

Edo Period (1615 –1868), circa 1800

H 49 ¾" × W 117 ½"

(126.5 cm × 298.5 cm) each


Ink, mineral colors, gofun, gold lakes

and gold lea on paper

This pair o screens presents the viewer with an ex-

citing journey through the imagination, without the

hardship o actually traveling. We see here in great

detail the most important road in Japan, the Great

Eastern Road Tōkaidō, which connected the old

and the new capital cities o Japan. Not only are the

cities and sites along the road depicted, but the

artist has also added interesting events, such as pro-

cessions of daimyo warlords, street side shops,

and sea travel.

The route is not a straight one, but one bending

and turning along the mountains and streams. In

eect, the route is recreating travel with all its unex-

pected twists and turns. As Constantine Vaporis re-

counts in his classic book on Edo-period travel, the

idea o travel became a nation-wide ad rom the

mid-Edo period onwards, and people would take

long trips in groups or individually, enjoying the

sites along the way.1 This screen was very likely cre-

ated in response to the demand or objects related

to travel, perhaps in commission or a patron who

had traveled the route himsel.

From the seventeenth century onwards, Japanese

artists created woodblock prints, hand scroll paint-

ings, screens and books on the topic of travel

along the Tōkaidō Road. In their images the artists

provided not only inormation about the sites, but

also placed the road in the contexts o the amous

views o Japan, Meisho, that could be seen along

the way. In this sumptuous pair o screens, we not

only get a sense of the long and often arduous

route o the Tōkaidō, but also see the splendid

sites along the way. Artists o the time emphasized

different aspects of the road; in this case, the

emphasis is clearly on the remarkable castles and

mountains—the greatest eats o man and nature.

In contrast, the cities are here presented as an as-

sembly o simple one-story buildings—even Edo,

the capital city.

The road became an important topic in the culture

o mid- to late-Edo period Japan. Not only were

famous artists, such as Utamaro, Hiroshige, and

Hokusai making print series with connections to

the Tōkaidō Road, but literature and Kabuki drama

also became obsessed with the idea o travel. The

comic novel Hizakurige, or example, centers on

the adventures of two protagonists as they travel

down the Tōkaidō.2 An important multi-volume

publication in 1797, the Tōkaidō meisho zue, be-

came a source or later artists, such as Hiroshige,

who ound compositional ideas in the volumes.

And o course, the most amous o all these artistic

eorts was Hiroshige’s great series o woodblock

prints, the Fifty-Three Stages of the Tōkaidō,

published in 1833 – 34, which came to inluence

all eorts aterwards. This pair o screens shows

no speciic traces o Hiroshige’s work, but relates

instead to other earlier sources.3

Interestingly, some of the sites named on small

labels along the road are not on the Tōkaidō.

These sites include mountains and large castles

(Mount Hiei and Zeze Castle) as well as parts

from other views series, such as the Eight Views

of Ōmi (Karasaki and Miidera) and the famous

views of Edo (Shiba Daibutsu).4 It seems that the

names are taken from a conflation of sources:

from the Tōkaidō, from famous view series, and

from important sites that can be seen from the

road.5 They all have in common the sense o travel

within the imagination, experiencing all the plea-

sures and serendipitous discoveries o travel while

in the comorts o one’s own home.







22 23

4

Araki Kampo 荒木寛畆 (1831–1915)

Peacock Pair by Clis

Meiji period (1868 –1912), dated 1907

H 76 ¾" × W 75 ¾"

(195 cm × 192.4 cm)

Two-panel olding screen

Ink, colors, gold and gold-lea on silk

Signature:

Kampo 寛畆

Seals:

1) »Seventy-seven year old Kampo« 七十七翁寛畆

2) »Artist name Tatsuan« 號達庵

A majestic peacock stands on top o a craggy cli

and surveys the world around him, while his mate

walks below, in the safety of his alert gaze. The

painting was made by one of the great artists of

modernizing Japan at the age o seventy-seven.

Despite his advanced age, we sense the strength

o the artist in the dramatic brushstrokes, the clear

sense o composition, and the inely delineated

techniques. Just like the male peacock, he still very

much rules his corner o the world.

The sumptuousness and vitality o the peacock are

relected in the rich gold-lea ground and in the

ine details Kampo added with gold wash on top

o the ink. He also added light colors to give depth

to the plumage o the birds and drew the rocks

and the bamboo with an array o textured strokes

and ink wash techniques. In all these aspects, the

painter goes back to a long tradition o peacock

paintings on gold ground, such as those created

by the Maruyama and Kishi Schools.1

Kampo was born in Edo and started to work at an

early age as apprentice for the Araki workshop,

where he showed early promise. He was eventually

adopted into the Araki amily at the age o twenty-

two and became its head painter. At one time he

attempted oil paintings, but eventually returned to

the Nihonga school style. Kampo specialized in

paintings of flowers and birds. He unified the vari-

ous styles and introduced new inluences and tech-

niques rom the West, and taught a generation o

young artists, becoming an important pioneer o the

new age o painting in Meiji Japan.

Remarkably, Kampo had extensive success outside

of Japan and became one of the most famous

Japanese artists in the West. He entered works and

won numerous prizes at international expositions,

such as Vienna in 1872, Chicago in 1893, Paris in

1900, St. Louis in 1904, and London in 1910. He

was also the first Japanese artist to become a

member o the prestigious Royal Society o Arts in

London. Inside Japan, he was very active in na-

tional exhibitions and won numerous honors.2 He

taught at the Tokyo Art School rom 1898 to 1908

and at other universities as well. The present screen

stems rom the time he was teaching at the Tokyo

Art School.





26 27

5

Usumi Kiho 内海輝邦 (b. 1873)

The Raven and the Peacock

Taishō Period (1912 – 26), circa 1920

H 69" × W 136 ¼"

(175 cm × 346 cm) each


Ink, mineral colors, gofun, gold, silver,

lacquer and silver lea on paper

Signature: Kihō 輝邦, Seal: Hiroaki 廣精

The artist presents the viewer with a remarkable

composition of a raven and a peacock in conversa-

tion across two large six-panel screens. The posi-

tioning of the two birds at first startles through the

strong contrasts: the smaller jet-black raven on

the right and the large proud peacock with its full

show of polychrome feathers on the left.

What exactly was the intent o the artist in this strik-

ing juxtaposition? He may have intended to show

the animals as an episode from Aesop’s fable, the

story o the crow and the peacock. The narrative,

however, remains unclear: did the covetous crow

attempt to steal a feather and dropped it, dis-

covered by the angry peacock? Or is the peacock

bragging, showing o its rich display, while the

raven is looking on in envy? Although the message

is uncertain, the dramatic dialogue is clear. A key

aspect o this dialogue is o course the contrast

between the large colorul bird and the seemingly—

until examined closer—drab black bird.

The screen is remarkable or another reason, its

tour-de-orce display o materials and techniques.

Usumi painted the silver-lea surace with luxuri-

ous materials, including gold, silver, lacquer and

ground malachite, lapis lazuli and gofun. The

peacock is composed with a densely inter-woven

texture o eathers imbedded with thick layers o

gold and mineral colors, including malachite and

lapis lazuli. The bright eye is painted with gold,

the beak with silver, and the head and body are

molded with relie details using gofun. The drab-

looking raven is in act sumptuously created, with

its black eathers covered with powders o lapis

lazuli, its legs highlighted in lacquer, and its eyes

with gold. The ace o the raven is nely modeled

with masterfully modulated ink wash on its beak,

giving a three-dimensional eect. The heavy use

of expensive mineral colors indicates that Usumi

made the screen pair or an important occasion,

possibly a national art exhibition.

Usumi Kihō was a skilled painter o great promise.

He was born in Matsue in Shimane Prefecture

by the Japan Sea in 1873 and managed to gain

acceptance to the highly competitive Tokyo Art

School, presently the Tokyo University o the Arts,

at a key time in its history. The university had been

founded a few years earlier and was run by the

great artist Hashimoto Gahō橋本雅邦 (1835 –1908).

Kihō became a student o Gahō1 and learned in

the company of a select group of the future great

artists o Japan. A list o his ellow students at the

time reads like a who’s who o the great Taishō and

Shōwa period artists: Yokoyama Taikan 横山大観,

Shimomura Kanzan 下村寒山, Hishida Shunsō 菱田

春草 , Kawai Gyokudō 川合玉堂, among others.

During his years at the Tokyo Art School Kihō cre-

ated three works that were thought important

enough to store at the university museum. 2 Upon

graduation in 1893, Kihō accepted a position at

the Fukushima Middle School in Fukushima Prefec-

ture, teaching art. Among his colleagues at the

school was the great scholar Tsunoda Ryūsaku 角田

柳作 (1877 –1964), who eventually became known

as the "ather o Japanese studies" at ColumbiaUni-

versity3 During their time there together (Ryūsaku

taught at the school 1903 – 8), the two collaborated

on projects.

We see traces o Usumi’s activities through the 1910s

and 1920s o the Taishō period, when he moved

back to Tokyo and became an established artist in

the capital city.4 The present work stems rom his

period o activity in Tokyo.







32 33

6

Hirai Baisen 平井楳仙 (1889 –1969)

Chinese Landscape with Pagoda

Taishō Period (1912 – 26), 1925

H 68" × W 74 ¾"

(173 cm × 189.7 cm)


Ink and colors on paper

Signature: Baisen楳仙

Seal: »Painted by Hirai Baisen«比羅居白仙画

A series o perpendicular clis, precipitous gorges

and towering temple pagodas gives this remark-

able landscape painting a sense o peril and exoti-

cism. The setting is not Japan: this painting stems

rom Hirai Baisen’s Chinese phase, a period that he

entered ater his travel to China in 1913. Here is a

painting with rough strokes of ink on paper in the

old tradition o depicting Chinese scenes, a tradi-

tion that goes back to Sesshū (1420 –1506).

We see the artist’s great skill in his use of ink. Not

only does he use ink in many modalities, varying

rom intense black to aint grey, but he also varies

the wetness o the brush, creating a misty eel to

the vegetation, as some sections are vague while

others are in sharp ocus, lending to an atmosphere

of misty mountain peaks. We also see a great

variety in brush patterns, with some brushes rough

and hard-bristled; Baisen uses these repeatedly

to get a sense o wild vegetation on the cli sides.

Another indication o his love or experimentation

can be ound in the special paper he used or this

work: both sides o the screen are painted on a

single large, custom-made sheet o paper, which

is unusual or this scale o work.

Baisen has used colors sparingly with careful

deliberation. To the landscape he added a well-

balanced, aint application o red-brown colors.

These colors impart an autumnal feel to the scene

and at the same time create a color palette that

is exotic—it is after all not a scene from Japan, but

one from a foreign, yet familiar, culture that Baisen

portrays. The light blue color used in one spot, on

the coat edge of the single Chinese traveler, adds

an exotic touch.

A number o other examples exist rom the artist’s

period of intense immersion into Chinese expres-

siveness. For example, a pair o six-panel screens

in the Honolulu Academy o Arts displays the same

kind o composition and textual strokes.1 Here, too,

we see a towering pagoda in the distance over ra-

vines and a precipitous landscape. What dierenti-

ates the two works from each other is that the Ho-

nolulu screens are solely expressed in ink, whereas

in the present work we see his experiment with col-

ors and a more complex composition.

The screen was created in 1925 when Baisen was

preparing a series of screens with ink paintings

of Chinese landscapes for the sixth Teiten exhibi-

tion o 1925. Two other sets o the screens created

during this burst of energy have recently been

published. 2

Baisen is a painter o many styles who succeeds in

surprising at every turn.3 A look at another painting

by him in this publication item15, (a snow scene

o the Kamogawa River dated to 1917) shows how

greatly his style changed over a ew years. Constant

is his technical excellence and his ascination with

various materials and tools: the brushes, the paints,

and the suraces. We see him orever experiment-

ing with new ideas. He was clearly an intellectual

painter at the cutting edge o the twentieth-century

Nihonga movements during his early years. 4 The

screens are a testament to the genius of Baisen as

he revisits the iconic masterpieces o the past and

successully reworks them into a new vocabulary o

his own.





36 37

7

Nakatsuka Issan 中塚一杉 (b. 1892)

Morning Quiet あさしづ

Shōwa Period (1926 – 89), 1927

H 70 ½" × W 90"

(179.3 cm × 228.6 cm)


Ink, colors and gofun on silk

Signature: Issan ga 一杉画 »Painted by Issan«

Seal: Nakatsuka 中塚

Exhibited: The 8th Teiten National Exhibition, 1927

Published: Nittenshi 日展史 , vol 8, p. 117, nr. 181.

The artist Issan presents us with an intimate scene

o a small vegetable garden in the early morning

quiet. It is early morning in summer, the lower part

of the painting still dark and soft light and blue

sky starting to appear above.

We see a number of plants and vegetables in a

composition of compressed rows. In the front are

flowering garden balsam (Hōsenka 鳳仙花) and

three pepper plants (Shishitōgarashi 獅子唐辛子).

In the next row are four eggplants (Nasu 茄子),

ollowed by a row o cucumber plants (Kyūri 胡瓜).

In the ar background are the ink outlines o young

bamboo plants. The various plants with their dier-

ent colors, leaves, ruits and lowers interweave on

the painting surace, creating a densely interrelated

idyllic vision. A hint o humor can be seen with the

patch o weeds in the ront right and with the morn-

ing glory on the ar right which comes out to greet

the artist’s signature.

Looking closer, one notices four insects hidden

among the leaves: a praying mantis, a dragonfly

and two grasshoppers. The artist also chose to

show natural decay in the work: many leaves are

insect-bitten, and a allen-down cucumber and sev-

eral leaves are in various stages o decomposition.

This undertone o decay and death is contrasted

by the vitality o the strong colors o eggplants and

their leaves.

Issan uses special effects, such as gofun, a white

powder made from sea shells, which he applied

below the paint on the cucumbers to give them

moriage three-dimensional eects. Throughout the

painting, the line is always under control; the drag-

only balanced on the cucumber lea, or example, is

drawn in a poetry o ink lines.

The work is a remarkable achievement for the

young artist and was the irst o his to be accepted

or a national exhibition, the 8th Teiten Exhibition

in Shōwa 2 1927, shown under the title あさしづ or

Morning Quiet and illustrated in the accompany-

ing catalog.1 Born in 1892, Issan studied under two

giants in the Kyoto art world o the time: Takeuchi

Seihō竹内栖鳳 (1864 –1942) and Nishimura Goun

西村五雲 (1877 –1938).2 Ater his apprenticeship,

he settled in the Shimogamo area o Kyoto and ex-

hibited at a number o prestigious national exhibi-

tions: he entered works in ive Teiten exhibitions,

three Shin-Bunten exhibitions, one Nitten exhibition,

among others.3 The last trace we have o the painter

is his entry in the ninth Nitten exhibition o 1953.

Interestingly, Issan must have been ond o the veg-

etable garden theme, as he returned to it ten years

later in a work labeled »Vegetable Garden in Early

Autumn«菜園初秋 for his entry into the first Shin-

Bunten exhibition o 1937. The amous cultural igure

Oguma Hideo小熊秀雄 (1901– 40) saw this work

at the exhibition and wrote the following praise

about Issan’s screen:4 »An outstanding characteris-

tic o present-day Nihonga painting is the ability to

draw an inherently complex image o a vegetable

garden clearly without any confusion.« The skill

that was apparent in Issan’s later work of 1937 is

certainly also clear in this superb screen that Issan

painted ten years earlier.





40 41

8

Nakatsuka Issan 中塚一杉 (b. 1892)

Flowering Yamabuki

Shōwa Period (1926 – 89), circa 1930

H 78 ¼" × W 82"

(199 cm × 208 cm)


Ink, colors and gofun on silk

Signature: Issan saku 一杉作 »Made by Issan«

Seal: Nakatsuka 中塚

As with the other screen by Issan in the present

catalog, the previous entry entitled »Morning

Quiet«, we see here a close observation o nature

within an intimate garden setting.

The artist presents the viewer with a scene from

spring, from a warm sunny day in the second half

of April. Dominating the scene over most of the

painted surface is a Japanese Yellow Rose (Yama-

buki山吹 Kerria japonica) which flowers in majestic

beauty by an old bamboo fence. Meanwhile to the

right a white Japanese peony (Yama Shakuyaku

山芍薬 Paeonia japonica) blooms and below it,

through a crack in the ence, we see another white

flowering plant. In the upper corners is a flowering

maple tree. Standing above the central Yamabuki

is a tall cherry tree, now past its point of glory with

its few remaining petals and many new leaves.

On the bottom left from the ground the artist has

depicted a winding ivy climbing up the broken

fence. In the middle of this maze of blossoms

and leaves sits a solitary Lidth’s Jay (Ruri Kakesu

瑠璃懸巣 Garrulus lidthi), its blue feathers form-

ing a focal point and contrast to the yellows and

greens of the painting.

As with Issan’s other work »Morning Quiet«, we

see here a tension between youth and decay,

between the vibrant yellow colors o the brilliant

Yamabuki on the one hand and the deteriorating,

stained old bamboo ence on the other. The allen

petals and wilting leaves on the ground also serve

as a contrast to the blooming Yamabuki above.

Much time, expertise and expense went into creating

this work, and judging rom its over-sized ormat, it

was most likely a shuppin-saku , made to be exhibit-

ed at one o the major art exhibitions o the time. In

the complex composition we see exquisite details

in the fine lines on the flowers and bamboo fence,

and in the raised moriage areas on the yellow rose,

the peony flowers, and the cherry blossoms, which

were created with gofun or seashell powder. The

bark of the cherry tree is especially remarkable for

its three-dimensional eel and realistic moriage tex-

ture. The mounts are custom-made or the screen,

using luxurious shibuichi 1 metal with a perforated

sukashi design o cherry petals.

Issan studied under two o the greatest dratsmen in

the history o the modern Kyoto art world: Takeuchi

Seihō竹内栖鳳 (1864 –1942) and Nishimura Goun

西村五雲 (1877 –1938). Ater his studies he settled

in Kyoto as an independent artist and submitted reg-

ularly to the important national exhibitions over the

next decades, the last being the Nitten in 1953.2





44 45

9

Soju 双樹 (ac. Taishō Period)

Sea Gulls by the Seashore

Taishō Period (1912 – 26), 1920s

H 69 ¼" × W 68 ¾"

(175.8 cm × 174.8 cm)


Ink, colors, gofun and silver on paper.

Signature: Sōju 双樹

Seal:Sō 双

In this striking composition, we see two seagulls

on the seashore, seemingly overwhelmed by the

incoming waves. The painting is a ascinating study

of movement and patterns that spread across its

surace.

Not only is the screen remarkable for its daring

composition, but also or its display o technical

ability. For one thing, this painting is a masterpiece

in the use o gofun, or seashell powder. Although

gofun has been used by Japanese artists or centu-

ries, its use rarely reaches the level of technical

perection seen in this screen. We can see extensive

use of gofun on the waves and on the bodies of

the gulls, which thereby achieve a tactile three-

dimensional eel. Detailed use o the material can

be seen on the seagull at the back, or example,

where a wave of white gofun faintly washes over

its let oot.

Another technical element is the sophisticated use

of sprinkled silver flakes, which can be seen not

only on the beach, simulating the wet sand sparkling

in the sunlight, but also under the layers o gofun-

waves, where it mimics relecting sand under water.

The artist has also darkened the rim o sand directly

bordering the incoming waves, cleverly giving an

impression o water-logged sand.

As or the artist, research still remains to be done.

Little is known, beyond the evidence of the screen

itsel. Judging rom the style, we know that it must

have been a Nihonga artist with great talent. And

judging from similar objects, we can say that the

screen dates from the innovative period of the

early 1920s. The Taishō period was noted for a

great lowering o the arts, with a prolieration o

art schools and the education o great many skilled

students. Unortunately or them (and or us) the

period was also known or its great disasters: the

Kantō Earthquake o 1923, the global economic

crash of 1929 and the resulting depression that

changed the future for a number of promising

artists in a decidedly negative way, sometimes with

catastrophic eect.1 Much research remains to be

done about artists o this period, including the iden-

tity and biography o the artist who created this

masterpiece.





Paintings



50

10

Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴 (1685 –1768)

The Second Patriarch Standing in the Snow

Edo period (1615 –1868), circa 1725

H 32 ¼" × W 11¼" (incl. mounting 65" × 15 ¾")

(82 cm × 28.3 cm, 165 cm × 40 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Inscription:

二祖昔寒夜

終夜立雪庭積

雪埋腰初祖見

呵口諸佛無上少道

曠却難行難忍

能忍難行能行汝

等憍心慢心争豈

得分二祖即断左臂

見今時認無事安閑

為向上禅認無念無心

為宗票視瞎癡漢

將喜耶將悲耶嗟

Translation:

A long time ago, the Second Patriarch stood in a

garden on a cold night until the snow came up to

his waist. The First Patriarch saw this and scolded

him: »It's wasteful for you to approach the marvel-

ous ways of the Buddhas with worthless efforts.

Can you endure that which cannot be endured, and

practice that which cannot be practiced? How can

you hope to know true religion with a shallow heart

and an arrogant mind?«

The Second Patriarch then cut off his left arm. See-

ing this, Bodhidharma immediately allowed Huike

access to peaceful tranquility, and let him practice

an advanced level o Zen. Allowing reedom rom

ideas and eelings, the Second Patriarch practiced

the true nature o religion and came to understand

the blind and the stupid.

On one hand, rejoice! On the other, how sad!

Seals:

1) Hakuin 白隠

2) Ekaku 慧鶴

3) Kokan’i 顧鑑意

Box inscription, outer:

»True (Ink) Traces o Zen Master Hakuin: The

Second Zen Patriarch« 白隠禅師真蹟二祖

Box inscription, inner:

»Certiied by the old monk Sōkaku, presently at

the Shōin[ji] Temple, dated on an auspicious day

in the 2nd month o 1960«

昭和三十五年如月吉日現松蔭宗鶴翁識

Box inscriptions, end:

»Hakuin: Niso inscription, apprentice monk in

snow. Bokubi« 白隠二祖賛雪中雲水墨美

»Hakuin Zen Monk: painting and inscription o

Dharma Master Niso« 白隠禅師二祖大師画賛

Oval seal mark: »Shinwa’an Collection« seal

Published in:

Morita, Shiryū 森田子龍, ed. Bokubi Tokushū:

Hakuin bokuseki 墨美特集―白隠墨蹟．Kyoto:

Bokubisha 墨美社 , 1985, plate 263.

Tanaka Daisaburō 田中大三郎, ed. Hakuin zenshi

bokusekishu 白隠禅師墨蹟集. Tokyo: Rokugei

Shobō 六芸書房, 2006, plate 47

Hakuin here represents the Second Patriarch o Zen

Buddhism, Eka 慧可 (Chinese: Huike; 487 – 593), as

he is standing out in the snow, patiently hoping or

the First Patriarch, the great Bodhdharma (Japanese:

Daruma), to accept him as a student. We see the

snow piling up on the monk’s hat and on the pines

in the background and eel the hardship o the monk

hoping or approval rom the stern Indian monk,

sitting in meditation in the Shaolin Temple 少林寺 .

According to the records, Eka was born close to

Luoyang洛陽 and practiced religions under a

number o masters beore coming to the snowy

garden at age orty. The amous story alluded to in

Hakuin’s inscription describes how the monk was

inally able to receive Bodhidharma’s approval by

cutting o his let hand and presenting this as a



52

tribute to the older monk. After several years of

hard practice, Eka received the Dharma transmis-

sion from Bodhidharma. During the lifetime of

Eka, Buddhism suered under persecutions in China.

Nonetheless, he is recorded as having preached

for over forty years and coming to rest at the high

age o 107.

The earliest extant biographies o Zen Patriarchs is

the Biographies of Eminent Monks (519) (高僧傳 ;

Japanese: Kōsōden; Chinese: Gaoseng zhuan) and

its sequel, Further Biographies of Eminent Monks

(続高僧傳; Japanese: Zoku Kōsōden; Chinese: Xu

gaoseng zhuan), written in 645 by Daoxuan (道宣 ;

596 – 667). For the Japanese monks, however, the

fourteenth-century compilation Transmission of

the Lamp (伝灯録 ; Dentōroku), by Keizan Jokin

(1268 –1325), a collection o 53 enlightenment sto-

ries based on the traditional legendary accounts o

the Zen transmission between successive masters

and disciples, became very inluential.1 Although

the stories are semi-legendary, they came to take

on real importance or the early modern Japanese

monks, such as Hakuin.2 Although Hakuin’s inscrip-

tion quotes sections o the Transmission of the Lamp,

there are sections that do not appear there or in

other known texts. As all of Hakuin’s Second Patri-

arch paintings have variations in the text, it seems

sae to say that Hakuin worked rom memory and

added or amended sections as he saw it.

Many portraits of Zen patriarchs by Hakuin exist,and he is amous or his images o the Bodhidharma

and of the Kannon, which comprise the largest

group o extant Hakuin paintings. There are, howev-

er, very ew paintings o the Second Patriarch.3 Ac-

cording to the great Hakuin scholar Takeuchi Naoji

竹内尚次, the portraits of the Second Patriarch are

important as a representation o Hakuin’s earliest

extant paintings—he suggests that a painting similar

to the present work was brushed by Hakuin in his

thirty-fifth year.4 Moreover, Takeuchi provides no

examples o Second Patriarch paintings brushed

after the earliest period o painting.5 This makes

the Second Patriarch paintings rare, as Hakuin

claimed to have burned all his earlier paintings.

Furthermore, it could well be signicant that Hakuin

only painted the Second patriarch painting in his

younger days, at a time when he was still struggling

with the principles o Zen Buddhism. At times he

surely must have elt like the Second Patriarch himsel.

And as he writes in his inscription (»On one hand,

rejoice! On the other, how sad!«), Hakuin seems not

entirely at ease with the message o extreme sel-

mutilation that the story valorizes. Perhaps he was

able to separate himself from the pressing mes-

sage o the story o the arm-sacriicing monk as he

got older and more settled into Zen practice.

The painting is also o interest in the way it shows

Hakuin, the painter, working with shapes. Looking

at the composition, one can see a careully orches-

trated semi-circle of triangular shapes, starting

with the monk’s hat in ront and repeating with pine

trees behind. The receding line o similar shapes

works to anchor the monk irmly into the composi-

tion o this painting and urther emphasizes the

key point of the story: the permanence, duration,

and perseverance o the monk as he stands root-

ed to the garden ground over night while the snow

piles up around him. It is a ine example o how

a painting’s composition reinorces its moti. It also

reminds us that the oten haphazard-looking ap-

pearance of Hakuin paintings might well be any-thing but spontaneous: the compositions are like-

ly the result o much consideration o shapes and

painterly ideas.

The painting is housed in akiri box that was certi-

ied and inscribed in February 1960 by the Hakuin

authority Tsūzan Sōkaku (1891–1974), the seven-

teenth abbot of Hakuin’s old temple, the Shōinji

Temple in Hara.



54

11

Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴 (1685 –1768)

Tenjin Traveling to China


H 15 ¾" × W 5 ½" (incl. mounting 41¼" × 8 ¼")

(39.9 cm × 13. 8 cm, 104.5 cm × 21 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Inscription:

唐衣おらで北野の神ぞとは

袖にもちたる梅にても知れ

Even i you cannot tell

From the Chinese robes he wears

You must know that it is him

From the plum blossoms

He holds in his sleeves

Figure composed o characters:

南無天満大自在天神

Hail to Tenjin, God o the Tenman Shrine

Seals:

Hakuin 白隠

Ekaku 慧鶴

Kokan’e 顧鑑夷

This whimsical ink painting by Hakuin is of Suga-

wara Michizane菅原道真 (845 – 903), a historical

figure about whom many legends have been cre-

ated. Michizane was an aristocrat and courtier atthe imperial palace in Kyoto and became a lead-

ing scholar and poet o his generation. Ater being

falsely accused by a political rival, he was exiled

to Dazaiu in Kyushu, where he died in great sorrow.

The legends have him come back later to the cap-

ital city as a malevolent ghost and cause great

havoc until the Kitano Tenmangū Shrine was built

in his honor. Eventually his court titles and honors

were restored and he was deified as a Shinto god

by the Heian leaders in an attempt to calm his

angry spirit.1

As a god, Michizane took on the function of the

God of Learning and received the blossoming

plum flower as his symbol. Hakuin painted many

images of Michizane and seems to have been

ond o this gentle igure o learning and culture. 2

It seems fitting that the God of Learning is here

drawn entirely in characters—in the so called mojie

文字絵 »character painting« technique.3

The inscription is rom a 13th century Japanese text

in which the spirit of Michizane flies across time

and space and actively interacts with leading Bud-

dhist monks in Japan and China, more than 300

years after his death.4 In this legend, he first ap-

pears in 1241 in the dream of a Kyushu merchant

and asks for a number of ceremonies in his honor.

Despite valiant attempts by the rich merchant,

they fail to satisfy Michizane,who decides to make

an appearance before the Tofukuji Temple abbot

Enni Benen 円爾弁円 (1202 – 80) in Kyoto and ask

to become his student. Enni instructs Michizane to

go instead to China and to seek guidance from the

great monk Wuzhun Shifan無準師範（1178 –249),

who was Enni’s own master. Michizane follows the

advice and travels to China in a single night to

appear before the Chinese monk and the two then

hold a conversation, which includes an exchange

of poetry. This journey by Michizane to China

forms the title of this painting. A poem uttered by

Michizane is the one that Hakuin inscribed above

the painting. During the conversation, the Chinese

monk gives Michizane a Chinese robe as a sign of enlightenment, a robe that Michizane takes back

with him to Japan. Hakuin here depicts Michizane

with the Chinese robe that he has just received

from Wuzhun Shifan.

The painting is interesting on a number o points,

as it represents interactions between religions

and cultures, between images and words. The

Michizane painting can be seen as a symbolic

interaction between China and Japan (in people,

in clothing, in travel, and in text) and between



56

religions (a Shinto god interacting with Buddhist

leaders and receiving enlightenment). We also

see the creative interaction between words and

images, as the clothing o Michizane is composed

o individual characters, orming the words »Hail to

Tenjin, God of the Tenman Shrine.« The characters

are not written in order, but instead randomly ol-

low the contours o Michizane’s clothing and body.

The artist is mischievously playing a game with the

viewer and challenging him to solve the reading o

the visual puzzle.

We see Hakuin in this and other similar paintings

not as a strict promoter o his own sect, but rather

as a teacher who understands and appreciates dif-

erences—as someone who reaches across divides

between cultures, religions and traditions.



58

12

Sengai Gibon 仙厓義梵 (1750 –1837)

The Hakata Top Crossing a String


H 14 ¼" × W 21½" (incl. mounting 49 ½" × 24 ¾")

(36.3 cm × 54. 7 cm, 126 cm × 62.6 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink on silk

Seal on painting: Sengai 仙厓

Painting inscription: Ladies and gentlemen, if you

are looking or wealth and ortune, then look at the

spinning top rom Hakata, actually crossing a string.

Careul, careul! Look here, i you lower the string

then it will come spinning, spinning toward you. If

you raise it a little, then it will go spinning away, all

the way to the next town. So be careful of how you

hold your string. Why don’t you try?

東西々々福徳を願ふ / なら博多古まの / 糸渡りアレ々々

手元を / さくれハこちらへ / ころ々々ころんてこさる /

手元を少高むれハ / 向ふ町へさけて行 / 手元におき

を付られませ / ヨウ々々

Box, outer inscription, top: »Brushed by the Monk

Sengai. Painting with Inscription of the Hakata Top

Crossing a String«Hakata koma ito watari no gasan:

Sengai oshō hitsu 博多古満糸渡りの画賛仙厓和尚筆1

Box, inner inscription:

»Title inscribed by the 70-year old Tōkō«

shichijū-ō Tōkō dai shirusu 七十翁韜光題署

We see here a strikingly humorous ink painting by

Sengai, one o the great Edo period Zen Buddhist

artists. 2 Sengai depicts a street perormer who bal-

ances a spinning top or an audience. The perormer,

the God o Luck Daikoku in disguise, balances the

top on a string which is tied to bales o rice—a reer-

ence to wealth in a time when wealth was generally

measured in number o rice bales. There is also a

large bag under the top, reerring to the riches that

may be available with luck.

The joke here is how the important matter o ortune

in lie can be reduced to a spinning top plied by a

street perormer. The strangeness o the situation is

further reinforced by the colloquial banter of the

street perormer, as he tries to gather a crowd (see

inscription). O course, Sengai provides a serious

edge to his joke: just as a slight movement to the

hand can make the dierence between the top ar-

riving (good luck) and the top fying away (bad luck),

our lives and fortunes are also easily influenced

by outside events. That is why we need to place our

aith in permanent, immovable things, such as the

Buddha.

Sengai made a number of paintings of street per-

formers in order to illustrate his allegories.3 He

was clearly interested in the lie o the commoners

around him and saw the humor in daily lie as an

eective way to make his serious points about lie,

religion and fate to the people who visited his

temple. The fact that this painting is done on silk,

a rare material for Sengai, indicates that it was

made not or a common visitor but or an important

person. For Sengai the mixture of elite and com-

mon was entirely in character—in his paintings he

aimed at the common human condition of all, re-

gardless o social status.4

Other examples of the spinning top performer are

known. One example with a similar inscription is in

the Idemitsu Collection5, a work that toured Europe

in one o the pioneering Edo-period Zen painting

exhibitions in 1964.6 Other examples show similar

compositions, yet never exactly the same inscription

and Sengai was apparently happy to keep chang-

ing the wording o his message.7

The box is inscribed and authenticated by the Zen

Buddhist abbot Tōkō Genjō. Ater a longer time o

inactivity, Sengai’s old temple, the Shōukuji 聖福寺 ,

was revitalized by Tōkō. He was also active as a col-

lector o Sengai paintings. He became known as the

leading connoisseur of Sengai, and scrolls with

his inscriptions are eagerly sought ater by Sengai

collectors.8



60

13

Kishi Chozen 岸長善

(l. 1st hal o 19th century)

Fire in Edo


H 50 ¾" × W 23 ¾" (incl. mounting 89 ¼" × 29")

(128.8 cm × 60. 1 cm, 227 cm × 73.7 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink and light colors on paper

Top seal: Kishi 岸

Bottom seal: Chōzen 長善

Box inscription: »Shadow painting o a conlagra-

tion; night scene o Edo« 影絵火災江戸夜景

During the Edo period, Edo became so amous or

its requent ires (and ights) that it became popular

to say that: »Fire and Fistfights are the Flowers of

Edo«, 火事と喧嘩は江戸の花

With requent earthquakes and architecture o wood

and paper, ires were major events in the lie o any

early modern Japanese city. None as much as Edo,

however, whose history is punctuated with major

fires that razed large parts of the city, no less than

49 major ires during the Edo Period.1

In this rare and important painting we stand witness

to another major ire in its early stages. What at irst

appears to be a painting o the city at dawn is in act

a night scene with a ire in the distance. Upon see-

ing the running figures and riders on horses head-

ing toward the ire, the viewer starts to understand

the setting. The groups o ireighters and other citi-

zens scurry about with lanterns in the darkness, some

clearly worried and yet others largely unconcerned

with the approaching ire.

The painter of this scene was very careful with de-

tails: we are in the center of the city with the Edo

Bridge to the middle-right edge of the painting.

Further to the right, o the painting surace, is Nihon

Bridge and the area with the merchant warehouses

o Edo. Three o these large warehouses can be seen

to the let o the bridge, acing the river. From the

foreground to the far distance we see a multitude

o ire towers with people on top, keeping an eye

on the ire. The ire and great clouds o smoke can

be seen in the center, in the direction o Aoyama

and the southwestern part o Edo. 2

A number o Japanese paintings, or exampleema-

kimono narrative hand scrolls, woodblock prints,

books or paintings, show depictions o ire—and

ire was also a major topic in literature and drama.

Urban legends, such as the one about Yaoya no

Oshichi setting Edo afire to meet her beloved

monk, became one of many stories around which

Kabuki and Bunraku plays were created. A whole

culture o ire and ireighters developed in Edo

and much attention was given to the legend and

material culture o ire. It is not surprising that ire

should capture the imagination o so many, when

so much was at stake, even the lives o the citizens.

Among the large groups of people gathering in

shadows are members o dierent proessions

and social groups. The largest o these are the ire

ighters. They hold the tools o their proession—

banners, pikes and ladders—and are directed by

city ward oicials (machi bugyō) on horses with

lanterns. Through this crowd scene, we can see how

they have gathered, coming out o various build-

ings and meeting in different groups, each with

distinct banners. The ireighters were divided by

name and area and were fiercely loyal to their

group, working independently, sometimes in con-

lict with other groups.3

The drama of the fire and the firefighters height-

ens upon coming closer to the ire. We see how the

groups o ireighters with lanterns crowd across

the Edo Bridge and onto the other shore. Further

on, we see how they have climbed up on the roos

o the houses right next to the ire, busily disman-

tling houses and their tile roos. The ires o Edo

were not ought with water; rather, houses around

the blaze were razed, creating natural ire barriers.



62

The artist was clearly interested in the inner networks

o the city and delighted in his ability to depict as

much inormation as possible through shadows.

This he does in a remarkably complex way. We see

the dierent proessions: geisha (elaborate hair

decorations), samurai (two swords), blind masseurs,

itinerant monks, porters, prostitutes, palanquin

carriers, travelers, guides, merchants, waitresses

and even two dogs. The lanterns are likewise

dierentiated, with the marks o daimyo, temples,

ireighter groups, restaurants, and ood vendors.

The artist seems to have had a soft spot for eating

establishments, as we see them in grand detail,

from a fine two-storied restaurant in the middle

(the Iroha いろは establishment) to a ramen noodle

shop and other eating stalls in the center. Restau-

rants were at the time not only places to eat, but

were also places to gather or entertainment or other

cultural activities, such as poetry groups or sales

of art, and they frequently became the subject

matter or paintings or prints.4 This painting shows

an unusual example o a high-class restaurant in

full operation against the approaching inferno on

the horizon.5

Another aspect o Edo ood culture can be seen

in the booths o soba sellers in the center and the

very bottom o the painting. Both o the soba sell-

ers are labeled Nihachi 二八 and are thus the same

establishment. The »Nihachi« also reers to a spe-cial kind o soba (called the Nihachi) that was intro-

duced in 1716 and became enormously popular

in Edo during the mid- and late Edo period. 6 The

soba was made on the spot and served hot, in act

what we can see happening in the painting.

The prodigious amount o inormation conveyed by

shadows relects a strong interest in the tradition o

shadow pictures. These types o shadow paintings,

or kage-e 影絵 became popular during the 18th and

19th centuries and appear in a number o permuta-

tions, including early woodblock prints by Torii

Kiyonaga (1799), Dutch shadow prints by Jippensha

Ikku (1810), parlor game prints o Hiroshige rom

1842, and death portraits by Shibata Zeshin (1867).7

The artist Kishi Chōzen is presently unidentied, but

this may be due to a number o actors, including

the possible need or anonymity in describing with

great detail a scene that led to great destruction.

Possible candidates are lesser-known members o

the Kishi painting school, or a talented monk ali-

ated with the temple Chōzenji長善寺 8 in Edo. An-

other possibility is Chisen Daigu 智仙大愚 (ac. mid

19th century), a poet in the Yanaka 谷中 district o

Edo. He was active in the cultural circles o Edo in

the mid-nineteenth century and went by the name

o Chōzen 長善.9 In any case, the artist certainly had

great talent and amiliarity with the organizations

within the city, especially that o its ireighters: the

details are remarkable, and the skill undeniable.

We also get an indication of how a later owner of

the painting placed great value on this rare painting

by mounting the painting in rare imported sten-

ciled cotton textile that was likely brought to Japan

by Dutch traders in Dejima.



64

14

Mochizuki Gyokusen 望月玉泉 (1834 –1913)

Waterall

Meiji Period (1868 –1912), circa 1900

H 65 ½" × W 22 ½" (incl. mounting 92 ¾" × 28 ¼")

(166.3 cm × 56. 4 cm, 235.5 cm × 71.8 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink and silver on silk

Signature: »painted by Gyokusen« 玉泉写

Seal: Shiseikan 資清館

A thunderous waterall crashes down onto rocks

in this masterul display o natural orces. An ency-

clopedic array o ink techniques come together

to create a powerul, yet poetic evocation o a mas-

sive waterall in action. Through the mist, spray

and streams, we see here all the permutations o

a waterall in one great image.

Gyokusen uses the tarashikomi technique o drip-

ping ink into wet ink, creating a mottled effect on

the rocks. He sprays tiny ink droplets on the silk

surface and paints water splashes to portray the

violent energy o water crashing onto sheer rock.

His use o ine silver droplets to simulate glistening

water mist in the sunlight is rare and striking. By

gradually shrouding details in mist as one goes

down the waterall, the artist has generated a clear

contrast between the darkly-modulated and clear

details at the top o the paining and the misty grays

a the bottom o the all, heightening the narrative

o a waterall in action.

Gyokusen’s painting relects a clear interest in re-

alism. We also see his interest in earlier Japanese

paintings as his work ollows a tradition o monu-

mental waterfalls by Maruyama Ōkyo. 1 The intent

here was to create the feeling of a real waterfall,

which, when hanging in the tokonoma alcove, ap-

pears to come crashing down, the four walls of

the small room now sheer cliffs and the water rush-

ing down onto the tatami loor. Just as in the earlier

versions by Ōkyo, Gyokusen emphasizes this surre-

al scene in a small room by the oversized format

of the painting, almost 8 feet in length. 2

Gyokusen was born in Kyoto and became the ourth

generation Mochizuki painter, after taking over

rom his ather Gyokusen望月玉川 (and eventually

handing it on to his own son Muchizuki Gyokkei

望月玉渓). Taught by his ather, he took over the

amily workshop and became the appointed court

painter or the imperial house. He became a lead-

ing igure o the Meiji-period Kyoto art scene, and

together with Kōno Bairei 幸野梅嶺 he ounded the

Kyoto Preectural Art School 京都府画学校 in 1878.

He was active in oreign exhibitions and won the

Bronze Medal at the International Paris Exposition

in 1889. In his old age, he received numerous

national prizes and honors and retained his close

connection to the imperial house.3



66

15

Hirai Baisen 平井楳仙 (1889 –1969)

The Snow o Kamogawa River 鴨川の雪

Taishō Period (1912 – 26), dated 1917

H 50" × W 16 ½" (incl. mounting 85" × 22")

(126.7 cm × 41. 9 cm, 216 cm × 55.8 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink, colors and gofun on silk

Painting signature: »Painted by Baisen« 楳仙画

Painting seal: Baisen 楳仙

Box inscription, top:

»The Snow o Kamogawa River« 鴨川の雪

Box inscription, inside:

»Painted by Baisen on a spring day in 1917.

Titled by the artist himsel«丁巳春日作楳仙自題

Seal: Baisen 楳仙

Box inscription, end:

»By the brush o Baisen. Painting o Snow and Ka-

mogawa River. Matsubara Miyagawa 7-chō. Colors

on silk. Matched box«

松原宮川七丁楳仙筆鴨川雪の図着色絹本

共箱七丁

It is a winter day with falling snow, the sky darken-

ing in the late afternoon. We see a footbridge, the

Matsubara Bridge, crossing the Kamogawa Riv-

er in Kyoto, to the south o Shijō Street.1 Outlined

against the sky are the Higashiyama mountains on

the eastern side o Kyoto. On the ar side o the river

are the teahouses o the Gion entertainment dis-

trict. The two travelers on the ootbridge are head-

ing toward Gion, perhaps customers preparing to

visit a avorite establishment or perhaps the geisha

getting ready or that evening’s perormance.

The site, the Kamogawa River and the teahouses

along its banks, has long been one o the amous

sights o Kyoto. This was the case in the 16th/17th

century Rakuchū rakugaizu screens and was still

the case in the time of Hirai Baisen. Further views

o the area are included in the three albums that

Baisen composed for the tenth Bunten Exhibition

in 1916, depicting thirty dierent views o Kyoto,

entitled Miyako sanjukkei.2 Interestingly, Baisen also

painted the Higashiyama mountains of the area

on a pair o monumental landscape screens during

the late Taishō period, using similar techniques.3

Clearly the artist had no diiculties in adjusting his

compositions to dierent scales and ormats.

The artist was known or his remarkable changes in

style and subject matter. His return rom a trip to

China in 1913 inaugurated a period during which he

created ink landscape paintings o Chinese moun-

tains and pagodas.4 Later yet, his attention returned

to Japan and he went into a period o brilliant rec-

reations of his hometown, Kyoto. Not only did his

theme and subject matter change, but so did his

techniques and materials used. In place of ink and

paper, he later used silk and heavy Nihonga-style

pigments of mineral colors and gofun, a powder

derived rom seashells.

Baisen was particularly adapt in the use of gofun ,

which, because o its thick and inlexible consis-

tancy, can be diicult to use and tends to lake o.

For this painting, Baisen prepared layers o gofun

on the ront as well as on the back o the silk. Using

the white material on both sides o the silk5 made

it possible to show various shades of white and

impart a sense o depth to the colors. It also makes

the gofun snowflakes stand out more against

the fine ink wash and gives a feel of looking at a

landscape through alling snow.6

Baisen was a leading painter o the twentieth-cen-

tury Nihonga movements during Taishō to early

Shōwa periods.7 An art critic and intellectual, hewas well aware of the history and traditions of

Japanese art, as can be seen in this painting, which

shows reerences to a line o prior images, rom

the early Rakuchū rakugaizu screens8 to the 19th

century landscape prints by Hiroshige to early

20th century prints by the Shin hanga artists. The

painting represents a brilliant reworking o past

traditions and an evocative new depiction of one

o Kyoto’s amous sights.



68

16

Watanabe Shotei 渡辺省亭 (1851–1918)

New Year with Small Pines and a Pair o Cranes

正月小松と雙鶴

Meiji period (1868 –1912), circa 1910

H 42 ½" × W 15 ¾" (incl. mounting 75 ½" × 20 ¾")

(108 cm × 39.9 cm, 192 cm × 52.6 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink, color and lacquer on silk

Inscription: Shōtei 省亭

Seal: Shōtei 省亭

Box top: »New Year: Small Pines and Crane Pair,

Painted by Shōtei.« 正月小松と雙鶴省亭画

Box end: »Pair o cranes by the brush o Shōtei,

(First) Month.« 雙鶴省亭筆［正］月

Crane paintings have a venerable tradition in Japan

and there are numerous well-known works on the

theme.1 In Japan the combination of cranes with

young pines and the rising sun became a symbol

for the New Year and displaying such images at

homes and institutions became a favorite way to

welcome the new season.2

New Year was clearly also the intended message

in this painting, judging rom the title that the artist

wrote on the tomobako box. Yet, in the hands of

Shōtei, one of the greatest animal painters of the

Meiji period, the painting becomes much more

than a New Year’s symbol. For one thing, Shōtei

had a clear interest in portraying animals with real

personalities. The eye of the upper bird, painted

with ink and black lacquer, is particularly life-like

and captivating. Through the poses of the birds,

we also get a sense o cranes with dierent person-

alities: one protecting, the other cowering in the

shadow o the larger bird.

Further, the combination o rough brush strokes at

the tail eathers with ine brush strokes and details

at the heads and beaks creates interest and vitality

to the scene.

Shōtei was one o the most colorul characters in

the art scene o the Meiji period and became a real

celebrity of his time.3 He was the first Japanese

student to study in Europe and learned, in 1878 – 81,

the Western painting methods o his time. He won

prizes in numerous Western exhibitions—such as in

Paris in 1878, Amsterdam in 1883, and Chicago in

1893—and became one o the best-known Japanese

artists in the West. He also published numerous

books on paintings, collaborated on cloisonné de-

signs, and courted controversy, or example, by

daring to publish a nude study in the journalKokumin

no tomo in 1889.

The level to which he was esteemed by others—andhimsel—can be gauged by the striking ichimonji

mounting of this hanging scroll: the design is his

own and displays a woven pattern with Shōtei’s

own seals, highlighted in silver and gold threads.

Shōtei was clearly an artist not araid to go against

the conventions nor araid o standing out in crowd.

And as we see in this superb bird study, he had

ample reasons to be justifiably proud of his skills.



70

17

Tojima Mitsuzane 戸島光孚 (l. 1906 – 40)

Set o Three Lacquer Paintings with Carps

Shōwa Period (1926 – 89), dated 1929

H 52 ¼" × W 16 ¼" (incl. mounting 83 ¼" × 21¾")

(132.5 cm × 41.5 cm, 211.5 cm × 55.2 cm) each

Set o 3 hanging scrolls

Lacquer, light color and ink on silk

Inscription on central painting:

»Lacquer painting by Mitsuzane o Kyoto«

平安光孚漆画

Inscription on outer paintings:

»Lacquer painting by Mitsuzane« 光孚漆画.

Seal on all three paintings: Mitsuzane 光孚

Box, outer inscription:

»Lacquer paintings, set o three: center, waterall-

ascending carp; let and right, playing carp«

漆画中瀑布登鯉右左遊鯉之図三幅対

Box, inner inscription: »Mitsuzane o Kyoto painted

this, dated June o the year corresponding to 1929

(Shōwa 4)« 昭和己巳ノ初夏平安光孚画之

Seal: Mitsuzane 光孚

A striking set o three paintings depicting various

aspects of the carp. The carp has many connota-

tions in Japanese culture and a key meaning dates

back to Chinese texts. It was said that a carp which

succeeded in ascending the Longmen Waterall in

the Jishishan Mountains o China would become

a dragon. In extension, the image o the waterall-

springing carp came to take on the symbolism

of perseverance. In Japan the image became a

itting present or someone who had to overcome

adversity; for example, a student about to takeentrance exams.

The artist here, however, plays with this idea as he

depicts not only the central carp trying to cross

the waterall, but also two carps on the side paint-

ings swimming in tranquil waters. Although this

combination is not unusual in itsel, and artists such

as Maruyama Ōkyo (1733 – 95) have painted both

types of carp paintings,1 we understand the in-

tention of the artist on reading the cover of the

wooden tomobako box. There the artist has entitled

his composition: »Lacquer paintings, set of three.

Center: Waterfall-Climbing Carp. Left and right:

Playing Carps.« This takes on an extra meaning in

spoken Japanese, as »playing carp« ( yūri 遊鯉),

can also be read »asobu koi« or »asobi koi«, the

same pronunciation as »come, let’s play!« In other

words, the stern injunction to persevere and to

sacriice is here undercut with calls or enjoyment.

The artist, Tojima Mitsuzane (also known as Kōami)

was a remarkable Kyoto lacquer artist who active-

ly took part in the changing cultural world o his

time.2 He was the founding editor of the Shikkikai ,

an inluential journal devoted to developments in

the lacquer world, and his interest in new ideas and

reinterpretations o lacquer traditions can clearly

be seen in the way he works as a cross-over artist in

this painting. He uses his lacquer techniques on the

silk suraces o the paintings but then adds details

in regular ink, colors and gold wash. He eectively

uses the glistening surace o lacquer to simulate

the glistening scales of the carps; this works partic-

ularly well on the central waterall-climbing carp’s

ish scales between the streams o water.

Mitsuzane’s attention to detail can also be seen

in the silk mounting of the paintings, which have

a design o water skaters and waves, echoing the

subject matter o the painting.

We know that Mitsuzane took part in group exhibi-

tions in the late Meiji period (the earliest record is1906) and that he exhibited lacquer pieces in several

national exhibitions, notably the 15th Teiten Exhibi-

tion (1934), the Revised Teiten Exhibition (1936),

and the National Commemoration Exhibition (1940).3

He also held solo exhibitions, including a major one

at the Tōhoku Kurabu in December 1917. Mitsuzane

was seen as an important lacquer artist o his time

and there are several examples o his work in the col-

lection o the Imperial Palace. In 2007, some o these

objects were exhibited in a major exhibition o Taishō

period art in the Imperial collection.4



72

18

Sano Kosui 佐野光穂 (1896 –1960)

A Cat in a Melon Patch


H 57" × W 20" (incl. mounting 85" × 26")

(145cm × 50.7 cm, 216 cm × 65.8 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink, colors and gold on silk

Signature: Keimei 契明

Seal: Keimei 契明

A black cat sits among melons and looks out at the

world. The artist presents us here with a striking

composition o a cat sitting in unexpected surround-

ings. The painting is a well thought-out composi-

tion of shapes and colors in which the black furry

cat with golden eyes stands out among the light-

colored spiraling tendrils, decaying flowers, and

bulbous melons.

The technical skills of the artist are astonishing:

he manages to combine the ink, colors and gold

—both wet and dry—to create the furry coat of the

cat (by making ink seep out into the silk) as well

as the surface patterns of the melon and leaves.

The technique he uses throughout is tarashikomi ,

a procedure in which ink, mineral colors and gold

are dipped into a still-wet surface of ink. 1 As the

technique is dicult to control, it is usually done on

sized paper; tarashikomi on silk, as in this case, is

rare. The resulting painting is an elegant display o

the superlative skills o the artist.

Sano Kōsui came from the Nagano prefecture and

arrived in Kyoto in 1914 during the Taishō Period,

when many great painters were active at the same

time.2 He was ortunate to become a student under

two o the leading artists o the time. He rst learned

Shijō school techniques under Kikuchi Keigetsu

菊池契月 (1879 –1955), then Nihonga techniques

under Tomita Keisen 富田渓仙 (1879 –1936).3

The artist was also known or his independence and

strong will. He was ousted from Keigetsu’s studio

after he married against the wishes of his master.

Keisen, however, respected his talented student and

the relations between the artist and his new master

remained harmonious.

Kōsui moved to Kobe, but returned to Kyoto in 1928,

where he stayed or the rest o his proessional lie.

He specialized in paintings o animals and took part

in numerous exhibitions. His works were also in-

cluded in prestigious national venues, such as the

Teiten and the Inten exhibtions.4



74

19

Tsuji Kako 都路華杳 (1870 –1931)

Daruma Portrait


H 46 ¼" × W 16 ¼" (incl. mounting 84 ¾" × 23")

(117.2 cm × 41 cm, 215 cm × 58.2 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper

Signature, painting: Kakō 華香

Seal, painting: Kakō 華香

Box inscription, top:

»Painting o Bodhidharma« 菩提達磨図

Box inscription, signature and seal inside:

»Title by Kakō« 華香題 and Shishun 子春

This striking portrait of the First Patriarch of Bud-

dhism, Bodhidharma (Japanese: Daruma) was

painted by the noted Nihonga artist Kakō in the

Taishō period. The body and robe o the patriarch

are painted with strokes o abstracted repetitions,

varying only in density. The heavy layering o color

on Daruma’s chest has resulted in an interesting

mottling of the surface, giving a realistic touch.

Kakō created a series o Daruma portraits in the

1910’s 1; as in the other extant examples, there is

also here an emphasis on the chest and the ge-

neral hairiness o the Indian patriarch.2

One may well ask why a Nihonga artist would paint

a series of Daruma images, a topic one would

rather expect rom Zen monks. One reason is Kakō’s

strong belie in Zen Buddhism, which is relected

in the thirty years o religious training he underwent

with the monk Mokurai (1854 –1930), a Zen Bud-

dhist abbot o the Kenninji Temple in Kyoto.3 Further,

the historical and textual roots o Buddhism were

an important theme or the intellectuals o the Taishō

period. This was the time o the compilation and

publication o the great Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō, a

monumental work o Buddhist scholarship which is

still in use across the world. Thereore an intellectual

interest in Buddhism and in the ounder, Daruma,

may also have been a reason or the many portraits.

Kakō was known or his unusual cutting-edge images

and succeeds, more than almost any other Japanese

artist o his time, in combining Japanese painting

tradition with modernist ideas; here, an old tradition

o drawing portraits o Daruma is updated by the

artist.4 For an example of his modernist painting in

a screen ormat, see our 2009 publication, item 3.

In the past decade, awareness o the artist has grown

dramatically in the West and Kakō is now well re-presented in the museums and collections of the

Western world.



76

20

Nantembo Toju 南天棒登洲 (1839 –1925)

Hearing Nothing, Seeing Nothing


H 54 ¾" × W 20 ½" (incl. mounting 80" × 26 ½")

(139.3cm × 52 cm, 203 cm × 67 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink on satin

Signature: »eighty-ive year old Nantembō Tōjū«

八十五翁南天棒登洲

Seals:

1) »eighty-ive year old Nantembō« 八十五翁南天棒

2) Hakugaikutsu 白崖窟 , and 3) Tōjū 登洲 1

Inscription: »Katsu! And or three days, hearing

nothing« Katsu mikka jirō 喝三日耳聾2

Box inscription: »Nantembō ›Katsu mikka jorō‹

scroll with satin« 南天棒喝三日耳聾絖本竪幅

This powerful calligraphic scroll by the Zen monk

Nantembō shows the aged artist at the height o

his powers. At eighty-ive, the monk still astonishes

the viewer with his orceul strokes and his clear

insight into Zen Buddhist texts and traditions.

In this scroll Nantembō quotes an early key text o

the Zen monks, the Jingde chuandenglu (Japanese:

Keitoku dentōroku)『景徳伝燈録』, compiled in 1004.

The biography of the monk Hyakujō Ekai 百丈懐海

(749 – 814) is described in this text, including how

he repeatedly goes to his master, the great monk

Basō Dōitsu 馬祖道一 (709 – 88), in order to receive

guidance on his quest toward enlightenment. Themeeting is recorded as ollows:

When I again approached Master Basō, he gave out

a great yell: »Katsu!« and I could not hear or three

days, nor could my eyes see.

老僧昔再参馬祖被大師一喝、直得三日耳聾眼暗 3

In other words, the yell »katsu!«—a word used

to help bring monks to enlightenment—was said

with such force that the monk was lost to the

outer world or three days. That is, the word katsu

brought enlightenment to the monk through the

sheer orce o its delivery and the overwhelmingly

strong personality o the master monk.

Nantembō cleverly recreates this verbal explosion

into a two-dimensional ormat by crashing his ink-

loaded brush with such force on the satin that ink

splashes all over the surface—and even beyond.

Matthew Welch describes an eye-witness descrip-

tion o such creations: »Nantembō…heavily loading

his oversized brush, slightly pinched the tip to tem-

porarily stop the low o ink out o the bristles, and

then with great gusto hit the paper with the brush

to begin the character.«4 Clearly the monk was sim-

ulating the verbal orce o his distant predecessor

and attempted to lead his viewers to enlightenment

through a powerful calligraphic recreation of the

word katsu.

Nantembō returned repeatedly to the word katsu;

or example, a hanging scroll with a large single

character dated to 1911 is in the collection of the

Museum o East Asian Art in Berlin.5 However, the

combination o the character with the above inscrip-

tion from Jingde chuandeng lu is rare, and the

present example may be the only extant version. It

is in any case a remarkable example o Nantembō’s

striking visual interpretations of Zen Buddhist his-

tory through the medium o calligraphy.



Bamboo Baskets



80 81

21

Yamamoto Chikuryusai 山本竹龍斎

Boat-Shaped Wide Basket 船形広籃


H 15 ¼" × L 20 ¾" × W 11¼"

(38.5 cm × 52.5 cm × 28.5 cm)

Ikebana lower basket

Madake bamboo, Hōbichiku bamboo

and rattan

Incised signature on the bottom:

Chikuryūsai kore tsukuru »Chikuryūsai made this«

Box inscription, outside:

Funagata morikago »Boat-Shaped Wide Basket«

Box inscription, inside: early spring, 1916 and

signed Chikuryūsai with a kakihan cipher.

This exceptional ikebana basket is a ne example

o the Chinese karamono-style, in which narrow

bamboo strips are plaited symmetrically with

great precision. Here the strips are plaited in the

hexagonal muttsume pattern and supported by

wider bamboo strips held together with rattan.

The distinctive our-point handle is attached to the

body with rattan braiding, which covers the entire

suraces o the handle in an elegant pattern.

The basket comes with its original ittedtomobako

box which is lacquered on all suraces, a sign o the

high value Chikuryūsai placed on the basket and

a treatment generally reserved for karamono-style

baskets. The box bears the inscriptions, signature,

date and cipher o Chikuryūsai.

Chikuryūsai must have been very satisfied with

this boat-shaped basket, for when he was offered

the opportunity to exhibit in Paris in 1925 at the

Japanese art exhibition, he made a slightly longer

basket in the same shape and construction. This

exhibition basket was illustrated in the 1925 catalog

and won a silver prize. It is now in the collection o

the Oita Preectural Arts and Crats Museum.



82 83

22

Maeda Chikubosai I

前田竹房斎初代 (1872 –1950)

Wide-Mouthed Flower Basket 広口花篭


H 19 ½", D 10"

(49.5 cm, 25.5 cm)


Madaken bamboo, Hōbichiku bamboo

and rattan.


Chikubōsai kore tsukuru »Chikubōsai made this«


Hiroguchi hanakago »Wide-Mouthed Flower Basket«

Box inscription, inside: Autumn day of the 2602nd

year of the Japanese Imperial calender (=1942).

Senyō Kuzezato Chikubōsai kore tsukuru

»Chikubōsai o the Senyō Studio in Kuzezato made

this« with square red seal mark reading Chikubōsai.

This large ikebana basket is made in the Chinese

karamono style, with exacting symmetry and

perection.

The bottom is made of bamboo in the circular

amida kōami plaiting, where the bamboo strips are

arranged tangentially to orm a circular opening,

which is reinorced by two larger bamboo pieces

crossing the center. One o these pieces bears the

incised signature reading Chikubōsai made this.

The sides are made o narrow strips o splitmadake

bamboo, plaited in a variation o the ajiro ami twill

pattern. The sides are reinforced by six vertical

bamboo ribs, which are tightly plaited with rattan.

The rim is plaited in no less than five different

patterns. The handle is made of three Hōbichiku

bamboo sections, decorated on the top with ine

knotting and held to the body at ten points using

tight rattan knotting.

The basket comes with its original itted kiri-wood

tomobako box bearing the inscriptions, signature

and seal mark o Chikubōsai.

Chikubōsai was one o the greatest basket makers

o the Kansai region. He was active in the golden

age o Japanese basketry, 1910 – 40, when high-qual-

ity baskets such as this one were eagerly collected

by the Japanese and used in the tea ceremony.

Chikubōsai remained active through the second

World War and continued to make outstanding

baskets in those diicult years, such as this one in

1942 and another, item17 in our 2009 publication,

in 1941.1

His son, Chikubōsai II (1917 – 2003), continued the

basketry tradition and was named Living National

Treasure or bamboo crats in 1995.



84 85

23

Tanabe Chikuunsai I田辺竹雲斎初代 (1877 –1937)

Crouching Tiger 虎伏

Shōwa Period (1926 – 89), 1920s

H 17 ¾", D 10 ¾"

(45 cm, 27cm)


Kinmeichiku bamboo, Hōbichiku bamboo

and Madake bamboo


Chikuunsai kore tsukuru »Chikuunsai made this«


Kinmeichiku hanakago torafushi

»Kinmeichiku Bamboo Flower Basket: Crouching

Tiger«

Box inscription, inside: Sakai-fu nansō Chikuunsai

kore tsukuru »Chikuunsai of the Nansō Studio in

Sakai-u made this« with two red square seal marks

reading Ta[nabe] Tsune[o] no in »seal mark o

Tanabe Tsuneo« and Chikuunsai.

Chikuunsai was at the apex of his career when

he made this outstanding basket using smoked

Hōbichiku bamboo with rich patina or the basket,

plaiting the sides in the hemp-lea pattern and the

bottom in the hexagonal muttsume pattern. The

bold handle of Kinmeichiku bamboo also has an

unusually beautiful patina and strength through

its bent orm. In act, the title that Chikuunsai gave

the basket, »Crouching Tiger«, derives rom this

powerul handle.

The basket comes with its original lacquered bam-

boo otoshi tube to hold lowers and water and with

its original itted and inscribed kiri-wood box.

For two similar baskets using the same types of

bamboo, see Japanese Bamboo Baske ts: Master-

works of Form & Texture from the Collection of

Lloyd Cotsen (Los Angeles: Cotsen Occasional

Press, 1999), item number 85 by Chikuunsai I and

item number 86 by his son Chikuunsai II.

Tanabe Chikuunsai, the son o a high-ranking phy-

sician in the Kansai region, studied bamboo art

under Wada Waichisai I from the age of 18. After

becoming independent six years later in 1901,

he won numerous awards at national and interna-

tional art exhibitions, including one in Paris in

1925. He is especially well known or his precise,

detailed karamono -style baskets. He taught numer-

ous apprentices, including Chikubōsai I and his

son, Chikuunsai II.1



86 87

24

Morita Chikuami森田竹阿弥 (1877 –1947)

Flared Flower Basket 末広形花籃

Shōwa Period (1926 – 89), 1930s

H 19", D 10 ¼"

(48.5 cm, 26 cm)


Hōbichiku smoked bamboo and rattan


Chikuami kore tsukuru »Chikuami made this«


Suehiro gata hanakago »Flared Flower Basket«

Box inscription, inside:

Chikuami zō »Made by Chikuami«

with a round red seal mark reading Chikuami.

Collector’s label on the box reads Takekago

hanaike or »Bamboo Basket Flower Vessel«

This basket in the Japanese taste was made to look

rustic, using old hōbichiku smoked bamboo and

including knobbed node sections in the design.

After plaiting, the outer surfaces were lacquered

with a red-brown natural lacquer that has acquired

a warm patina over time. To add to an aged, rustic

look, sabi or charcoal powder was dusted onto the

suraces and then only partially brushed away, re-

maining in corners and cracks. The body is plaited

in an irregular ajiro ami or twill pattern and along

the vertical bamboo strips and the handle are ancy

knots made with rattan.

The basket is square on the bottom, laring out to

a larger round opening. This suehiro or faring shape

is auspicious in Japan, as it symbolizes growth and

improvement, starting small and growing in size.

On the bottom edge is the artist’s finely incised

signature. The basket is complete with the original

otoshi bamboo tube to hold the lowers and water

and the original itted tomobako box.

Chikuami is the artist name o Morita Shintarō, who

was active in Kyoto in the early Shōwa period. For

this basket in the Japanese style (as opposed to the

karamono Chinese style) he used Hōbichiku bamboo,

which is a smoked bamboo traditionally used in arm

house ceilings. They can be hundreds o years old

and have gained a warm rich-colored patina from

age and rom hearth smoke.

For another basket by Chikuami in the karamono

Chinese style, see our 2006 publication, item 13.



88 89

25

Kyokusai 旭斎 (ac. 1910 – 40)

Flower Basket 花籠


H 17" × L 9 ¼" × W 7"

(43.3 cm × 23. 5 cm × 18 cm)


Susudake bamboo and rattan


Kyokusai saku »Made by Kyokusai«

Box inscription, inside: Hanakago »Flower Basket«

and Kyokusai saku »Made by Kyokusai« with a rect-

angular red seal mark reading Kyokusai. Dated

April, 12th year o Shōwa (=1937).

This elegant masterpiece ollows the Sensuji gumi

or thousand-line construction, with parallel rows o

narrow susudake bamboo strips held together by

lines o rattan plaiting. Looking closely, one notices

that Kyokusai cleverly arranged the bamboo strips

so that the nodes appear on the bottom only. This

arrangement keeps the sides smooth without

distracting irregularities and reinorces the pure,

minimalist design.

For a basket of similar shape and construction

using light-colored bamboo, see Japanese Bamboo

Baskets: Masterworks of Form & Texture from the

Collection of Lloyd Cotsen (Los Angeles: Cotsen

Occasional Press, 1999), item number 210, entitled

Magaki or »Fence.«

Kyokusai is believed to have studied under Suzuki

Kyokushōsai鈴木旭松斎 and to have worked in

Tokyo from the Taishō to early Shōwa periods.



Lacquers



92 93

26

Incense Box with the Full Moonand Nanten

Edo Period (1615 –1868), 18th C

H 1" × L 2 ¾" × W 2 ¾"

(2.3 cm × 6.8 cm × 6.7 cm)

Lacquer box

Box inscriptions:

Kaneda 金田

Hōjuten 宝珠店

»Number nine« 九番

In this evocative autumn view, we see sprays of the

Nanten 南天 (Nadina, Nandina domestica) against

the full moon. The season is indicated by the Nant-

en’s lingering blossoms on its branch tips and by

its reddening berries that ully ripen in late autumn.

With its red ruits, the Nanten became a symbol

of winter, and the red berries are often depicted

by Japanese artists who contrast them against

the white snow. Here, however, the Nanten is used

as a marker o the late autumn. The ull moon on

the box is also associated with autumn in Japan, as

it is thought to be most beautiul in that season.

The scene depicts the melancholy moments o ling-

ering beauty, just beore the winter sets in.1

The Kōgo incense box is formed in a rounded

square shape and decorated on the top with the

full moon in gold and silver togidashi lacquer.

Around the moon and on the sides o the kōgo are

branches, lowers and berries o the Nanten plant

in gold, silver, red and green hiramakie lacquer.

The insides and the bottom are sprinkled with

small nashiji gold lakes and the rims are created

o pewter.

The kōgō comes with an old fitted kiri-wood box

inscribed on the inside of the cover and on the

bottom with collector’s numbers and marks and the

name o an art shop, the »Shop o the Treasured

Jewels« the Hōjuten 宝珠店 .



94 95

27

Writing Box with Fans and Autumn Grasses

Meiji Period (1868 –1912), circa 1900

H 1½" × L 8" × W 7 ¼"

(4 cm × 20.4 cm × 18.4 cm)

Maki-e lacquer box

Inscription (on box top): »Autumn grasses pattern

lacquer writing box« 秋草模様蒔絵硯筥

Inscription (on end o box): »Small type writing box,

autumn grasses pattern, received rom Mr. Nagata.«

小形硯箱秋草蒔絵永田氏ヨリ

The two gold-lacquer ans on the cover o this su-

perb rectangular suzuribako writing box distinct-

ly stand out against the roiro mirror-black ground.

The upper fan is decorated with a scene of chry-

santhemum flowers by a bamboo fence and flow-

ering trees, rocks, waterall and stream; the lower

fan with a palace building by a garden with pines,

cherry blossoms and ence, all surrounded by gold-

en clouds. The décor is executed in inely-detailed

high-relie takamakie gold, silver and red lacquer

with additional details in hiramakie and togidashi

lacquer and many inlays o irregularly-cut kirigane

gold oil squares and triangles. The curved outside

edges o the box are lacquered intogidashi gold

lacquer; the rims o the box and o the ink stone in-

side are in solid silver.

The writing box contains numerous reerences to

the literary traditions of courtly Japan, specifically

to those o the Heian period, which was seen by

many as the pinnacle o Japanese cultural achieve-

ments. The décor on the cover reers to a Heian

court tradition, the exchange of fans decorated

with painting or calligraphy.1 The building on the

lower fan is in the Heian period shinden-zukuri

palatial architecture style, with reerences to Heian

period Tales of Genji paintings, which featured

similar settings with finely tended gardens. As

can be seen in item 2 of the present publication,

scenes rom Genji were also painted on olding

screens in the Momoyama and Edo periods and

such compositions would have been familiar to

members of the educated elite.

The veranda o the palace building on the an,

however, is without its Prince Genji. The stage was

likely let open by the artist to impart a generic

Heian favor to the composition without anchoring

it to a speciic text or scene. Perhaps it was let

open so that the owner o the writing box could im-

agine himsel in the role o the Heian-period aris-

tocrat, about to open the box to brush a poem to

a distant lover.

Opening the writing box, one is rewarded with

a dramatic view of a multitude of swaying fall

grasses, the Japanese pampas grass susuki 薄, in

hiramakie gold and silver lacquer with the round

suzuri ink stone representing the ull moon. This

inner composition refers to the Autumn Moon

Festival, the Jūgoya 十五夜 , which is oten symbol-

ized by susuki and the ull moon. The estival takes

place on the 15th day of the 8th month of the

lunar calendar (usually mid- to late-September in

the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the

autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere. The

traditional ood or this estival is the round cake

tsukimi dango 月見団子, which echoes the shape

and color o the distant moon.

The writing box comes complete with the original

two brushes, paper cutter and suiteki water dropper

in the shape o shikishi poetry cards, all lacquered

in togidashi gold lacquer; and with the original kiri-

wood itted box.



96 97

28

Writing Box with Books

Edo Period (1615 –1868), early 19th C

H 2" × L 9" × W 8 ¼"

(4.9cm × 22.8 cm × 21 cm)

Maki-e lacquer box

Inscriptions (on end o outer box): 1) »Gold lacquer

writing box with books« 本蒔絵硯箱; 2) »Number

seven. Strewn gold lakes and gold lacquer o

books. Writing box, one piece«

七番なし志本のまきへすすり箱一ツ

This exquisitely crafted gold-lacquer suzuribako

writing box, rectangular with rounded corners, is

decorated on the cover with two Japanese books,

placed partly on top o each other, in raised taka-

makie gold lacquer. The top book is decorated

with a dragon in dark clouds, with a multitude o

kirigane gold-oil inlays; the lower book depicts

phoenix roundels and seasonal lower bouquets

in minutely-detailed gold takamakie lacquer on a

diamond-shaped foral pattern in gold and silver

togidashi lacquer. The books each have a title pa-

per in respectively gold and silver oil.

The dramatic design on the inside cover features

a large red sun appearing behind narrow clouds,

rising above craggy rocks in a stormy sea. The sun

is decorated in red and gold togidashi lacquer,

and the clouds and rocks in raised takamakie gold

lacquer with a tour-de-orce inlay o kirigane gold

oil pieces cut in irregular squares and triangles.

The ocean waves are depicted in gold and silver

togidashi lacquer with urther details o abalone

and aquatic plants in hiramakie gold lacquer. The

removable tray holds the suzuri ink stone and

a rectangular silver suiteki water dropper and is

decorated with more waves in gold and silver

togidashi. Below the tray, on the inside bottom o

the writing box, are teen Chidori plover birds in

hiramakie gold lacquer, lying in a circular pattern.

The scene reers to a poem rom the amous poetry

anthology, the Kokin wakashū:

The plovers dwelling in Sashide Bay by its the salty

clis cry yachiyo, wishing our lord a reign o eight

thousand years.

しほの山さしでの磯にすむ千鳥君がみ代をばやち

よとぞ鳴く1

The elements of plovers, cliffs and the ocean

combine to make a poetic allusion to the wish or

a long rule. The plovers’ cry chiyo, homophonous

with chiyo 千代 »a thousand years« is a call or long

rule. This is changed here by the poet to yachiyo

八千代 »eight thousand years« and, by extension,

eternal rule and a reerence to Japan’s Imperial line.

Symbolically the strong clis in the design are rulers

steadfast in the stormy sea and the birds are sub-

jects lying in circles aroun d the clis, al l under the

imposing large red rising sun, the symbol of the

Japanese state. The two book covers o the writing

box, depicting volumes from a poem anthology,

introduce other allusions and symbols: the dragon

rising out of the sky as a symbol of the male ele-

ment and the roundels o phoenix and chrysanthe-

mum as emale elements.

The edges o the writing box cover are decorated

with minute karakusa scrolling and diamond pat-

terns in hiramakie gold lacquer. The writing box

comes with its original double itted storage boxes,

both in black lacquer, the outer one bearing two

inscribed collector’s labels. On the inside of the

storage box is pasted poetry paper with a dyed de-

sign simulating poetry sheets used in Heian-period

calligraphic works.





100 101

30

Mikami Yokodo 三上楊光堂

Writing Box with the Hundred Kings

Taishō-Shōwa Periods, 1920s – 30s

H 4 ½" × L 10 ¾" × W 8 ¼"

(11.5 cm × 27.5 cm × 21.2 cm)

Maki-e lacquer box

Inscription on outer tomobako box:

»Tebako Box with Images o the Hundred Kings«

手箱百王之図

(end o box):

»Tebako Box with Images o the Hundred Kings«

手筥百王之図

(inside lids):

»Made by Mikami Yōkōdō o Kyoto«

平安三上楊光堂造之

Seals:

1) Mikami 三上

2) Yōkōdō 楊光堂

On the inside of this fine stacked rectangular writ-

ing box there is a compartment or writing paper

above which is a lipped tray to hold writing utensils

and a removable plate that stores the suzuri ink

stone and suiteki water dropper.

The outside décor is dominated by two dramatic

shishi lions in gold, silver, red and black raised

takamakie lacquer; they are surrounded by stylized

peonies in gold and red lacquer togidashi on a

roiro black lacquer ground. The design on this writ-

ing box has an ancient Chinese origin. The leg-

endary shishi lions were called the »king o hundred

animals 百獣之王« and the peony the »king of

hundred plants百花之王.«1 Compositions that

depicted both together were deemed auspicious

and were called the »Hundred Kings 百王« design,

as they depicted the gathering o the respective

rulers o the animal and plant kingdoms.

All outside edges are rounded and lacquered

in gold and red lacquer togidashi. The lid rims and

the two rings to hold rope are in solid silver. The

inside rims, including the suzuri ink stone rims are

in silver lacquer; all other surfaces are covered

with evenly sprinkled nashiji gold fakes. The suiteki

water dropper is in the shape o a butterly and is

made o silver, shibuichi , shakudō, and inlaid gold.

The superb work was made by the lacquer work-

shop Mikami Yōkōdō 三上楊光堂, which under

the leadership of Mikami Harunosuke 三上治助

(1850 –1920) won many honors, both in Japan as

well as abroad. Objects rom the workshop won

prizes at several international exhibitions, includ-

ing Chicago in 1893, Seattle in 1896, and Hanoi

in 1903. The son of the founder, Mikami Jisaburō

三上治三郎 carried on the family tradition and

won a prize at the 1937 Paris exhibition. The art-

ists of the studio were attentive to international art

movements during its time of intensive interaction

with foreign fairs and it is therefore no surprise

that the present writing box bears signs of foreign

influence in its design. Under the leadership of

Mikami Jisaburō三上治三郎, the studio became a

known leader in introducing Art Nouveau styles to

Japanese audiences in the 1920s, as documented

in the recent exhibition at the Tokyo National

Museum for Modern Art.2

A set of two nested double tomobako boxes were

made for the writing box, both of kiri-wood, the

outside one with lacquer. Both tomobako boxes are

signed and sealed by Mikami o the Yōkōdō Studio.



102 103

Signatures and SealsReproduced actual size

Nr. 4

Nr. 5 Let

Nr. 5 Right

Nr. 6 Nr. 7

Nr. 8

Nr. 9

Nr. 10

Nr. 14

Nr. 11

Nr. 12

Nr. 13



104 105

Nr. 19 Nr. 20

Nr. 21 Nr. 24 Nr. 25Nr. 22 Nr. 23

Nr. 17

Nr. 18

Nr. 16

Nr. 15



106 107

Box InscriptionsReproduced hal size except as noted

Nr. 10

¹∕ ¹ size

Nr. 12

¹∕ ¹ size

Nr. 13

¹∕ ¹ size

Nr. 20

¹∕ ¹ size

¹∕ ¹ size

¼ size

½ size

½ size½ size

½ size

½ size

½ size

¼ size¼ size ¼ size

Nr. 15¾ size

¼ size

Nr. 17

½ size

Nr. 19

¼ size

½ size

Nr. 16

¹∕ ¹ size

Nr. 21



108 109

Nr. 22

Nr. 23

¼ size

Nr. 24

½ size

Nr. 25

¼ size

Nr. 26

¹∕ ¹ size Nr. 27

Nr. 28

Nr. 29

¹∕ ¹ size

¹∕ ¹ size

Nr. 30

½ size



110 111

Nr. 1 Roosters and Chicken in a Bamboo Grove

1 An early example of this communal reclusion

appearing in both literature and art was the Seven

Sages of the Bamboo Grove (竹林七賢 Zhulin qi

xian ), a group o semi-legendary, like-minded sages,

who created a small secluded community isolated

rom the outside world. The group was composed

o both historical and legendary igures said to have

been active in the third century, A.D. They rejected

the mundane world and gathered in a bamboo

grove to drink wine, play musical instruments, and

carry on loty conversation. For an early description

o the group, see Liu Yiqing劉義慶 (403 – 44), Shi

shuo xin yu 『世說新語』in Richard Mather, ed., Shih-

shuo Hsin-y ü: A new acco unt of t ales of the world .

2nd ed. Ann Arbor: Center or Chinese Studies,

University o Michigan, 2002, 235 – 6, 39 9 – 405.

2 For a book-length discussion o such images, see

Kendall Brown. The Politics of Reclusion: Painting

and Power in Momoyama Japan. Honolulu: Univer-

sity o Hawaii, 1997.

3 See examples in Wakisaka Atsushi. Momoyama

kōki no kachō: Kenrantaru taiga II. Series: Kachōga

no sekai, vol. 4. Tokyo: Gakken, 1982, plates 22, 34,

and 35.

Nr. 2 Scenes from the Tales of Genji

1 »Many years may pass, yet one thing will never

change: that my heart is yours, for that I promise

you by the Isle of Orange Trees« From chapter 51

in the Genji. Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji.

Royall Tyler, trans. 2 vols. New York: Viking, 2001,

p. 1025. See illustrations o this scene, or example,

Akiyama Ken and Eiichi Taguchi. Genji monogatari:

Gōka »Genji-e« no sekai. Tokyo: Gakushū Kenkyūsha,

1988, page 236.

2 »Genji had the page girls go down and roll a

snowball. Their charming igures and hair gleamed

in the moonlight… the moon shone more and more

brightly through the marvelous stillness. She said:

»Frozen into ice, water caught among the rocks

can no longer flow, and it is the brilliant moon that

soars through the sky.« Chapter 20, Tylor 373 – 4.

Illustrated in Akiyama Ken and Eiichi Taguchi.

Genji monogatari: Gōka »Genji-e« no sekai. Tokyo:

Gakushū Kenkyūsha, 1988, pp. 96 – 7.

3 Some artists depict this scene with the bridge,

see Akiyama Ken and Eiichi Taguchi. Genji mono-

gatari: Gōka »Gen ji-e« no seka i. Tokyo: Gakushū

Kenkyūsha, 1988, p. 236.

4 »The Pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi« Chapter number

14, Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Royall Tyler,

trans. 2 vols. New York: Viking, 2001, pp. 291– 2.

Illustrated in, or example: Akiyama Ken and Eiichi

Taguchi. Genji monogatari: Gōka »Genji-e« no sekai.

Tokyo: Gakushū Kenkyūsha, 1988, p. 79.

5 See the thoughtul article by Melinda Takeuchi

on the cultural meaning o the Uji Bridge in Kuroda

Taizō, et al. Worlds Seen and Imagined: Japanese

Screens from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts. New

York: The Asia Society Galleries, 1995.

6 Miyuki Chapter 29. Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of

Genji. Royall Tyler, trans. 2 vols. New York: Viking,

2001, p. 499. Illustrated in Akiyama Ken and Eiichi


Tokyo: Gakushū Kenkyūsha, 1988, p. 143.

7 Chapter 15, Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji.

Royall Tyler, trans. 2 vols. New York: Viking, 2001,

pp. 308 –10. Illustrated Akiyama Ken and Eiichi


Tokyo: Gakushū Kenkyūs ha, 1988, pp. 80 – 3.

Notes

Nr. 3 Scenes from the Great Eastern Road

1 See: Constantine Vaporis.Breaking Barriers: Travel

and the State in Early Modern Japan. Cambridge,

Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard Uni-

versity, 1994.

2 Jippensha Ikku’s Hizakurige. An English translation

by Thomas Satchell is the Shanks’ Mare: Being a

Translation of the Tokaido volumes of »Hizakurige«,

Japan’s Great Comic N ovel of Travel and Ri baldry

by Ikku Jippensha (1765 –1831). Tokyo and Rutland,

VT.: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1960.

3 The illustrations are not based on Hiroshige’s

series, although some stations might seem to be

connected, such as Okazaki and Ishiyakushi. These

images are instead based on the compositions in

the 1797 Tōkaidō meisho zue, which, as mentioned

above, served as a model or many o Hiroshige’s

views. See also ootnote 5.

4 This was already a famous place in Edo in the

mid-17th century. See the study by Hiraoka Naoki

平岡直樹 and Sasaki Kunihiro 佐々木邦博 »Edo mei-

shoki ni miru 17-seiki nakagoro no Edo no meisho

no tokuchō«『江戸名所記』に見る17世紀中頃の江戸

の名所の特徴. Shinshū Daigaku Nōgakubu Kiyō

信州大学農学部紀要 38,1/2 (20 02), pp. 37 – 44

5 A screen in the Berkeley East Asian Library (East

Asian Library call number: Byobu 2 SPEC-Map),

which the university dates to the 17th century,

shows the same mixture of sources. It may well be

that this was a separate tradition that focused on

the screen and hand scroll formats. The Berkeley

screen and the present screen share a number

of compositional features and it is possible that

there is a connection of some kind between

the screens and their artists. For a image of the

Berkeley screen, see the internet site: http://

luna.davidrumsey.com:8380/luna/servlet/detail/

RUMSEY~9~1~23272~50063:Tokaido-dochu-ezu-

byobu--verso---16

Nr. 4 Peacock Pair by Cliffs

1 See an example by Maruyama Ōkyo in: Sasaki

Jōhei, Sasaki Masako, Osaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan

大阪市立美術館,佐々木丞平,佐々木正子, eds.

Maruyama Ōkyo: Shaseiga sōzō e no chōsen

tokubetsuten 円山応挙: 写生画創造への挑戦特別展.

Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha每日新聞社 , 2003, pp.

198 – 201

2 For other biographical details, see Yui Kazuto

油井一人. Nijusseiki bukko nihongaka jiten 20世紀

物故日本画家事典 . Tokyo: Bijutsu Nenkansha 美術年

鑑社 , 1998, p. 18. For the Kampo and the Araki am-

ily o painters, see also Hitachi-shi Kyōdo Hakubut-

sukan日立市郷土博物館, ed. Kindai kachōga kō:

Dokugakai, Araki Ichimon no keifu近代花鳥画考・

読画会、荒木一門の系譜 . Hitachi日立: Hitachi-shi

Kyōdo Hakubutsukan日立市郷土博物館, 2000.

Nr. 5 The Raven and the Peacock

1 Taking the character »Hō 邦« rom his teacher.

Kihō’s original name was Hiroaki 廣精, which appears

in the seal on the screen.

2 They are still in museum storage. According to

the database o the University Art Museum, Tokyo

University o the Arts, they are Summer Landscape

夏景山水, hanging scroll, colors on silk, composed

in 1890, 123.8 × 61.3 cm; Two Figures under a Pine,

hanging scroll, colors on paper, 105.7 × 39.0 cm;

and Summer Landscape, hanging scroll, colors on

silk, dated 1893, 80.8 × 155.8 cm. The latter is listed

as his graduation work.

3 Tsunoda Ryūsaku developed the Japanese collec-

tions at Columbia Univeristy’s library and taught

a number o pioneering courses at the university.

Among his many students are figures such as

Donald Keene, who has in turn been key in the

development of Japanese studies in the United

States. Among Tsunoda’s texts is the still-reprinted



112 113

anthology of Japanese texts: Tsunoda Ryusaku,

William Theodore de Bary, and Donald Keene.

Sources of Japanese Tradition. 2 vols. New York:

Columbia University Press, 1958.

4 For example, he makes a visit to the Hōdai’in

宝台院 in Shizuoka Preecture in 1917. See Tachibana

Yoshiaki 立花義彰 »Shizuoka kindai bijutsu nenpyō,

Taishō hen 静岡近代美術年表大正編« Shizuokaken

Hakubutsukan Kyōkai Kenkyū Kiyō 静岡県博物館協会

研究紀要 29 (2006), 55. For other details, see: Araki

Tadashi 荒木矩 . Dai Nihon shoga meika daikan『大日

本書画名家大監』. 4 vols. Original ed.: 1934. Tokyo:

Dai-Ichi Shobō 第一書房, 1991, vol. 2, p. 2489.

Nr. 6 Chinese Landscape with Pagoda

1 Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka, Literati Modern:

Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan:

The Terry Welch Collection at the Honolulu Academy

of Arts. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy o Arts, 2008,

pp. 170 –1.

2 See Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka, Modern

Masters of Kyoto, pages 272–3, and their Literary

Modern, pages 170–1 for depictions of two sets

of ink landscape screens that were produced at

around this time, including the pair o screens that

was sent to the Teiten in 1925. This group o works

is urther described in a ootnote on page 273 o

Modern Masters of Kyoto.

3 For another work with a similar theme, see the

pair o six-panel screens in the 2009 catalog, eatur-

ing a winter scene o the Higashiyama district. Here,

too, was a remarkable display o technical abilities,

especially in the virtuosic use o gofun, or sea shell

powder, to imitate snow.

4 Baisen exhibited extensively at the national exhibi-

tions and his work was accepted into every Teiten

exhibition rom the very irst to the very last and

into all but one Bunten exhibitions, twice with two

entries. For a biography o the artist, see Ōtsu City

Museum o History 大津市歴史博物館, ed. Shirarezaru

Nihon kaiga 知られざる日本絵画 (English title:

Unexplored Avenues of Japanese Painting). Seattle

and Ōtsu: University of Washington Press, Ōtsu

City Museum of History大津市歴史博物館 , 2001,

36, 124, 190; Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka,

Modern Masters of Kyoto: The Transformation of

Japanese Painting Traditions, Nihonga from the

Griffith and Patricia Way Collection. Seattle: Seattle

Art Museum, 1999, 270 – 3; and Roberts (1976), 43;

and Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka, Literati Mod-

ern: Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century

Japan: The Terry Welch Collection at the Honolulu

Academy of Arts. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy o

Arts, 2008 , pp. 265 – 6.

Nr. 7 Morning Quiet

1 For details, see: Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai 日展史編

纂委員会, ed. Nittenshi 日展史. Tokyo: Nitten日展,

1980 –, vol. 8, p. 117, nr. 181. See also exhibition

labels on the back of the screen.

2 The emphasis on the line in Issan’s work clearly

comes from his two masters of the sketched line.

3 For details on exhibits, see: Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai

日展史編纂委員会 . Bunten, Teiten, Shin Bunten,

Nitten zen shuppin mokuroku: Meiji 40-nen--Shōwa

32-nen: Nitten shi shiryō 文展・帝展・新文展・日展全

出品目錄: 明治 40年--昭和 32年: 日展史資料. Tokyo:

Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai 日展史編纂委員会 , 1990,

vol. 2, p. 24.

4 「いりくんだ菜園を混沌もなく描き得てゐる日本画の

本領の優れた点はかういふ時に良く現はれるといふべ

きだらう」See his article: »Bunten nihonga tenbō

文展日本画展望« in Oguma Hideo 小熊秀雄.

Oguma Hideo zenshū 小熊秀雄全集. 5 vols. Tokyo:

Sōjusha 創樹社 , 1990 –1, vol. 5.

Nr. 8 Flowering Yamabuki

1 Shibuichi (四分一 ) is a type of metal that can be

patinated into a range of subtle muted shades

of blue or green. The name means literally »one-

fourth« in Japanese and indicates the chemical

formula of one part silver to three parts copper.

2 For list o the exhibitions and other inormation on

Issan’s career, see the other entry by Issan in this cata-

log and Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai 日展史編纂委員会 .

Bunten, Teiten, Shin Bunten, Nitten zen shuppin

mokuroku: Meiji 40-nen--Shōwa 32-nen: Nitten shi

shiryō 文展・帝展・新文展・日展全出品目錄: 明治 40

年--昭和 32年: 日展史資料. Tokyo: Nittenshi Hensan

Iinkai 日展史編纂委員会 , 1990, vol. 2, p. 24

Nr. 9 Sea Gulls by the Seashore

1 In Tokyo alone, it is estimated that over 140,000

people lost their lives in the Kanto Earthquake and

the resulting ires.

Nr. 10 The Second Patriarch Standing in the Snow

1 For more inormation on the stories o the early

Zen Patriarchs, see John R. McRae, Seeing through

Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in

Chinese Chan Buddhism. Berkeley: University o

Caliornia Press, 2003, and Philip Yampolsky, Ch’an,

a Historical Sketch in Buddhist Spirituality in Later

China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World, edited

by Takeuchi Yoshinori. SCM Press, 1999.

2 As well as for artists: for example, Sesshū Tōyō

雪舟等楊 (1420 –1506) amously painted the scene

o the Second Patriarch bringing his severed arm to

the seated Bodhidharma in a painting rom 1496.

3 Besides the present work, only three portraits

have been recorded. Takeuchi Naoji 竹内尚次.

Hakuin 白隠. Tokyo: Chikuma Shoten筑摩書店,

1964, p. 205, and Hanazono Daigaku Kokusai

Zengaku Kenkyūjo花園大学国際禅学研究所, ed.

Hakuin zenga bokuseki 白隱禪画墨蹟. 3 vols. Tokyo:

Nigensha 二玄社 , 2009, vol. 1, pp188 – 9.

4 See Takeuchi Naoji 竹内尚次. Hakuin 白隠 . Tokyo:

Chikuma Shoten 筑摩書店, 1964, appendix, p. 40.

I true, it would mean that the monk painted the

work only a year ater receiving his name Hakuin.

5 Takeuchi ordered all Hakuin paintings and cal-

ligraphies into our dierent periods, in which the

earliest period dates up to the monk’s 56th year.

See Takeuchi Naoji 竹内尚次. Hakuin 白隠 . Tokyo:

Chikuma Shoten 筑摩書店, 1964, p. 51.

Nr. 11 Tenjin Traveling to China

1 For more information on this important char-

acter, see the excellent book by Robert Borgen.

Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court.

Honolulu: University o Hawaii Press, 1994.

2 At least twenty extant Hakuin paintings o Michzane

have been published. See: Hanazono Daigaku

Kokusai Zengaku Kenkyūjo 花園大学国際禅学研究所 ,

ed. Hakuin zenga bokuseki 白隱禪画墨蹟. 3 vols.

Tokyo: Nigensha 二玄社 , 2009, vol 1, pp. 218 –19;

John Stevens. Zenga: Brushstrokes of Enlightenment .

New Orleans: New Orleans Museum o Art, 1990,

pages 124 – 5; Nakamura Gen 中村元, ed. Hakuin Zenji

白隠禅師. Hara 原: Shōinji Temple 松蔭寺, 2000, p. 95;

Tanaka Daisaburō 田中大三郎, ed. Hakuin zenshi

bokusekishu 白隠禅師墨蹟集 . Tokyo: Rokugei Shobō

六芸書房, 2006, pl. 50; Hanazono Daigaku Rekishi

Hakubutsukan 花園大学歴史博物館 , Yoshizawa

Hatsuhiro 芳澤勝弘, Fukushima Tsunenori 福島恒徳,

Satō Makoto 佐藤誠 , eds. Hakuin Zenji to bokuseki:

Shinde Ryūunji Temple Collection白隠禅師と墨跡・

新出龍雲寺コレクション. Kyoto: Hanazono Daigaku

Rekishi Hakubutsukan 花園大学歴史博物館 , 2004,

p. 33; Asai Kyōko 浅井京子, ed. Kyū-Tomioka

Bijutsukan shozō: Zen shoga mokuroku 旧富岡美術



114 115

館所蔵・禅書画目録 . Tokyo: Waseda University Aizu

Yaichi Memorial Museum 早稲田大学會津八一記念

博物館 , 2007, page 88; Yamanouchi, Chōzō 山内長

三. Hakuin-san no eseppō 白隠さんの絵説法 . Tokyo:

Daihō Rinkaku 大法輪閣, 1991, p. 100; Mochizuki

Noboru 望月昇 , ed. Hakuin: Zen to shoga 白隠・禅と

書画 . Kyoto: ADK, 2004, p. 148; Morita, Shiryū 森田

子龍 , ed. Bokubi Tokushū: Hakuin bokuseki 墨美特

集―白隠墨蹟．Collected edition o the issues o the

Bokubi journal numbers 77, 78, 79, and 90, illustrat-

ing the collected works o Hakuin. Kyoto: Bokubisha

墨美社 , 1985, pp. 86 and 124; Tanahashi, Kazuaki.

Penetrating Laughter: Hakuin’s Zen & Art. Woodstock,

NY: The Overlook Press, 1984., pl. 30; and Takeuchi,

Naoji 竹内尚次. Hakuin 白隠. Tokyo: Chikuma Shoten

筑摩書店, 1964, pl. 375 – 6.

3 Hakuin appears to have enjoyed using mojie and

there are numerous other examples of his using

the technique with other topics and compositions.

The tradition is old in Japan with examples dating

back to the Heian period. For more on the tradition

and on Hakuin’s mojie paintings, see Audrey Seo.

Painting-Calligraphy Interactions in the Zen Art of

Hakuin Ekaku (1685 –1768). PhD dissertation.

University o Kansas, 1997. For more on Hakuin’s

Michizane paintings, see pages 253 – 5. See also

Yoshizawa Katsuhiro芳澤勝弘. Hakuin no mojie:

Hitomaro-zō to Totō Tenjin-zō 白隠の文字絵―人丸像

と渡唐天神像― . Zen Bunka 禅文化 188 (2003)

4 The text is the Kanshin nissō jueki 菅神入宋授衣記.

It can be ound in the nineteenth volume o Gunsho

ruiju 群書類従. A number o other 13th century

texts deal with this narrative, but the above text

seems to be the original one. See article by Yoshizawa

or a more complete discussion.

Nr. 12 The Hakata Top Crossing a String

1 Box, outer inscription on end: »Painting o the

Hakata Top by Sengai« Hakata koma no e Sengai

博多コマノ絵仙厓

2 For an English-language biography o Sengai,

see Stephen Addiss. The Art of Zen: Paintings and

Calligraphy by Japanese Monks 1600 –1925 . New

York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, pp. 176 – 85.

3 See or example the humorous street perormers

in Furuta Shōkin古田紹欽. Sengai 仙厓. Tokyo:

Idemitsu Bijutsukan 出光美術館, 1985, pp. 102 – 3;

see also Daisetz Suzuki. Sengai: The Zen Master.

London: Faber and Faber, 1971, p. 124.

4 We see Sengai playing with a similar blurring

between elite and common factors in the very

execution o the painting. Here the silk surace has

been let only partly sized, which led to the striking

pattern o ink clots on the surace. Moreover, Sengai

seems to have painted on the top o a tatami panel

division, which let a line intersecting across the

top o the rice bales. This visual clumsiness was not

accidental, as Sengai was thoroughly able to com-

pose careul and skillul images, including works on

a large scale and ull-sized six-panel screens. See

the remarkable screens in Takeo Izumi 泉武夫 and

Minakami Tsutomu 水上勉 . Sengai, Hakuin 白隱・

仙厓 . Tokyo: Kōdansha 講談社 , 1995, pp. 10 –11,

54 – 9. Sengai’s paintings appear unskillul but this

was clearly an intended eect by the artist. Sengai

was in act highly skilled and a great deal o experi-

ence and technical abilities stand behind his works.

See or example the interesting article by Nishimura

Nangaku西村南岳. »Sengai Zenga: Honmono,

nisemono 仙厓禅画・ほんもの、にせもの.« Bokubi

墨美 114 (196 2), pp. 5 – 8.

5 Daisetz T. Suzuki. Sengai (1750 –1837). Trans. Eva

von Hoboken. Vienna: Oesterreichisches Museum

ür Angewandte Kunst, 1964, plate 5.

6 The catalogue that accompanied the tour ea-

tured the writing o the amous Buddhism scholar

Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870 –1966). Suzuki was an

important author of books and essays on Zen

and Pure Land Buddhism that spread interest in

Buddhism and Eastern Spiritualism to Western

audiences, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s.

Recent scholars have been somewhat more critical

o his role, see, or example, Robert Shar, »Who’s

Zen: Zen Nationalism Revisited«, in Rude Awaken-

ings: Zen, the Kyoto School & Zen Nationalism,

J. W. Heisig & John Maraldo eds., Nanzen Institute

or Religion and Culture. Honolulu: University o

Hawaii Press, 1995.

7 Two other examples can be seen in Nichibō

shuppansha 日貿出版社, ed. Sengai no zenga:

Satori no bi 仙厓の禪画: 悟りの美 . Tokyo: Nichibō

shuppansha 日貿出版社 , 1984, plates 84 and 118.

8 Hisamatsu Shin’ichi 久松真一 describes the col-

lecting activities o the monk in his article: »Sengai

no zenfū仙厓の禪風.« Bokubi 墨美 110 (1961),

pp. 11–16.

Nr. 13 Fire in Edo

1 As or the number o ires or the major cities dur-

ing the 267 years o the Edo period, Osaka had 6

major ires, Kyoto had 9, Kanazawa had 3, and Edo

had 49 major ires. Kuroki Takashi 黒木喬. Edo no kaji

江戸の火事. Dōseisha 同成社 , 1999, p. 3.

2 The painting may very well be the depiction o

the great Aoyama Fire 青山火事 o the 24th day o

the irst month o 1845, which eventually spread

across the western part o the city, leading to the

destruction o vast tracts o land, including 187

Buddhist temples, and the death o 800 – 900 people.

Hata Ichijirō 畑市次郎. Tōkyō saigai-shi 東京災害史.

Tokyo: Tosei tsūshin sha 都政通信社, 1952, p. 54

3 A number o ire ighting groups were active in

this area. For an overview, see Kuroki Takashi

黒木喬 . Edo no kaji 江戸の火事. Dōseisha同成社,

1999.

4 For the restaurant culture o Edo, see Hans Bjarne

Thomsen, »The Other Hiroshige: Connoisseur o

the Good Lie«, Impressions 24 (December, 2002):

pp. 15 – 21 and 48 – 71; and »Food and Art: Hiroshige’s

Restaurant prints in the Elvehjem.« Bulletin of the

Elvehjem Museum of Art , Summer 2002 issue,

pp. 27 – 40.

5 On the second loor we see a drinking party with

a geisha. Interestingly, this inormation is imparted

through a shadow on a window—that is, through a

shadow o a shadow.

6 The name reers to the ratio o buckwheat lour

(80%) to wheat lour (20%). This was a type o soba

that was avored in Edo and is harder than the type

preerred today. Due to the ear o ire, the type o

traveling soba seller (with his ire and hot cauldron)

that we see on this painting was prohibited in 1799,

but the laws were relaxed in the irst decades o

the nineteenth century. By the time this painting

was made, the prohibition was no longer ollowed.

See: Nagayama Hisao 永山久夫. Tabemono Edo shi

たべもの江戸史. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha

新人物往来社, 1976.

7 See or example, Itō Shiori 伊藤紫織. »Shini-e to

gachūga: shōzō toshite no shini-e« 死絵と画中画・

肖像としての死絵. Journal of Development and Sys-

tematization of Death and Life Studies, Tokyo Univer-

sity 東京大学グローバルプログラム「死生学の展開と組

織化」(2009) pp. 173 – 96; Osaka Municipal Museum

o Art 大阪市立美術館, ed. Tokubetsuten: Shōzō

gasan, hito no sugata hito no koto ba 特別展・肖像画

賛＝人のすがた、人のことば. Osaka: Osaka Municipal

Museum o Art 大阪市立美術館 , 2000, pl. 123; and

Timon Screech. The Western Scientific Gaze and

Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens within

the Heart. Cambridge, New York and Melbourne:

Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 113 –16.

8 This temple, also called the Sasadera 笹寺 , was

one of the best known temples in the city and a

place for cultural meetings. It was illustrated by

Hasegawa Settan (1778 –1843) in the Edo meishi

zue book series, initially published in 1834 with





118 119

2 For biographical details, see: Yui Kazuto 油井一人.

Nijusseiki bukko nihongaka jiten 20世紀物故日本

画家事典. Tokyo: Bijutsu Nenkansha 美術年鑑社,

1998, p. 196. Some of the artist names he used

include Keimei 契明 , Deigyū 泥牛 , and Kōrin 晃林 .

3 See biographical inormation on Keisen: Paul

Berry and Michiyo Morioka,Literati Modern: Bunjinga

from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan: The

Terry Welch Collection at the Honolulu Academy of

Arts. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy o Arts, 2008,

pp. 306 – 8; for Keigetsu, see: Kyoto City Museum

京都市美術館, ed. Kikuchi Keigetsu to sono keifu

菊池契月とその系譜 . Kyoto: Kyoto Shimbunsha

京都新聞社, 1999.

4 For some of the national exhibitions he was part

of, see: Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai日展史編纂委員会.

Bunten, Teiten, Shin Bunten, Nitten zen shuppin

mokuroku: Meiji 40-nen--Shōwa 32-nen: Nitten shi

shiryō 文展・帝展・新文展・日展全出品目錄: 明治 40

年--昭和 32年: 日展史資料. Tokyo: Nittenshi Hensan

Iinkai 日展史編纂委員会 , 1990, vol. 2, p. 18.

Nr. 19 Daruma Portrait

1 Three Daruma portraits rom 1914 and 1917 are

depicted in: The National Museum o Modern Art,

Kyoto 京都国立近代美術館 and Chikkyō Art Museum,

Kasaoka 笠岡市立竹喬美術館, eds. Tsuji Kakō Ex-

hibition 都路華香展. Kasaoka 笠岡 and Kyoto 京都:

The National Museum o Modern Art, Kyoto 京都

国立近代美術館 and Chikkyō Art Museum, Kasaoka

笠岡市立竹喬美術館, 2006, pp. 96 and 106 – 7

2 This is a common way to depict the patriarch; see

or example Daruma paintings by various artists

in: Asai Kyōko 浅井京子, ed. Kyū-Tomioka Bijutis kan

shozō: Zen shoga moku roku 旧富岡美術館所蔵・

禅書画目録. Tokyo: Waseda University Aizu Yaichi

Memorial Museum 早稲田大学會津八一記念博物館,

2007

3 One o the last paintings brushed by Kakō was

a portrait o this monk. For details, see: Paul Berry

and Michiyo Morioka, Literati Modern: Bunjinga

from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan: The Terry

Welch Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Honolulu: Honolulu Academy o Arts, 2008, p. 266.

See also: Ellen P. Conant, et al.,Nihonga, Transcend-

ing the Past: Japanese Style Painting, 1868 –1968.

Saint Louis: The Saint Louis Art Museum and The

Japan Foundation, 1995, p. 328.

4 For biographical inormation on the artist, see the

ollowing texts: Michiyo Morioka, »A Reexamination

of Tsuji Kakō’s Art and Career« in Paul Berry and

Michiyo Morioka, Modern Masters of Kyoto: The

Transformation of Japanese Painting Traditions,

Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection.

Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1999, 40 – 54. See

also reerences in Ellen P. Conant, et al., Nihonga,

Transcending the Past: Japanese Style Painting,

1868 –1968. Saint Louis: The Saint Louis Art Museum

and The Japan Foundation, 1995; and Ōtsu City

Museum o History 大津市歴史博物館, ed. Shirarezaru

Nihon kaiga 知られざる日本絵画 (English title: Unex-

plored Ave nues of Japanese Painting). Seattle and

Ōtsu: University o Washington Press, Ōtsu City Mu-

seum o History 大津市歴史博物館 , 2001. See also

Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka, Literati Modern:

Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan:

The Terry Welch Collection at the Honolulu Academy

of Arts. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy o Arts, 2008,

pp. 265 – 6.

Nr. 20 Hearing Nothing, Seeing Nothing

1 All three seals were used on or around Nantembō’s

eighty-ith year. See Matthew Welch, The Paintings

and Calligraphy of the Japanese Zen Priest Tōjū

Zenshū, Alias Nantembō (1839 –1925). PhD disser-

tation, University o Kansas, 1995, Appendix Two.

2 Also Romanized as » sanjitsu jirō « and »mijirō.«

See or example, Yokoi Yūhō, The Japanese English

Buddhist Dictionary (Tokyo: Sankibō Buddhist Book

Store, 1991), pp. 580 –1

3 Jingde chuandenglu (Japanese: Keitoku dentōroku)

『景徳伝燈録』(Shanghai: Shang wu yin shu guan,

1935).

4 See Welch, ibid, page 136.

5 See Stephen Addiss. The Art of Zen. New York:

Harry Abrams, 1989, p. 191.

Nr. 22 Maeda Chikubōsai I

1 For three more examples of his work, see our

2006 publication, item12; the 2007 publication,

item17; and the 2009 publication, item16.

Nr. 23 Tanabe Chikuunsai I

1 For our other examples o baskets by Chikuunsai II,

see our 2006 publication, items nr.14 and nr.15;the

2007 publication, item 20; and the 2008 publica-

tion, item19.

Nr. 26 Incense Box with Nanten and the Full Moon

1 For inormation on the Nadina, see: Terashima

Ryōan寺島良安, Wakan sansai zue 和漢三才図絵 .

2 vols. Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu 東京美術, 1970, vol. 2,

p. 1198.

Nr. 27 Writing Box with Fans and Autumn Grasses

1 For many ine examples o Genji-related ans, see:

Murasaki Shikibu.Le dit du Genji: Genji monogatari:

Illustré par la peinture traditionnelle japonaise du

XIIe au XVI Ie siècle. 3 vols. Paris: D. de Selliers, 2007.

Nr. 28 Writing Box with Books

1 Kokin wakashū 古今和歌集, poem number 345.

Based on the translation in Helen Craig McCullough,

Kokin wakashū: the First Imperial Anthology of

Japanese Poetry: with Tosa nikki and Shins en waka.

Stanord, CA: Stanord University Press, 1985, p. 83.

Nr. 29 Tales of Genji Tebako Box

1 The store is presently located in the Okazaki area

o Kyoto, which is also the location o period exhi-

bitions o objects rom the storage collections o

the studio. There is also a major store in Tokyo in

the Nihonbashi area.

Nr. 30 Writing Box with the Hundred Kings

1 See also the 18th century dictionary Wakan

sansai zue 和漢三才図絵、which lists the Shishi lion

as the »leader o one hundred animals 百獣ノ長 .«

See: Terashima Ryōan 寺島良安, Wakan sansai zue

和漢三才図絵. 2 vols. Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu 東京美術,

1970, vol. 1, p. 437.

2 See the items by Mikami Jisaburō 三上治三郎 and

the studio in the recent important catalogue: Tokyo

National Museum or Modern Art 東京国立近代美術館.

Nihon no āru nūvō 1900--1923: kōgei to dezain no

shinjidai (Art Nouveau in Japan 1900-- 1923: The New

Age of Crafts and Design) 日本のアール・ヌーヴォー

1900--1923 工芸とデザインの新時代. Tokyo: Tōkyō

Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan, 2005.



120 121

Addiss, Stephen and Audrey Seo. The Art of

Twentieth-Century Zen: Painting and Calligraphy by

Japanese Masters. Boston and London: Shambhala,

1998

Addiss, Stephen. The Art of Zen: Paintings and

Calligraphy by Japanese Monks, 1600 –1925. New

York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989.

Akiyama Ken and Eiichi Taguchi. Genji monogatari:

Gōka »Genji-e« no sekai. Tokyo: Gakushū

Kenkyūsha, 1988.

Araki Tadashi 荒木矩 . Dai Nihon shoga meika taikan

大日本書画名家大鑑. 4 vols. Reprinted ed. Tokyo:

Daiichi Shobō 第一書房, 1991.

Asai Kyōko 浅井京子, ed. Kyū-Tomioka Bijutsu kan

shozō: Zen shoga moku roku 旧富岡美術館所蔵・

禅書画目録. Tokyo: Waseda University Aizu Yaichi

Memorial Museum 早稲田大学會津八一記念博物館,

2007.

Berry, Paul and Michiyo Morioka. Literati Modern:

Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century

Japan: The Terry Welch Collection at the Honolulu

Academy of Arts. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy o

Arts, 2008.

Berry, Paul and Michiyo Morioka. Modern Masters

of Kyoto: The Transformation of Japanese Painting

Traditions. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1999.

Borgen, Robert. Sugawara no Michizane and the

Early Heian Court. Honolulu: University o Hawaii

Press, 1994

Brasch, Kurt. Hakuin und die Zen Malerei. Tokyo:

Japanisch-Deutsch Gesellschat, 1957.

Brown, Kendall and Sharon Minichiello.Taishō Chic:

Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, and Deco.

Honolulu: Honolulu Academy o Arts, 2003

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126 127

Index

Nr. Page Artist Title Description Date Size

Screens

1 6 Kano School

狩野派

Roosters and Chicken

in a Bamboo Grove

Pair of six-panel folding screens.Ink,colors,

gofun ,gold and gold leaf on paper.

Edo Period

early 17th C

H 64 ¾" × W 133 ½"

(164.5 cm × 339 cm) each

2 12 Tosa Mitsuyoshi

土佐光吉

Scenes from the Tales

of Genji

Six-panel folding screen.Ink,mineral colors,

gofun ,silver,gold and gold leaf on paper.

Momoyama Period

early 17th C

H 63 ½" × W 146 ½"

(161.3 cm × 372.3 cm)

3 16 Unknown artist Scenes from the Great

Eastern Road

Pair of six-panel folidng screens.Ink,mineral

colors, gofun ,gold flakes and gold leaf on paper.

Edo Period

circa 1800

H 49 ¾" × W 117 ½"

(126.5 cm × 298.5 cm) each

4 22 Araki Kampo

荒木寛畆

Peacock Pair by Cliffs Two-panel folding screen.Ink,colors,gold and

gold-leaf on silk.

Meiji Period

dated 1907

H 76 ¾" × W 75 ¾"

(195 cm × 192.4 cm)

5 26 Usumi Kihō

内海輝邦

The Raven and the

Peacock

Pair of six-panel folidng screens.Ink,mineral

colors, gofun ,gold, silver,lacquer and silver leaf

on paper.

Taishō Period

circa 1920

H 69" × W 136 ¼"

(175 cm × 346 cm) each

6 32 Hirai Baisen

平井楳仙

Chinese Landscape

with Pagoda

Two-panel folding screen.Ink and colors on

paper.

Taishō Period

1925

H 68" × W 74 ¾"

(173 cm × 189.7 cm)

7 36 Nakatsuka Issan

中塚一杉

Morning Quiet Two-panel folding screen.Ink,colors and gofun

on silk.

Shōwa Period

1927

H 70 ½" × W 90"

(179.3 cm × 228.6 cm)

8 40 Nakatsuka Issan

中塚一杉

Flowering Yamabuki Two-panel fo lding screen . In k,colors an d gofun

on silk.

Shōwa Period

circa 1930

H 78 ¼" × W 82"

(199 cm × 208 cm)

9 44 Sōju

双樹

Sea Gulls by the

Seashore

Two-panel folding screen.Ink,colors, gofun and

silver on paper.

Taishō Period

1920s

H 69 ¼" × W 68 ¾"

(175.8 cm × 174.8 cm)

Paintings

10 50 Hakuin Ekaku

白隠慧鶴

The Second Patriarch

Standing in the Snow

Hanging scroll. Ink on paper. Edo Period

circa 1725

H 65" × W 15 ¾"

(165 cm × 40 cm)

11 54 Hakuin Ekaku

白隠慧鶴

Tenjin Traveling to

China

Hanging scroll. Ink on paper. Edo Period

circa 1760

H 41¼" × 8 ¼"

(104.5 cm × 21.1 cm)

12 58 Sengai Gibon

仙厓義梵

The Hakata Top

Crossing a String

Hanging scroll. Ink on silk. Edo Period

circa 1820

H 49 ½" × 24 ¾"

(126 cm × 62.6 cm)

13 60 Kishi Chōzen

岸長善

F ir e i n E do H an gi ng sc ro ll . In k a nd li gh t c ol or s o n p ap er . E do P er io d

circa 1845

H 89 ¼" × 29"

(227 cm × 73.7 cm)

1 4 6 4 M oc hi zu ki G yo ku se n

望月玉泉

Waterfall Hanging scroll. Ink and silver on silk. Meiji Period

circa1900

H 92 ¾" × 28 ¼"

(235.5 cm × 71.8 cm)

15 66 Hirai Baisen

平井楳仙

The Snow of

Kamogawa River

Han gin g scroll . In k,colors an d gofu n on si lk . Taishō Period

dated 1917

H 85" × 22"

(216 cm × 55.8 cm)

16 68 W atana be Sh ōte i

渡辺省亭

New Year with Small

Pines and a Pair of

Cranes

Han gin g scrol l. In k,color an d lacqu er on si lk . Meiji Period

circa1910

H 75 ½" × 20 ¾"

(192 cm × 52.6 cm)

17 70 Toji ma M itsuz ane

戸島光孚

Set of Three Lacquer

Paintings with Carps

Set of 3 hanging scrolls.Lacquer,light color and

ink on silk.

Shōwa Period

dated 1929

H 83 ¼" × 21 ¾"

(211.5 cm × 55.2 cm) each

Nr. Page Artist Title Description Date Size

18 72 Sano Kōsui

佐野光穂

A Cat in a Melon Patch Han gin g scrol l . In k,colors an d gold on si lk . Taishō Period

circa 1925

H 85" × 26"

(216 cm × 65.8 cm)

19 74 Tsuji Kakō

都路華杳

D ar um a P or tr ai t H an gi ng sc ro ll . In k a nd co lo rs on pa pe r. T ai sh ō P er io d

circa 1915

H 84 ¾" × 23"

(215 cm × 58.2 cm)

20 76 Nakahara Nantembō

中原南天榛

Hearing Nothing,

Seeing Nothing

Hanging scroll. Ink on satin. Taishō Period

dated 1923

H 80" × 26 ½"

(203 cm × 67 cm)

Bamboo Baskets

2 1 8 0 Y am am ot o Ch ik ur yū sa i

山本竹龍斎

Boat-Shaped Wide

Basket

Ikebana flower basket. Madake bamboo,

Hōbichiku bamboo and rattan.

Taishō Period

dated 1916

H15¼"×L20¾"×W11¼"

(38.5cm×52.5cm× 28.5cm)

2 2 8 2 M ae da C hi ku bō sa i I

前田竹房斎初代

Wide-Mouthed Flower

Basket

Ikebana flower basket.Madake bamboo,

Hōbichiku bamboo and rattan.

Shōwa Period

dated 1942

H 19 ½",D 10"

(49.5 cm,25.5 cm)

2 3 8 4 Ta na be Ch ik uu ns ai I

田辺竹雲斎初代

C r ou c hi n g T i ge r I k eb a na f l ow e r b a sk e t. Kinmeichiku bamboo,

Hōbichiku bamboo and Madake bamboo.

Shōwa Period

1920s

H 17 ¾",D 10 ¾"

(45 cm,27cm)

24 86 Mor ita C hikuam i

森田竹阿弥

Flared F lower Basket Ikeban a flower basket. Hōbichiku smoked

bamboo and rattan.

Shōwa Period

1930s

H 19",D 10 ¼"

(48.5 cm,26 cm)

25 88 Kyokusai

旭斎

F lo we r B as ke t I ke ba na f lo we r b as ke t. Susudake bamboo and

rattan.

Shōwa Period

dated 1937

H 17" × L9 ¼" × W 7"

(43.3 cm × 23.5 cm × 18 cm)

Lacquers

26 92 Anonymous Incense Box with the

Full Moon and Nanten

Lacquer box Edo Period

18th C

H 1" × L 2 ¾" × W 2 ¾"

(2.3 cm × 6.8 cm × 6.7 cm)

27 94 Anonymous Writing Box with Fans

and Autumn Grasses

Maki-e lacquer box Meiji Period

circa1900

H 1½" × L 8" × W 7 ¼"

(4 cm × 20.4 cm × 18.4 cm)

28 96 Anonymous Writing Box with

Books

Maki-e lacquer box Edo Period

early 19th C

H 2" × L 9" × W 8 ¼"

(4.9cm × 22.8 cm × 21 cm)

29 98 Zōhiko Studio

象彦

Tales of Genji Tebako

Box

Maki-e lacquer box Meiji Period

circa1900

H 4 ¼" × L 8 ¾" × W 7 ¼"

(11 cm × 22 cm × 18.5 cm)

3 0 1 00 M ik am i Y ōk ōd ō

三上楊光堂

Writing Box with the

Hundred Kings

Maki-e lacquer box Taishō-Shōwa Periods

1920s – 30s

H 4 ½ " × L 1 0 ¾ " × W 8 ¼ "

(11.5cm×27.5cm× 21.2cm)



131

Erik Thomsen 2010

Japanese Paintings and Works of Art

© 2010 Erik Thomsen

Text based on research by Prof. Hans Bjarne Thomsen (item 1– 20, 26 – 30)

Photography: Cem Yücetas

Design and Production: Valentin Beinroth

Printing: Henrich Druck + Medien GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

Printed in Germany

Cover:

Scenes from the Great Eastern Road

Detail, pair of six-panel folding screens (item 3)

Edo Period (1615 –1868), circa 1800





Documents

2010 Erikthomsen Catalog