Japanese Paintings and Works of ArtErik Thomsen 2009

Table of contents

3

5

37

59

71

81

94

102

107

Foreword and Acknowledgements

Screens

Paintings

Bamboo Baskets

Ceramics

Lacquers

Signatures, Seals and Inscriptions

Notes

Bibliography

Japanese Paintings and Works of Art

3

Foreword and Acknowledgements

I am delighted to present our annual spring catalog,

which features selections from my five specialties

within Japanese art: screens, paintings, bamboo

baskets, ceramics and gold lacquers. All items pre-

sented here were made in accordance with Japanese

taste and aesthetics and are connected with either

domestic artistic traditions or with the important

question of how to integrate new Western ideas

into Japanese arts.

The screen selection starts out with a brilliant pair

of mid-Edo period screens depicting a luxurious

scene of blooming wisteria, followed by four pairs

of screens painted by early 20th century artists. The

screen pair by Yamaga Seiga (catalog nr. 2) is pre-

sented here publicly again for the first time since it

was exhibited at the fifth Bunten in Tokyo in 1911

and at the International Exhibition of Contemporary

Art in Amsterdam in 1912.

The scroll paintings are inspired by themes from

nature. The two paintings of roosters by the artists

Itō Jakuchū (nr. 6) and Itō Jakuen (nr. 7) present a

valuable opportunity to compare the way the artists

treated the same subject with the same media

and to observe their similar yet quite different brush

techniques. Although mysteries surround their

exact relationship, the two artists were clearly related

at some level; this exhibition offers a visual evi-

dence of this link and makes a cogent argument for

considering Jakuen a separate artistic personality

with great talent.

Of the bamboo ikebana baskets shown, I am partic-

ularly fond of the two masterworks by Chikubōsai I

(nrs. 16 and 17). Their bold shapes and fine details

delight at first sight and do not disappoint with

closer inspection. Among the selected ceramics,

the fifteenth century Shigaraki jar (nr. 21) is a

spectacular example of its kind. It has a beautiful

shape with strong shoulders and dramatic nat-

ural ash glaze patterns, as well as exciting surface

textures and colors.

The lacquers are, as the scrolls, marked by nature

themes. They date mostly from the Taishō period

of the early 20th century, a fascinating time for

Japanese art when there were strong interactions

with the Western art world. The Japanese art

trade was flourishing and the quality of the materi-

als used and the work done was of the highest

level. The wisteria writing box (nr. 26) is a good

example of these high standards and also epito-

mizes the beautiful, subtle and understated

aesthetic that makes Japanese art outstanding.

I wish to thank my wife, Cornelia, and everyone

else who made this catalog possible; in particular

our photographer, Cem Yücetas, who traveled

from Germany to photograph the collection, for

his patience and perfectionism, and especially

our designer in Frankfurt, Valentin Beinroth, for his

clean design, attention to detail, and perseverance.

Erik Thomsen

New York, March 2009

Screens

6

1

Hasegawa School, anonymous artistFlowering Wisteria

Edo period (1615 –1868), 18th century

H 64 ¾" × W 145 ¼"

(164.5 cm × 369 cm) each

Pair of six-panel folding screens

Mineral pigments, ink and gofun on gold leaf

A remarkable pair of six-panel screens with a

luxurious detailed display of the flowers and wild-

life of late spring. The focal point of the screens

is unmistakably centered on a glorious proliferation

of flowering wisteria plants. In the left screen, the

wisteria plants grow over a bamboo lattice and

fence, seeming to overpower the structure with

their exuberance. In the right screen, the wisteria

flowers appear from behind a garden fence and

grow by an aged pine tree in the garden. In both

screens, we see an interesting contrast between

the domesticated and the wild, the garden and

nature: the two worlds seem to overlap and in-

teract with each other and the artist deliberately

leaves the boundary between them ambiguous.

Other plants appear as well, such as the low-lying

bamboo in the left screen and a splendid growth

of tree peony (shakuyaku) in the right screen. The

two screens are linked by the depiction of a pond,

within which we see lovingly detailed groups of

the flowering water lilies (hitsujigusa).

This luxurious hideaway from society is visited by

various flying objects: the screen to the right by

three red-breasted Daurian Redstarts (jōbitaki) and

the left screen by several types of butterflies. They

seem to thoroughly enjoy their private place of

refuge. The butterflies can be seen playfully flying

together, and, splashing into the water, a bird forms

delightful finger-like patterns of water around it.

The two right-most panels of the left screen reveal

a virtuosic brush display by the artist, as he lovingly

created a network of wisteria vines that seems to

want to take flight, reaching out for the flying but-

terflies just beyond its reach.

This glorious pair of screens is made in the eigh-

teenth century by an anonymous artist. Judging

from the style of the work and the luxurious use of

mineral colors, the artist may have been part of a

workshop that produced screens for the interiors

of the wealthy: the merchant houses, restaurants,

temples, and homes of the aristocracy. With periodic

fires being a fact of urban living in pre-modern

Japan, there was always a market for refined works

of art to place within architectural interiors. At

peace and with a mostly flourishing commerce,

eighteenth century Japan underwent an especially

rich flowering of its arts and culture, and this paint-

ing bears evidence to its riches in both the use

of luxurious materials and in the sheer energy of

expression.

Other examples of wisteria screens with similar

compositions can be seen in the Nihon byōbue

shūsei. According to Nakajima Junshi such screens

date from the eighteenth century. In fact, all the

screens (including the present screen pair) may

stem from the same source, one that Nakajima

ascribes to »mid-Edo variations of the Hasegawa

School.«1 The existence of an additional wisteria

screen pair of earlier date signed Hasegawa Sōen

(ac. 17th century), in the collection of the Seianji

Temple 盛安寺 in Shiga Prefecture, further heightens

the likelihood that the present pair of screens was

created by a follower of the Hasegawa School.2

7

12

2

Yamaga Seika 山鹿清華 (1885 –1981)

Painting of a Cuckoo 「かんことり図」

Meiji period (1868 –1912), 1911

H 52 ¾" × W 110 ¼"

(134 cm × 280 cm) each

Pair of six-panel folding screens

Mineral pigments and ink on gold leaf

Signed: Seika 清華Seals: Seika 清華

Box inscription, outside: Kankotori zu »Painting of a

Cuckoo« かんことり図

Box inscription, inside: »Exhibited at the fifth Bunten

exhibition and exhibited at the World Exposition

in Amsterdam, Holland« 第五回文部省美術展覧会出品、和蘭國 アムステルダム万国美術博覧会出品.

»Dated the seventh month of 1911, [signed] Seika«

明治辛亥初秋　清華

Published: Shinbi Shoin 審美書院 Monbusho

daigokai bijutsu tenrankai zuroku 文部省第五回美術展覧会図録. Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin 審美書院, 1911.

Also published in: Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai

日展史編纂委員会, Nittenshi 日展史.

Tokyo: Nitten 日展, 1980 –.1

The painting offers a magnificent display of Cryp-

tomeria trees (Sugi) spreading across two six-fold

screens. The detailing is remarkably realistic and

gives a striking sense of depth, due to carefully cal-

ibrated variations in colors. The trunk of the tree is

marked with the ravages of time, giving the impres-

sion of an old and mighty tree, deep in the forest.

Hidden among the branches of the tree a bird can

be seen, the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus),

in Japanese Kakkō or Kankodori.2 The artist chose

the latter reading for the bird, a name which also

can be translated as »high mountain bird« and which

has clear poetic connotations. The bird has a long

tradition in Japanese poetry, appearing not only in

classical Heian-period waka poetry but also in

early modern haiku. Matsuo Bashō (1644 – 94), for

example, wrote a poem on the bird:

»Your song caresses / the depths of loneliness /

high mountain bird.«3 The artist successfully creates

a visual connection to such poems and to a rich

tradition of the cuckoo within Japanese literature.

As written on the inside cover, this work was

exhibited in the fifth national Bunten exhibition in

1911.4 In the following year, it was then exhibited

in Amsterdam at the International Exhibition of

Contemporary Art (Internationale Tentoonstelling

van Hedendaagsche Kunst), held at the Stedelijk

Museum, Amsterdam, in 1912.5 It was one of few

paintings at the time to win great honors in both

Japan and the West, a fact which led Seika to write

his proud inscription on the box cover.

The artist is Yamaga Seika (1885 –1981), who was

born in Kyoto Prefecture.6 He, as many others of

his generation, went to Tokyo to be educated in

painting, studying under Nishida Chikusetsu 西田竹雪 in 1900 and then two years later under the re-

nowned Kamisaka Sekka 神 坂 雪佳 (1866 –1949).7

After placing the present painting in the Bunten and

then subsequently in an international exhibition in

Amsterdam, he painted other large works, among

which a pair of screens with the title Shirakanba

シラカンバ was exhibited in the first Seibu Tenrankai

of the National Art Association in 1913. This pair

of screens, which was published in the exhibition

volume, exhibits composition and execution similar

to the Cuckoo pair: in both the focus is on isolated

groupings of trees of the same species, created

with exquisite details and set against a simple

gold-leaf background.8

It is unusual for an artist to completely change his

field, especially after early success; having suc-

cessfully participated in national and international

exhibitions and achieved nationally-recognized

status. However, this was the case with Yamaga Seika,

who, after achieving a breakthrough with this paint-

ing in 1911 and 1912, chose to leave the field of

Nihonga painting completely. Seika became one of

13

the few Japanese artists who was able to create

first-rate works in a number of different fields. After

his success in Nihonga he went on to become one

of the leading textile designers and experts of the

twentieth century, amassing an impressive trail of

awards and achievements.

Seika’s participation in national exhibitions in his

second field of textile design is nothing but

astounding—entries in over thirty major national

exhibitions between 1911 and 1957.9 He also

became an exhibition judge of the Teiten in 1932,

the Shinbunten in 1943, and a member of the

Nitten in 1950 and kept a close connection to the

latter through a number of executive positions.

Seika also took part in numerous overseas exposi-

tions and won the grand prize at the Paris Inter-

national Exposition in 1925.10 An authority on tex-

tiles and textile design, he also left a number of

publications behind him.11 He ended his long

illustrious career with some of the highest honors

bestowed on Japanese artists, being named a

Person of Cultural Merit (Bunka Kōrōsha 文化功労者)

in 1969 and awarded the 3rd Class Grand Cordon

of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (Kunsantō

zuihōshō 勲三等瑞宝章) from the Emperor in 1974.

The present screen holds an important place in

his illustrious career as it was the first public sign

of success that marked his start as an artist: this

was the first of his artworks to be accepted by a

national exhibition and to be seen by the general

public.

18

3

Tsuji Kako 都路華香 (1870 –1931)

Young Pines

Taishō period (1912 – 26), circa 1920

H 53 ¼" × W 106"

(135.5 cm × 269.5 cm) each

Pair of six-panel folding screens

Ink on gold leaf

Signed (right screen): Kakō kore egaku »Kakō

painted this« 華香画之.

Seals: To Yoshikage In »the seal of To Yoshikage«

都良景印, Kakō 華香Signed (left screen): Kakō ga »Painting by Kakō«

華香画.

Seals: To Yoshikage In »the seal of To Yoshikage«

都良景印, Kakō 華香

Many rows of young pines march across this pair

of screens, in a exuberant celebration of the New

Year. A Japanese custom of the season is to place

decorations with young pine seedlings, known as

kadomatsu, at entrances of homes to bring good

luck in the new year. Here the artist has placed a

great multitude of pine seedlings, seeming to bring

a prodigious amount of good fortune in the new

year for the owner screen's owner.

The artist, Tsuji Kakō (1870 –1951), has placed the

pines, the sole decoration of the screens, entirely

within the lower half of the screen, thereby focus-

ing our attention to the plants and the unusual

composition of the screens. Following the exam-

ples of other screens by this noted artist, the plants

are abstracted repetitions of each other, varying

only in the intensity of ink density. These plants

appear in groups, streaming across the screens in

currents, close to and far from the viewer.

A further interesting characteristic of the screens is

the brush technique. Large-scale screens were typi-

cally drawn while the mounted paper was lying flat

on the floor. The artist has, however, placed the pa-

per on a slanted surface for the drawing of the pine

trunks, so that the ink could collect in pools at the

bottom of each plant. This was by no means an easy

task, as too great a slope of the paper would let

the ink spill down the screen. This effect may seem

unimportant but it fulfills two important goals: the

many pools of ink have the effect of reinforcing

the theme of repetitions across the screen surfaces

and also to anchor the pines more firmly in the

gold ground: thanks to the pools of ink, the pines

curiously do not appear to float in space, but rather

seem firmly planted into the frosty winter earth.

Tsuji Kakō is one of the most celebrated Nihonga

artists of the twentieth century and has long been

well represented in Western collections.1 The

Griffith and Patricia Way Collection,2 for example,

contains several outstanding works by this remark-

able painter, who succeeded more than almost

any other Japanese artist of his time in combining

Japanese painting tradition with modernist ideas

of art. The abstraction of simple motifs was a theme

that again and again found representation within

his works—in this work, certainly, with young pines,

but also in other key works with bamboo plants,

ocean waves, and even flying ducks.3 He has found

acceptance in Japan as well, and the recent im-

portant retrospective exhibition of his works at the

National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (2006) is

but one indication of the growing world-wide rec-

ognition of Kakō’s place among the great Japanese

artists of the modern era.

19

24

4

Minakami Taisei 水上泰生 (1877 –1951)

Melting of the Snow 「雪解け」

Taishō period (1912 – 26), circa 1920

H 66 ½" × W 147 ¾"

(168.7 cm × 375 cm) each

Pair of six-panel folding screens

Mineral pigments, ink, gofun and

gold on silk

Signature: Taisei 泰生. Seals: Kōjundōjin 廣純堂人

The artist presents the viewer with a tour-de-force

nature study of a mountain meadow at the time

of melting snow. Among the rough forms of the

mossy rocks, we see snow banks melting by a

profusion of new plants. Among others we see the

bramble ( ibara), mountain mandarin orange

(yama tachibana), Amur Adonis (fukujusō), ferns

(shida), violet (sumire), magnolia (kobushi), spindle

tree (mayumi), pine (matsu), bamboo grass (sasa),

bamboo (take), pampas grass (susuki), and a

creeper (kazura).

The title yukidoke—Melting of the Snow—is a term

that has been used in the visual arts and in litera-

ture as a point of change that marks the end of

the cold and the approach of spring. As such, the

painter’s theme plays within long Japanese tradi-

tions. The execution of the painting, however, is

daringly unconventional and anything but tradi-

tional. The rocks, in particular, are painted with a

mixture of techniques unusual for Nihonga paint-

ings: for example, tarashikomi (dripped pigments),

hatsuboku (»broken« ink), varied gofun applica-

tions, accentuated brush marks, and the application

of thick layers of pigments. The rocks appear in an

imaginative new mixture of Japanese techniques

with the new abstracted art images imported

from European artists. Through the combination

of numerous techniques and daring experimenta-

tion, the rock surfaces now appear to be wet with

moisture, almost as if they were streams of water,

adding to the sense of the snow melting and of the

imminent arrival of spring.

The artist, Minakami Taisei (1877 –1951), was a

native of Fukuoka in Kyūshū. He studied in Tokyo,

graduating from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in

1906, and then continued his studies under Araki

Bokusen and Terazaki Kōgyō (1866 –1919) before

returning to Kyūshū. Teaching at a local college,

he started a parallel career as a painter, submitting

works to exhibitions, both in Japan and abroad.

After his resounding success in exhibitions and

universal critical acclaim, he decided in 1916 to re-

sign his teaching position and move back to Tokyo

where he became active as a leading painter until

the end of his life.1

His works entered the Bunten exhibitions six times

and the Teiten twelve times, in addition to a number

of other exhibitions.2 In time, he also became an

exhibition judge and was accorded special status.

He submitted a large-scale work Ryūkyū Flowers,

a pair of screens depicting tropical plants from

Okinawa, to the Panama-Pacific International Expo-

sition in San Francisco in 1915, where it received

a prestigious gold medal.3 Eugen Neuhaus, then a

professor at UC Berkeley, highlighted the work in

his book on the exposition:

The two sixfold screens by Taisei Minakami …are

probably the most magnificently daring examples

of modern Japanese art. … Acutely observed …

very daring in color …exhaustingly beautiful. The

spacing of the design, the relative distribution of

the few daring colors against a gold background

of wonderful texture, combine in a picture of great

vitality.4

These qualities of acute observation, daring display,

and great vitality can also be seen clearly in Melting

of the Snow. The screens with their exciting display

of forms and colors highlight the expressive powers

of a superb artist at the peak of his powers. They

never fail to excite and reward the viewer who gives

them yet another look, from up close or from afar.

25

30

5

Hirai Baisen 平井楳仙 (1899 –1969)

Kyoto in the Winter

Taishō-Shōwa periods, 1920s

H 67 ¼" × W 148 ½"

(170.5 cm × 377.5 cm) each

Pair of six-panel folding screens

Colors, ink, and gofun on paper

(Left screen) signature: Baisen 楳仙.

Seal: Baisen 楳仙

(Right screen) seal: Baisen 楳仙.

This pair of screens offers a spectacular view of

Eastern Kyoto in the winter. The artist has taken the

two best-known sites of the eastern part of the city,

Kiyomizu Temple and Yasaka Pagoda, and placed

them into his new, highly original vision of Kyoto.

We see the two famous sights and also the shop-

lined streets that join them, such as the Ninenzaka,

Chawanzaka, the Sannenzaka; in addition, the roofs

of Jojuin Temple can be seen, just to the left of

Kiyomizu Temple. All store roofs are covered with

snow and the streets appear on the screens as if

they were the backbones of large, white creatures.

In the snow we can also distinguish the rows of

cherry trees, now in the depths of winter. And

overall we see the falling of fresh snow, in the form

of drops of gofun, finely ground seashell powder,

against a dark sky painted with ink wash. When

looked at from a low perspective, as they were in-

tended to be seen, the screen pair reminds one of

looking out of a window in the early morning with

awe after a silent all-night snowfall has magically

transformed the landscape outside. One can sense

the weight of the heavy, snow-laden gray clouds

above and the silence of the snow-covered moun-

tain below them.

Without the iconic image of Yasaka Pagoda on the

left screen it would be very difficult to place this

view—one would almost be tempted to place it in

Yoshino or other parts of Japan. The placement of

the pagoda works as a memory marker: the rest

of the image is then placed into order, in context

of the site we recognize from our visual memory.

The screens work on overturning expectations: we

expect to see Kiyomizu with the lattice-like scaf-

folding of the Main Hall; we also expect to see the

many cherry trees of the area in full bloom—he art-

ist now shows a tantalizing glimpse of one and the

snow-laden branches of the other. We also expect

to see colorful streets, plants, flowers, and architec-

ture, but instead see a view composed almost en-

tirely from the monotones of ink wash. Also, instead

of the densely-built, tourist-infested tourist sites

that we are familiar with, we are now given a poetic

reworking of reality: here is a refined view of Ja-

pan’s architectural past set within new contexts—the

sites as they interact with the elements of nature.

An intellectual painter, Hirai Baisen (1899 –1969)

was at the cutting edge of the twentieth-century

Nihonga movements during his early years.1 He was

highly interested in the histories of institutions,

especially those of temples, as can be seen from his

many works on these themes.2 He was also keenly

aware of Japanese art history, a fact that comes

across clearly in this screen, with its evocative ech-

oes of past masterpieces, such as the handscroll

by Yosa Buson (1716 – 83), Snowclad Houses in the

Night (Yashiki rōdaizu 夜色楼台図, Miho Museum) 3.

We see here the same rooftops, the rolling hills in

snowy white, the gofun spattered snow, and the

mottled ink wash sky as in the Buson masterpiece.

The painter also refers back to the many screens of

the famous sites of Kyoto, the Rakuchū rakugaizu

screens, with their sites separated from each other

by gold clouds, here replaced by banks of snow.4

The screens are a testament to the genius of Baisen

as he revisits the iconic masterpieces of the past

and then successfully reworks them into a new

vocabulary of his own.

31

Paintings

38

6

Ito Jakuchu 伊藤若冲 (1716 –1800)

Chicken by a New Year’s Cask

Edo period (1615 –1868), 1793

H 41 ¼" × W 11 ½" (incl. mounting 76 ½" × 17")

(105 cm × 29.2 cm, 194.5 cm × 43 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Signature: Beito’ō gyōnen hachijūsai egaku

米斗翁行年八十歳画 »Old man Beito painted this

in his eightieth year of his life«

Seals: (Top) Tō Jokin in 藤女鈞印

»The seal of Tō Jokin«,

(Bottom) Jakuchū koji 若冲居士

»The lay monk Jakuchū«

Inscription (on painting): »So beautiful / the water

that springs / from these chicken«

美や此鶏よりあふて水若き

Signed: Seki Musan 石無賛

Inscription (on box, front): »The roughly festive

chicken by old man Itō Jakuchū (sic)«

伊藤若仲翁粗祝鶏

Inscription (on box, back): »The character chū (sic)

is written chū (correct). Signed Arifumi on the third

month of 1860« 仲者冲也 庚寺申三月春有文「印」

A rooster balances himself on the edge of an

empty cask that has been decorated for the New

Year. A flock of chicks look on from the rim and a

hen regards her mate apprehensively from below.

The rooster is drawn in a range of ink tones, pat-

terns, and techniques and clearly takes the center

of the stage with his acrobatic feats. The hen, in

contrast, is outlined in a wavering ink stroke and

completed with thin, finely-drawn features.

Jakuchū’s chickens, whether posturing males or

timorous females, never appear as static figures;

they are always shown in a dynamic state and relate

to each other. That is also the case in this painting,

in which the composition hinges on a line that can

be drawn from the rooster to the hen; one that is

neatly intersected by the three chicks in the middle.

This line forms the central point of tension within

the painting, and the artist, in order to emphasize

this focal point, depicts the hen looking up toward

the rooster, the gaze, in effect, reinforcing this line.

The ink tones are expertly varied, even within indi-

vidual lines: for example, how ink of darker tone is

drawn into the rope that holds the cask together

or the legs of the rooster, and how the fine texture

of the fern branches are emphasized with expertly

applied ink modalities. Not only are the finer, care-

ful ink details planned, but flamboyant touches are

created in a seemingly spontaneous manner, such

as the striking whip-like strokes of dark modality

that form the rooster’s tail feathers. The very varia-

tion of ink, such as in the body of the rooster, cre-

ates an exciting set of patterns that work together

in defining the shape of the animal beneath it.

There are other examples with similar compositions

and representations of Jakuchū’s chickens; the topic

seems to have been a favorite one for the artist and

his friends.1 This particular work was created at the

end of his life, when he was leaving much of the

daily business of his Fushimi highway shop to his

students and was largely free to visit friends and to

take part in meetings of cultural salons.2 A number

of the paintings at the time were planned so that the

inscriptions of friends could be inserted. The pres-

ent case seems be such a work, where the painting

was completed in a communal setting. After

Jakuchū drew his painting, Seki Musan inscribed

the painting with a poem that described the com-

position and how the beautiful chickens will bring

forth the water in the empty cask.3 Judging from

the decoration on the container, this collaborative

work may well have been created at a New Year's

gathering in Jakuchū’s eightieth year.4

40

7

Ito Jakuen 伊藤若演 (ac. late 18th – early 19th centuries)

Rooster on a Lantern

Edo period (1615 –1868), circa 1800

H 44 ¼" × W 15 ¾" (incl. mounting 74" × 20 ¾")

(112.5cm × 40 cm, 188 cm × 53 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Seals: Tō Gaji jinju 藤雅時人寿, Jakuen 若演

A rooster has flown up to a hanging lantern and

is surveying its domain. There is a certain tension

in the bird’s position as the lantern appears to

be swaying under the sudden weight of the bird:

it leans to one side, and the fine line of the rope

receding toward the top of the painting makes it

appear as if the lantern is swinging toward the

viewer. The sense of controlled tension—of balance

within imbalance—makes this painting appealing

and exciting to the viewer.

The painter Jakuen forms one of the mysteries

surrounding the great eighteenth-century painter

Itō Jakuchū.1 From their painting style, techniques,

and motifs, even their names (both using the same

character »jaku«), we know that there was a close

connection of some kind.2 The questions center on

how this connection was formed and on the iden-

tity of Jakuen, who clearly was a talented artist with

social connections. We know that he took part in

group projects and that he was versatile in both ink

and color, creating works on both paper and silk,

just like Jakuchū. He also created time-consuming

large-scale works, such as large paintings and

screens.3 We know from documents that Jakuchū

had a number of apprentices—was Jakuen one of

these? Or was he one of the higher-placed persons

to whom Jakuchū taught painting? Hopefully these

questions will be solved over time.

For now, it is instructive to notice the techniques

that Jakuen used, and to then compare them

with Jakuchū, his likely master. In this case we are

fortunate to have images of both artists in this

exhibition, both on the same theme. The technique

of adding ink of darker modality to lighter lines can

be seen in both paintings, here in the ascending

rope and the talons of the rooster. The technique

of sujimegaki, of adding lines of like density ink

on top of each other—a technique that Jakuchū

brought to its perfection—is also seen here, used

most effectively in the windows, roof, and base of

the lantern. The understated use of the technique

in the window latticing is executed in a discreet

and sophisticated manner. The strong dark brush

lines for the tail have little of the tour-de-force

effect we see in Jakuchū; with Jakuen such lines

are more controlled, with an emphasis on creating

patterns and expressing refined order. While the

two artists used many of the same techniques, in

the end they created works of art quite different

from each other.

Clearly it is not enough to think of Jakuen as a mere

imitator of Jakuchū, and this has increasingly been

the consensus of both scholars and collectors over

the last few years. More and more objects by Jakuen

are being discovered and introduced—including

the present work, a newly discovered Jakuen paint-

ing in its first public viewing. Collector Joe Price

was one of the pioneer promoters of Jakuen and

his recent catalog, with five outstanding works by

Jakuen, stands as a testament to his vision and also

to the future appreciation of this painter, no matter

his true identity.4 Through the active research into

such works, we may well eventually solve some of

the mysteries surrounding this fine artist.5

42

8

Miyoshi Joka 三好汝圭 (1765 –1842)

Exotic Birds and Grapes

Edo period (1615 –1868), dated 1805

H 52 ½" × W 18" (incl. mounting 82 ¼" × 26 ½")

(133.3 cm × 45.5 cm, 209 cm × 61.3 cm)

Hanging scroll, colors and ink on silk

Signature: »Joka, the winter of Bunka 2 (1805)«

文化丑乙小春汝圭Seals: Joka and Tafuku 汝圭, 太復　Box inscription: »Painting of grapes by Joka«

葡萄図　汝圭

A pair of red-billed blue magpies (Urocissa eryth-

rorhyncha) appear feasting on clusters of grapes

on heavily-laden grapevines, twisting across the

surface of the painting.1 The male spreads himself

out with his long and distinctive tail feathers in the

center of the painting, while the female appears

to the lower right, seeming to offer a grape to her

mate. The pair looks at each other across the center

of the painting, an act that further serves to unite

the diagonally-based composition.

Joka was an Edo artist, born and bred in the capital

city, and was active in the cultural world of the 18th

and 19th centuries. He was, for example, a friend

of Tani Bunchō (1763 –1840) and was included in

the latter’s circle of important cultural figures. The

circle of artists around Bunchō collaborated at a

number of group projects such as the Meika kōsō

名花交叢, an anthology of flower designs published

in 1805. The images for this volume were designed

by many of the leading painters of the day, includ-

ing Sakai Hōitsu, Tani Bunchō, Bunchō’s son Tani

Bun’ichi, and others, including Joka.2 The publica-

tion of this work in 1805 was coincidentally the

same year as the creation of this painting of birds

and grapes.

The biographical records of Miyoshi Joka show

that he—in the tradition of Itō Jakuchū (1716 –1800)

and others—started his career as a self-taught paint-

er, learning his skills by copying imported paint-

ings from China dating to the Ming and Qing

periods.3 The skills of the artist can be gauged by

the present painting, which shows him adeptly

creating a composition of exotic birds and grapes.

As both the birds and the grapes were decidedly

non-native to Japan, the statement was clearly one

of China, and meant as an expression of apprecia-

tion of Chinese culture, a feature shared by many

intellectuals and artists of the day.

The grape was native to neither Japan nor China,

but rather came from Central Asia. Due to its twist-

ing vines and clusters, it proved from early on to

be an ideal plant with which to decorate objects,

from rims of silver cups to the bases of bronze Bud-

dhist statues. In due time, it also became a topic

of its own, appearing as the subject of Chinese

artists such as Wen Riguan (? – circa 1297), Lu Ji

(circa 1440 –1505), Xu Wei (1521– 93) and others.

Japanese artists, in turn, took images of grapes

not from life but rather from other paintings, and

a thriving tradition in depicting the grape developed

in Japan over the centuries. A notable example

from the eighteenth century is Jakuchū’s Rokuonji

Temple wall paintings, in which the walls of an

entire room are decorated exclusively with grapes.4

44

9

Sakatani Hironaga 坂谷廣長 (1760 –1814)

Ota Sukenobu 太田資順 (1762 –1808)

Cuckoo in the Autumn

Edo period (1615 –1868), circa 1805 – 8

H 37 ¼" × W 12" (incl. mounting 70" × 16 ½")

(94.3 cm × 30.4 cm, 178 cm × 42.2 cm)

Hanging scroll, colors and ink on silk

Signed: »by the brush of Hironaga« 廣長筆Seal: Kei’i 桂意

The waka poem: Where the gathering clouds /

Spread like blankets / The cuckoo /

From time to time / Lets his voice be heard.

むら雲の　たなびくにての　時鳥　たえだえにこそ　声もきこゆる

Sakatani Hironaga (1760 –1814) served together with

his father as an official painter to the shogunate

(oku eshi).1 The father was taught by the Sumiyoshi

school and the son by the father, leaving traces

of the Sumiyoshi school in the works of the son. In

this painting this influence can be seen in the thick

application of mineral colors and in the traces of

the handscroll format, such as the horizontal direc-

tions and the stylized clouds on the bottom right

corner of the painting. The striking composition is

unusual, with six different tree types at the bottom

and with the hototogisu, a small cuckoo, flying

above in the clouds.

This is a collaborative work, painted by the court

painter Hironaga with a waka poem brushed by

the daimyō Ōta Sukenobu (1762 –1808). Sukenobu

was the seventh head of the Ōta clan and the third

daimyō of the Kakegawa domain in present-day

Shizuoka prefecture.2 As a daimyō, Sukenobu was

required to reside regularly in Edo, and it is likely

that this work was created in the city at one of the

many salons that flourished around literary daimyō

lords. Sukenobu was also an imperial courtier with

the rank of Senior Fifth grade, Lower Rank and

designated the Lord of Settsu (従五位下摂津守).

The painting is a visual form of the poem, with a

cuckoo flying above the banks of clouds. The

cuckoo, a small bird with a piercing and plaintive

cry, was thought to be able to sing only when

flying—hence the depiction of the bird in flight. The

painting and poem describe the splendor of long-

ing: of hearing a long-lost voice that reverberates

in the misty clouds of the wilderness. The autumnal

feel of the landscape further accentuates the

sense of loneliness.3

The late-Edo period box is inscribed by a previous

owner, Hisakata 久堅, who lists the two collabora-

tors on the cover. He also describes the occasion

of the painting coming into his possession, though

the name of the gift giver unfortunately has been

crossed out, most likely to protect his or her identity

as the scroll left the family. As Sukenobu attained the

rank of Daimyō in 1805 and passed away at the young

age of 47, only three years later, it is possible to date

the production of this work to the period 1805 – 8.

46

10

Kano Seisen’in 狩野晴川院 (1796 –1846)

Misty Cherry Blossoms 「霞櫻」

Edo period (1615 –1868), circa 1830

H 41 ¼" × W 16 ¼" (incl. mounting 71" × 19")

(105 cm × 41.4 cm, 180.5 cm × 48 cm)

Hanging scroll, colors, gofun, ink, and

gold on silk

Signature: »Brush of Seisen Yasunobu« 晴川養信筆Seal: »Seal of Yasunobu« 養信乃印

Box inscription: »Misty cherry blossoms by Kano

Seisen« 霞櫻・狩野晴川

The artist describes here the high point of the

yearly cherry viewing season. The fully opened

cherry blossoms cluster on the branches, and

slowly a few petals fall downwards—indications that

this moment of exquisite beauty will not last.

The artist created a detailed view of this very

moment, of the yearly ritual of cherry viewing that

is as much part of most Japanese’s lives today as

it was back in the early nineteenth century when

the painting was made. Cherry blossoms have

traditionally been depicted in a number of modes;

for example at night or with a slight breeze. The

present mode, in which the flowers are in a mist, is

perhaps the most poignant of these variations. In

this view, the cherry branches appear seemingly

out of nowhere and branches, trunks, and flowers

appear strikingly disconnected to each other as

the golden clouds bathe the composition in a soft,

warm glow.

The painter of this work, Kano Seisen’in

(1796 –1846), became the eighth generation head

of the Edo Kobikichō branch of the school.1 As the

official painter of the Shogunate (goyō eshi), he

had access to Edo Castle and to its storage rooms,

as well as to the upper echelons of military rulers.

He was richly endowed with honors and titles and

took on the title of hōgen in 1819 and the title of

hōin in 1834.

Judging from the luxurious composition and the

rich use of gold and pigments, the painting was

most likely a commission intended for a highly

ranked recipient. In any case, the moment the

painting was presented to its future owner almost

certainly coincided with the actual cherry-viewing

season. In this way, the glorious displays of cherry

trees in the gardens would vie with the poetically

rendered blossoms by Seisen’in, hanging inside

the room in its alcove.

48

11

Uchida Hirotsune 内田広恒 (fl. circa 1800 – 30)

Deer and Autumn Maples

Edo period (1615 –1868), circa 1820

H 22 ¾" × W 31 ¼" (incl. mounting 60 ¾" × 36")

(57.6 cm × 79.3 cm, 154 cm × 91.5 cm)

Hanging scroll, colors, ink, and gold on silk

Signature: Hirotsune ga 広恒画

»painted by Hirotsune«

Seal: Bunkyō 文卿

In this autumnal scene, a stag stands among grassy

hills, its head cocked, on the alert for danger. The

legs of the deer are restless, about to move at a

moment’s notice if needed, further emphasizing

the ephemeral quality of the scene. Colorful maple

leaves can be seen above on the tree to the upper

left; a few have fallen and can be seen near the

deer’s hooves.

The deer in autumn is a classic Japanese theme,

in painting as well as in literature, and numerous

famous poems refer to this combination, usually

referencing the plaintive cry of the lonely male

deer among the autumn hills.1 A number of artists

have imagined such scenes through the centuries,

and in this painting, the Sumiyoshi-school artist

Hirotsune reduces the scene to its barest essentials:

the hills, a tree, and a furtive deer.

The artist was a Sumiyoshi-school painter but painted

here with several Rimpa-school elements, includ-

ing the dripping-pigment technique tarashikomi

(where ink and pigments are dripped into still-wet

paints) on the deer’s back and on the maple tree

trunk; the lack of ink outlines and the fluid character

of the deer; the use of gold wash on the clouds;

and the traces of the brush left on the leaves and

the hilltops.2

This painting is an important reminder that for much

of its history the Rimpa was seen not as a school

but as a style that could be used by a wide range of

artists. It is also a reminder that Japanese artists of

the Edo period were typically versatile in more than

one style—and that the concept of painting schools,

into which we usually attempt to pigeonhole artists,

exists more as a convenient way to classify them,

and less as an expression of the works that they

actually produced.

As for the details of Hirotsune’s life, we know that

he was trained under Sumiyoshi Hiroyuki and that

he was active in the early half of the nineteenth

century.3 We also know that he was given commis-

sions for temples, possibly through his teacher’s

connections, including an extant narrative hand-

scroll in Jōsenji Temple 常宣寺 in Fukushima

Prefecture, a scroll titled Jōsenji engi emaki 常宣寺縁起絵巻 that depicts the origin of the temple

and the miraculous events that took place there,

including those related to its Amida figures. The

handscroll is depicted in typical Sumiyoshi-school

style, with rich mineral pigments and fine colorful

details, as in the present painting.

50

12

Fujiwara Hakuei 藤原伯英 (ac. 19th c.)

Successful Carps 「出世鯉」

Edo period (1615 –1868), circa 1865

H 38 ¾" × W 13 ¾"

(incl. mounting 73 ¾" × 17 ¼")

(98.7 cm × 34.7 cm, 187.5 cm × 44 cm) each

Pair of hanging scrolls, colors and ink on silk

Signed (on both paintings): By the brush of 67-year

old Hakueisai 六十七歳伯英斎筆Seal (on both paintings): Fujiwara 藤原Box inscription outside: »Painting of Successful

Carps by the brush of Hakuei«

Shusse koi no zu, Hakuei hitsu 出世鯉之図 伯英筆Box end: »Successful Carps, two scrolls, brush of

Hakuei« Shusse koi nifuku hakuei hitsu

出世鯉 二幅 伯英筆Poem and inscription inside box:

Looking at the river / the growing reflection / of the

moon in the spring 河みても 陰のふとりや 春の月Signed by the 72-year old Kaian Taimu

七十二翁槐庵大夢

The artist Hakuei depicts two carps in water in this

pair of paintings, one ascending a waterfall and the

other, on the left, looking on and preparing itself

for the jump. The fish are carefully rendered with

fine details of the scales. The waves, in contrast, are

more stylized, with regular patterns and translucent

sections.

Japanese paintings of carps and waterfall refer to

an old Chinese story of carps trying to ascend the

waterfall at Longmen. According to the legend, a

carp successfully swam up the Longmen Falls

(Dragon’s Gate), where it then transformed itself

into a dragon. This became in time a symbol for

perseverance and success, as climbing a waterfall is

no simple matter. The inner meaning of the paint-

ings is also reflected on the accompanying box title

»Painting of Successful Carps« or Shusse koi no zu.

The noted haiku poet Naoyama Sōshirō 直山宗四郎

(1794 –1874) has inscribed the box with a poem

that refers to the paintings.1 Although he describes

the growing spring moon, with its waxing image

reflected in the water, he also refers to the grow-

ing carps in the water, growing in both size and

achievement. The poet is an interesting example

of the samurai who became cultural figures of

their time. He became the leader of the account-

ing section of the Kaga Domain Daimyō and was

in charge of controlling the finances of the castle

and the considerable holdings of his lord. He gave

up his post, however, and started a school of his

own in Kanazawa, the castle town, and became

established as a major poet. He was a painter and

a student of the haiku poet Kaian Taijō 槐庵大常 and used the artist names Kaian Taimu (sixth gen-

eration) 槐庵大夢, Bōan 忘庵, and Nanmuan (third

generation) 南無庵. He compiled poem antholo-

gies, provided prefaces for numerous publications,

and wrote several major works of his own.2

The paintings are drawn in an interesting mixture

of styles, with the waves in a typical Kano genre

and the carp more in the Nagasaki School style, a

style favored, among others, by leading lords such

as Satake Shozan, the daimyō painter of Akita. The

artist certainly was a highly skilled painter, very

likely an amateur painter of high rank, as he had a

leading contemporary poet inscribe and sign his

work. A note in the scroll box attributes the paint-

ings to the leader of the Maeda family, the daimyō

family of Kaga Domain, who resided for a part of

the year in Kanazawa, the same town as the poet.3

This attribution, however, remains to be proved,

due to the lack of extant paintings with the present

name. If the attribution is correct, then the scene

could be imagined of the daimyō sitting down with

a former samurai vassal and collaborating on this

pair of paintings, wishing themselves—now both in

their old age—success in all new endeavors. As the

poet inscribed the box in 1865 at the very end of

the Edo period at a time of nationwide unrest, the

painting and its message of future success was one

with timely significance for both the intellectuals

and the leaders of Japan.

52

13

Nomura Bunkyo 野村文擧 (1854 –1911)

The Moon in the Rain 「雨中月」

Meiji period (1868 –1912), circa 1900

H 22 ¼" × W 33 ¼"

(incl. mounting 70 ¼" × 40 ½")

(56.5cm × 84.7 cm, 178.5 cm × 103 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink and gold on silk

Signature: Bunkyo 文擧Seal: Bunkyo no ga’in 文擧画印　Box inscription: »The Moon in the Rain« 雨中月

Nomura Bunkyo野村文擧

The artist Nomura Bunkyo reveals a dreamy

nocturnal scene of the moon veiled by rain clouds.

Although the theme may be simple, it is anything

but that in actual execution. The artist created the

moon by leaving the circular area free of ink and

pigment and surrounded it in wonderfully varying

intensities of ink wash. The ink is partially brushed

on and partially dripped onto the wet surface in

a tarashikomi effect. The lines of rain are partially

done in ink and partially in lines of shimmering

gold wash, going diagonally across the surface. The

body of dark clouds at the bottom left is balanced

with a light band of clouds in the upper right.

Depictions of the sun became popular in the

twentieth century, especially as the sun—long a

symbol of Japan—gained imperialistic overtones in

the growing movement towards war. Images of the

moon, however, were free of national symbolism

and the present image represents more an attempt

by the artist to depict a natural phenomenon as

realistically and movingly as possible within the

medium of painting. This he accomplishes remark-

ably well with just a few basic tools: the brush, ink,

and gold. Bunkyo creates a convincing and moving

image of great beauty, which is also endowed with

drama: we see the moon as it is being threatened

by the dark clouds coming in from the left. The

clouds seem to be forming the head of a gigantic

dragon, approaching from the left as if wanting to

devour the celestial body. The artist avoids giving

the composition a sense of gloom by leaving the

lower left corner unpainted: we sense that there is

hope after the storm and that eventually the moon

will shine again.

The artist was a major artist and teacher of his time

who influenced the art world of the Meiji period in

a number of ways. He came from a wealthy mer-

chant family in Gokasho, Shiga Prefecture, and was

fortunate in having a very fine group of teachers,

starting with Umekawa Tōkyo 梅川東擧 (1828 – 69),

an ukiyoe artist, then Shiokawa Bunrin 塩川文鱗

(1808 – 77), one of the great Meiji talents, then fin-

ishing up with Mori Kansai 森寛斎 (1814 – 94), who

worked in a wholly different manner. Combining

the teachings of his three teachers, he set out on

a life of teaching and production of art. He started

teaching at an art school in Kyoto and moved on

to the imperial university in Tokyo, the Gakushūin

学習院, where he became a professor. He taught,

among others, Yamamoto Shunkyo 山 本 春 挙

(1871 –1933), one of the founders of the modern

Kyoto art scene. He was also a regular exhibitor

at national exhibitions and became a judge for the

Bunten, starting with its second national show.

In addition, he was one of the three founders of

the influential Japanese Painting Association

(Nihongakai 日本画会).1

54

14

Arai Kou 荒井晃雨 (Ac. early 20th century)

The Jōruri Chanter at a Puppet Theater

Taishō period (1912 – 26), circa 1920

H 76" × W 42 ¼" (incl. mounting 116 ½" × 51 ¾")

(193 cm × 107.5 cm, 296 cm × 131.5 cm)

Hanging scroll, colors, gofun, ink and

gold on silk

Signature: Kōu 晃雨

Seal: Takako多加子Inscription: »Arai Kōu« 荒井晃雨

»Beautiful woman as puppeteer« 人形使ひ美人

In this oversized scroll a beautiful woman is seated,

hands folded, behind the stage of a bunraku theater.

She is taking a rest and wears a slightly melancholy

expression, the artist perhaps imagining the moment

after an exhausting performance or the nervous

moments before a challenging appearance. Behind

her, on the wall, is a program of the performances

of the day and, to the left, the two protagonists of

the play, a beautiful courtesan with an elaborate

hairdo and a finely-dressed samurai. The clothing

style of both figures indicates the Edo period, the

setting for most of the classical bunraku plays.

We know that the woman must be a jōruri chanter

from the songbook with notations placed in front

of her and that she also plays the samisen from

the instrument placed behind her and the samisen

equipment box placed next to her on the floor.

For most of the Edo period, the bunraku theater was

even more important than the kabuki theater and

most of the classic plays used on the kabuki stage

have their origins in the bunraku theater. Interest-

ingly the bunraku theater was not an exclusive male

world. For example, the Kiyomoto 清 元 School,

the main group of both jōruri chanters and samisen

players, had important female members and leaders.

Particularly famous are the two nineteenth-century

leaders Kiyomoto Enjudayū IV (1832 –1904) and his

wife, Kiyomoto Oyō (1840 –1901), the daughter of

Enjudayū II (1802 – 55). Both are thought to have

been among the greatest performers in the history

of the school; Oyō, in particular, is considered to

have been the greatest female jōruri performer and

composer in the history of the art form. In other

words, by placing a woman performer in this paint-

ing, the artist was not making a startling statement,

but was instead referring to a long tradition.

Of note, however, is the way that the artist is making

a psychological study. The mood of the woman

forms the central point of interest of the painting.

Just what brought forth this feeling is of course

part of the attraction of the painting: we do not

know. Also new is the startling color palette of the

painting: the combination of salmon pink, lime

green, faded purple and others would have been

unimaginable a few decades earlier. We clearly

see the influx of new ideas and techniques, many

coming from the West, that marks the interesting

creative impetus of the Taishō period. A recent

catalog has explored the visions of this era1;

this painting similarly illustrates the attempts by

Japanese artists to combine the modern with the

traditional, the West with Japan.

The artist is one of the many new artists springing

forth at this time. We know that she was a female

artist, named Arai Takako, and that her artist name

was Kōu, all from the information on the paint-

ing. We can surmise from her artist name that her

teacher could have been either Tasuku Kōriku

佐晃陸, Takei Kōriku 武井晃陸, or Hiroshima Kōfu

広島晃甫, three noted artists working in Tokyo at

this time.2 However, little more is known of the

artist, despite her obvious talents. As can be seen

in the aforementioned catalogue, there are defi-

nite limits to our knowledge of artists from this

period.3 For one thing, the great Kantō earthquake,

which marked the unfortunate end of the Taishō

era, killed a number of promising artists, along with

their documentary records. Despite the relative

proximity of this painting to our time, we may never

discover who created this melancholy beauty,

sitting backstage by herself.

56

15

Yamamoto Gempo 山本玄峰 (1866 –1961)

Long Life 「寿」

Shōwa period (1926 – 89), circa 1950

H 69" × W 36 ¾" (incl. mounting 90 ½" × 46")

(175 cm × 93.5 cm, 230 cm × 117 cm)

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Central character: kotobuki 寿 »Long life«

Seals: Rinzai seishū »Rinzai, the true sect« 臨済正宗,

Hannya kutsu »the cave of Hannya« 般若窟;

Gempō 玄峰　

Outer scroll: Gempō Rōshi »Old Dharma Master,

Gempō« 玄峰老師 kotobuki« long life« 寿 Ryūtakuji-zō »collection of Ryūtakuji Temple«

龍澤寺蔵 Tsuda Kiraku tsuizen »for the memory of

old man Tsuda Kiraku« 津田喜楽翁追善

Box inscription: Hannya Daishi »the great master

Hannya« 般若大師 kotobuki »long life« 寿 Tsuda Kiraku bodai no tame »For the repose of old

man Tsuda Kiraku« 為津田喜楽翁菩提 Mitta shiki

»certified by Mitta [Nakagawa Sōen]« 蜜多識

Seals: Mitta 蜜多, Sōen 宋淵

[seals of Nakagawa Sōen]

Yamamoto Gempō is one of the towering figures

of twentieth century Zen Buddhism.1 Not a greatly

learned monk but a greatly charismatic one, he was

able to create great opportunities for the strength-

ening and expansion of Zen Buddhism before

and after the Second World War. Gempō became

known as the second Hakuin, and his life followed

the life of the great Edo period Zen master in a

number of ways. He was able to reach the masses

and earn their respect; he was a great temple

restorer, rebuilding a number of temples that

had fallen into disuse; he became abbot of the

Ryūtakuji Temple in Mishima; and he became

known for the many pieces of calligraphy and

paintings he created during his long life.

Like Hakuin, Gempō relied on the medium of the

brush to reach people, and many striking works

remain from his brush. Due to his near blindness,

he was only able to read and write with difficulty.

He turned to calligraphy at a late age and devel-

oped his own particular style, which relied on his

own sense of aesthetics and was unburdened by

the weight of tradition and rules. Being barely able

to see, he relied on large and vigorous move-

ments of the brush, and his characters have a raw

power of expression and persuasion, much like

the man himself.

The present work is a case in point. This is a huge

character for »long life« that seems to demonstrate

longevity by its prodigious size. The top half of the

character is created architectonically, with strong

parallel and perpendicular lines. The lower part,

however, loses all restraint and flies off in circles,

leaving traces of »flying white,« lines of unpainted

paper left between the brush hairs of the stroke.

The sheer strength it must have required of Gempō

is clear by the prodigious spattering of ink in the

area around the two lower seals. At the bottom of

the paper, a final, urgent gasp of the brush can

almost be heard as it goes over the edge to the

bottom, with its ink almost spent.

The paper was placed on the floor—we can see

the patterns of the tatami mats through the strokes—

and the monk must have stood above the paper

to be able to create the large brush strokes neces-

sary for a character of this size. As such it was

probably a public performance for a specific event.

The inscription on the outside of the scroll and

on the box mention a Tsuda Kiraku, with one stating

that the scroll was made for his repose and the

other stating that the calligraphy was made as a

memorial to this man; he may well have been a

local practitioner.

The scroll has been authenticated by Nakagawa Sōen

(1907 – 84), the monk who followed Gempō as the

abbot of Ryūtakuji. Sōen was a great leader himself

and became known as a haiku poet and a calligra-

pher in his own right.

Bamboo Baskets

60

16

Chikubosai I (1872 –1950)

Art Deco Karamono Basket

Shōwa period (1926 – 89), 1930s

H 22 ¾" × W 8 ¾"

(57.7 cm × 22 cm)

Ikebana flower basket, bamboo and rattan

Signed: Chikubōsai kore tsukuru

»Chikubōsai made this«

This large and imposing bamboo ikebana flower

basket has an ingenious geometry, starting out

square on the bottom, flaring out on the sides, and

ending up round on the top. The wide vertical strips

on the four edges were made with old bamboo

and add character to the body.

The bamboo strips forming the sides and bottom

are arranged in the sensuji-gumi or kushime ami

thousand-line construction. Arranged parallel, the

strips are reinforced with thicker bands of bamboo

strips on the inside. They are held together with

fine rattan strips, which are plaited in mat and cross-

stitch patterns. The sides are further reinforced

with an unusual diamond-shaped pattern, which

shows a strong art-deco influence.

The tall, elegantly curving handle is made of three

bamboo branches; fine rattan strips plaited in

beautiful patterns hold them together on the top

and connect the ends to the basket body. The entire

basket exterior was applied with a thin layer of

natural lacquer, which has gained a warm patina

over the decades.

The basket is signed on the bottom with an incised

signature reading Chikubōsai kore tsukuru or

»Chikubōsai made this«. It comes with a faceted

and lacquered bamboo otoshi tube to hold water

and flowers and with a fitted kiri-wood box.

Maeda Chikubōsai was one of the greatest bamboo

artists of the early twentieth century. He became

famous for having made presentation baskets for

the Imperial family in the early 1920s. His son,

Chikubōsai II (1917 – 2003), continued the tradition

and was named a Living National Treasure for the

bamboo crafts in 1995, a title he held until his

death in 2003.

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62

17

Chikubosai I (1872 –1950)

Square Karamono Basket

Shōwa period (1926 – 89), dated 1941

H 19 ½" × L 6 ¾" × W 6 ¼"

(49.5 cm × 17 cm × 16 cm)

Ikebana flower basket, bamboo and rattan

Signed: Chikubōsai kore tsukuru

»Chikubōsai made this«

Chikubōsai made this karamono-style bamboo

ikebana basket in a square tapered form using

split old bamboo arrows. The attractive handle is

made with old bamboo having a warm patina;

the top is held together with fancy plaiting, the han-

dle base cleverly incorporating bamboo rhizome

sections as supports. The rim of the body is plaited

with fancy ring-looping; the four side are plaited

along the top and bottom in the gozami ami mat-

pattern, supported in the middle by five rows of

cross-plaiting; the square bottom is plaited with

split bamboo in the yottsume ami square pattern

and supported diagonally by two bamboo strips.

One of these bottom supports bears the incised

signature »Chikubōsai kore tsukuru« or »Chikubōsai

made this«

Since Chikubōsai used old arrows and bamboo

material for the basket, the basket had a beautiful

patina already when he made it and even more so

today, almost 70 years later.

The basket comes with its original sugi-wood

tomobako box which is inscribed on the lid top:

Kodai ya-shiki hanakago or »Flower Basket in

the Style of Ancient Arrows«; on the reverse the lid

is inscribed: »A present for Mr. Ueda Saneyoshi

of the Nihon Bareisho Tamanegi Yushutsu Kumiai«

(»Japanese Association for the Export of Potatoes

and Onions«) and dated October, 1941; followed

by a further inscription by Chikubōsai: »I adapted

a basket with a handle into the form of an ancient

arrow and have made a new style of flower basket«,

dated by him to an autumn day of the 2601st year

of our empire (=1941) and signed Chikubōsai kore

tsukuru »Chikubōsai made this« with a square red

seal mark reading Chikubōsai.

For a very similar basket by Chikubōsai see Nihon

Keizai Shinbun, Inc., ed. Bamboo Masterworks:

Japanese Baskets from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection.

Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Inc., 2003, item 33

on page 68.

63

64

18

Kyokushosai

Shōwa period (1926 – 89), circa 1940

H 23" × W 11"

(58.5 cm × 28.8 cm)

Ikebana flower basket, bamboo and rattan

Signed: Kyokushōsai saku

»Made by Kyokushōsai«

This fine ikebana basket shows off the artist’s skill

in mastering several beautiful plaiting patterns. The

middle band around the body has the distinctive

chidori ami or plover plaiting, using very fine bam-

boo strips which cross the surface diagonally. These

fine strips form delicate crosses, which resemble

tiny bird tracks on sand, hence the name. Above

this band the artist plaited bamboo in the Seikai ami

or wave plaiting pattern and below in the similar

matsuba ami or pine needle plaiting pattern.1

The tall elegant handle is unusual in the fact that

no bamboo is exposed, being entirely covered by

plaited rattan.

The basket is signed with an incised signature

reading Kyokushōsai saku or made by Kyokushōsai.

Little is known about this skilled artist; we only

know that he was active in the early Shōwa period.

For a basket with a similar combination of plaiting

patterns by Chikuryōsai, see Nihon Keizai Shinbun,

Inc., ed. Bamboo Masterworks: Japanese Baskets

from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection. Tokyo: Nihon

Keizai Shinbun, Inc., 2003, item 86 on page 113

65

66

19

Cicada Flower Vessel

Meiji period (1868 –1912), circa 1900

H 2 ¾" × L 8 ¾" × W 4 ¾"

(7 cm × 22.5 cm × 12 cm)

Ikebana flower vessel, bamboo, rattan and iron

Unsigned

Bamboo and rattan flower basket in the shape of a

cicada. The cicada body is made with rattan, which

was plaited in the gozame ami mat-pattern. The

delicate wings are plaited with very thin strips of

bamboo in the ajiro ami twill pattern and reinforced

with other rattan strips along the edges. The back

of the body has an elaborate decoration of rattan

strips, the legs are made of bamboo, rattan and

metal, the eyes of iron. It has an attractive patina

throughout. Designed for hanging on the wall, it

has a rattan hook on the back and comes with an

otoshi bamboo tube to hold water and flowers.

It has the original fitted kiri-wood box, which bears

a label reading »Semi hanaire« or »Cicada Flower

Vessel.«

The basket was intended for use during the summer,

when cicadas could be seen on vertical objects

such as trees and the sides of houses. The visual joke

of seeing the basket cicada hang on a wall or pillar

within the tea room would not have been lost on

the participants.

The basket is a karamono-utsushi or Chinese-style

basket. It was made by a skilled Japanese basket

maker to simulate a formal Chinese basket and was

most likely used in Japan for displaying flowers at

the Chinese-style sencha tea ceremony. In the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Chinese

art and the Chinese-style sencha tea ceremony

were very popular among the Japanese, and, as a

result, Chinese-style baskets were highly sought

after. As the Chinese prototypes were unsigned, the

Japanese karamono-utsushi baskets, such as this

one, were generally also purposely left unsigned.

However, bamboo artists who had attained fame,

such as Chikuunsai I and Chikubōsai I, signed all

their works, including their karamono utsushi.

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68

20

Iizuka Rokansai (1890 –1958)

Shōwa period (1926 – 89), circa 1941

H 3 ¼" × L 11 ¼" × W 13"

(8.5 cm × 28.5 cm × 33 cm)

Ikebana flower basket, bamboo and wood

Signed Rōkansai

Rōkansai plaited this flower vessel in a variation of

the yottsume ami square pattern using light-colored

bamboo. The shiny outer surface of the bamboo is

facing up except for four strips in each direction,

which face down so that he could incise his signature

onto a shiny surface, and so that the shiny strips

would be symmetrical. The basket is held together

into its shape with a wood branch, which has been

split to facilitate bending and which is held together

to the basket with narrow bamboo straps. The

bamboo strips and the distance between them are

purposely of varying widths. These factors make

the basket appear rustic and simply made, even

though every detail was in fact carefully planned by

the great master. The branch ridge is of a contrast-

ing dark brown color, as is the bamboo otoshi

flower holder, which has been shaved around the

outside and applied with dark brown lacquer on

all surfaces. The incised signature on the bottom of

the basket reads Rōkansai.

The basket is in the shape of a leaf-gathering scoop,

associating it for the Japanese with the autumn

season when they collect fallen leaves with similarly-

shaped tools. As the Japanese are highly conscious

of the seasons, this flower basket was used most

likely only during the autumn weeks, when leaves

were falling, and then packed away safely in its box

during the rest of the year.

It comes with its original fitted tomobako box, which

is made the way Rōkansai usually ordered, of sugi-

wood with beveled edges. It is inscribed on the

outside and signed on the inside »Rōkansai saku«

or »made by Rōkansai«; and sealed »Rōkansai.« The

signature and the red oval seal are consistent with

those illustrated for 1936 – 49 in Iizuka Rōkansai:

Master of Modern Bamboo Crafts (Tochigi Prefec-

tural Museum of Fine Arts, 1989), pages 118 –19.

For a very similar basket entitled »Minori« or

»Harvest«, see Rōkansai: Master of Modern

Bamboo Crafts (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of

Fine Arts, 1989), item 63 on page 92, dated

to circa 1941.

Rōkansai is widely acknowledged as the greatest

Japanese basket maker of the twentieth century.

The sixth son of the basket maker Hōsai I, he start-

ed out making intricate baskets in the karamono-

style but went on to develop many new ideas and

techniques. He pioneered modern bamboo crafts

and exerted great influence on numerous post-war

bamboo artists. His works are in the collections

of many institutions, including the Tokyo National

Museum of Modern Art and the Idemitsu Museum

of Art.

69

Ceramics

72

21

Shigaraki Jar

Muromachi period (1392 –1573), 15th century

H 20", D 16 ½"

(50.5 cm, 42 cm)

Shigaraki ware; stoneware with

natural ash glaze

This imposing Shigaraki jar has the features trea-

sured by Japanese collectors: a large tapered body

with strong shoulder and flared neck; copious

»wet« glaze running down the side; and exciting

surface details and colors. The glaze ranges in color

from olive-brown to green and in character from

the glossy, translucent, and crackled on the side to

the matte, rough, and sandy on the shoulder. The

body is reddish-brown, ranging from rich dark to

lighter hues. The clay has a large number of feldspar

and quartz inclusions, some of which have partially

melted and formed droplets on the surface. In

other places the stone inclusions have caused the

clay surface to burst and break off, forming jagged

patterns. The shoulder shows numerous traces of

the sand and pebbles that fell from the kiln roof

of the primitive anagama or »hole kiln« during the

firing process. There it mixed with the liquid glaze,

partially hindering its flow down the side of the jar.

Although the vessel had been turned on a rudi-

mentary potter’s wheel—we see the traces around

the center of the vessel and in the neck area—

the outlines of the coils used to form the vessel

can still be discerned, and there are unevenness

and imbalance within the structure of the jar.

This type of large rustic jar built on a monumental

scale were created at a number of kilns in me-

dieval Japan. Such jars were made for utilitarian

purposes, for the storage of food, seeds, and

other objects, and were a common feature of the

Japanese landscape. The Shigaraki pottery district

became one of the main producers of the jars, due

to its proximity to major population centers and to

its bountiful supplies of clay and pine, which were

the two necessary items for the production. The

jars were sold widely to farmers, merchants, and

religious institutions.1 The kiln was by all accounts

a success and has stayed a major producer of ce-

ramic goods, even down to the twenty-first century.

Early jars from this area, such as this one, embody

a sense of austere beauty and virtuosic display of

surface detail. Here we see many spectacular ef-

fects, such as firing spots, stone inclusions, natural

ash-glaze dripping, cracks, minor explosions, de-

bris dropped from the kiln roof, and various melted

minerals. The Shigaraki clay contained minerals,

pebbles, and other impurities, which would come

to the surface during potting. During firing they

would expand and contract at different rates than

the clay, thereby forming minor cracks and bursts

in the surface of the jar. The natural glaze produced

during firing was the result of the burning of pine,

the ashes of which would settle on the object

and turn into a glaze when a certain temperature

was reached. The present jar has extensive glaze

deposits on the neck and body of one side; this

was the side that faced the fire. The sheer quantity

of glaze indicates that there were no other objects

in front of it to deflect the ash; in fact, the jar may

have been on the first line of objects to be fired.

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74

22

Bizen Shallot Flask

Momoyama-Edo periods, early 17th century

H 11", D 6 ½"

(28 cm, 16.5 cm)

Bizen ware; stoneware

Like the Shigaraki kiln, Bizen kilns have an early

origin in Japan’s ceramic history, going back to

at least the 12th century. Bizen became famous

for its unusual clay, which has a high iron content

and needs to be fired for a longer time than others.

The resulting stoneware is easily identified: the

color is reddish-brown, the surface is glossy, and

the burning marks are more pronounced than in

the pottery of other kilns. Due to the ease in creating

various burn marks, the potters of the area became

adept at producing them, by for example wrapping

objects in straw or seaweed or by placing objects

close to another during firing, resulting in interesting

surface patterns.

This particular flask is no exception and features a

lively surface action, including a number of mineral

inclusions, starbursts, cracking, traces of natural

ash, and various burn marks. It is heavy with a low

center of gravity and the surface color ranges from

red and dark brown to olive green. Whereas the

elegantly formed neck and mouth show traces of the

potter’s wheel, the rest of the flask surface has a

rough and scarred flavor. The bottom of the flask

reveals a potter’s mark, a common feature in early

Bizen area vessels: as the firing of Bizen clay was a

lengthy and costly affair, the kilns were communal

and were typically fired only twice a year. Due to

the large number of objects and potters, each pot-

ter left special marks on their vessels to distinguish

their works. Much research has been done to link

certain marks to specific periods and potters.1

This kind of Bizen flask is called rakkyō, or shallot,

due to its shape. Shallot flasks were used for sake

and were popular in the early 17th century and

a number of similar examples are extant.2 In fact,

there are more examples of sake flasks from Bizen

than from any other kiln of the time. This is partly

because the Bizen kilns were blessed with an excel-

lent transportation system: based close to the Seto

Inland Sea, the objects were easily transported by

boat widely across the coasts of Japan. Further-

more, the smooth surface of the objects, the rela-

tive heaviness of the clay, and the high firing and

density of the clay were all factors contributing to

their popularity. The surface and clay features also

kept the sake from seeping out through the clay, a

fact that was not lost on the sake-lovers of the time.

75

76

23

Okugorai Tea Bowl

Momoyama-Edo periods, early 17th century

H 3 ¼", D 6 ¼"

(8.5 cm, 16 cm)

Karatsu ware; stoneware with feldspar glaze

Box inscriptions:

(top:) Karamono Ido tea bowl 唐物井戸　茶碗(side:) Number 104, Ido 第百四号　井戸　 Seal: Mitsu 光

This fine large tea bowl from the Karatsu kiln has a

number of interesting features. The form, first of all,

is based on earlier bowls from the Korean Penin-

sula, in particular on the Ido type. The bowl looks

plain and undecorated, but is actually carefully

thought out in detail and anything but spontane-

ous. A creamy feldspar glaze has been applied in

different thicknesses onto the reddish-brown clay

body, resulting in variations of hues, as well as in

dripping and pooling effects. A drop of glaze was

let into the foot and turned 180 degrees. Depend-

ing on the thickness of the glaze, the crackling

ranges from small to large, resulting in an interest-

ing visual pattern. Paradoxically, rusticity and spon-

taneity were the effects sought after in creating

this vessel. The bowl has undergone the ravages

of time, and there are small gold lacquer repairs

of chips and hairlines along the rim, as well as a

large gold lacquer repair that joined three broken

sections of the bowl. Judging from the wear and

slight shrinkage of the lacquer, the repairs go back

at least a century.

The Karatsu kiln has its origins back in the fifteenth

century, but did not achieve fame until the end of

the sixteenth century, when Korean potters were

forcibly resettled in the area after Hideyoshi’s inva-

sions of the Korean Peninsula. The Korean potters

brought with them expertise in seeking out the

right clays, high technical skills, and knowledge of

Korean ceramic objects. This proved to be an irre-

sistible combination for the tea-ceremony-crazed

daimyō for whom Korean tea bowls such as the Ido

type became models for the bowls created at the

revitalized Japanese kilns, such as the Karatsu.

At Karatsu they did this exceedingly well. In fact,

the bowls created here in the early seventeenth

century were so well made that they are some-

times hard to distinguish from those made on the

mainland. The present bowl is a case in point, for

the box belonging to the bowl has been mistakenly

inscribed »Ido« by two different collectors, one

with a seemingly large collection of tea utensils (as

this forms number 104 of his or her collection).

The differences are, in this case, the lack of the

iconic Ido-type crackling of glaze near the foot of

this bowl (though an approximation was attempted

with the varied layering of glaze), the lack of glaze

within the whole foot (again, glaze was let run

around, but not enough), the number of spur marks

(three here but four or more in the Ido), and the

shape of the foot (in this case, too deliberate).1 In

fact, it is better not to see this tea bowl as a mere

»copy« of a Korean tea bowl, but as an independent

achievement on its own. As such this striking work

of a highly skilled and inventive potter should be

celebrated as a great work of the Karatsu Okugōrai

type, created in response to Korean ingenuity and

Japanese tea ceremony aesthetics.

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78

24

Kogo Incense Box Distant Landscape, without Compare 「永景無比」

Momoyama-Edo periods, early 17th century

H 1 ½", D 2 ½"

(3.9 cm, 6.2 cm)

Mino ware, Shino-Oribe type; glazed stoneware

Fitted kiri-wood box.

Box inscription: Shino Oribe kōgō 志野織部香合Box label:

名蓋書附　志野織部香　小文字　舟越伊予守　永景無比　もの也　卯二年 文月　古筆了信　琴山»With label reading: »Shino oribe incense box«

Belonged to Funakoshi Iyonokami and with the

name:

»Distant landscapes, without compare (Eikei muhi).«

Dated 7th month of the second year

(of Shōwa = 1927). Kohitsu Ryōshin.«

With »Kinzan« seal.

This fine incense box was made in the Mino area

north of Nagoya in response to orders from tea

masters during the highpoint of the tea ceremony

culture in the early seventeenth century. The round

box was carefully formed on the potter’s wheel,

leaving tell-tale traces on the inside and on the

finely formed circular foot. Likewise, the striking

concentric iron-oxide lines, two on the bottom half

and four on the upper, were applied by brush while

the object was turning on the wheel. The pattern

of cross-linked lines on the top simulates textiles,

a common feature among tea ceremony objects of

the time.1 The glaze is translucent with small and

large crackles. A number of similar objects and

designs from the early seventeenth century can be

found in literature.2

Raised droplets of glaze on the rims of the cover

and of the box indicate the »front« of the object,

the determining of which is important in the tea

ceremony, where the positioning of the object in

relation to its front (and back) is integral to the cer-

emony rituals. Likewise important was the naming

of the tea objects.3 According to the box label, this

object was given the name »Eikei muhei,« meaning

»distant landscape, without compare,« a name

that indicates the paradox of the tea ceremony,

where practitioners experience in a small room the

timeless and boundless ideal of tea—with William

Blake, »to see a world in a grain of sand and a

heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of

your hand and eternity in an hour.«4 In this sense,

it is precisely the smallness of the object that gives

it a sense of infinity in viewing a distant landscape.5

The name was probably also, at least partly, intended

as a joke: a grand name placed on a very small

object.

This incense box has been connected with two great

connoisseurs in the history of Japanese art working

centuries apart from each other. On the early

end is the great tea master Funakoshi Nagakage

(1597 –1670), also called Funakoshi Iyonokami.

A follower of Sen no Rikyū, he was active in the

Tokugawa shogunate as a tea master. According to

the box label, the incense box was in the collection

of Funakoshi, who also gave it its name. The other

expert is Kohitsu Ryoshin (1876 –1953), the last

member of the Kyoto branch of the great Kohitsu

line of calligraphy connoisseurs, famous for their

Kinzan seals (also seen on this label). From the

Meiji period the succeeding heads branched into

other forms of connoisseurship, including ceramics.

79

Lacquers

82

25

Ryoshibako with conch

Meiji period (1868 –1912), 19th century

H 4 ¾" × L 15 ¾" × W 12 ½"

(12.3cm × 40.1 cm × 31.6 cm)

Box inscription: takamakie akikusa hanazu bunko

高蒔絵秋草花図文庫

Large rectangular ryōshibako box for writing paper,

decorated on the outside with a conch horn in

takamakie high-relief gold lacquer with togidashi

details in silver black and red lacquers and an

inlaid solid silver mouth piece. The conch horn is

placed on a ground of very fine sprinkled nashiji

lacquer, applied on all surfaces. The simple out-

side decoration scheme is contrasted with a lavish

scene on the lid interior: five bell crickets gambol

amid a luxurious profusion of fall grasses and flow-

ers. All imaginable lacquer techniques are used in

the highly detailed and naturalistic rendering of

the autumn scene: takamakie high-relief leaves and

rocks with mosaics of inlaid kirigane gold foil piec-

es, the flowers in several hues of gold in takamakie

and hiramakie lacquer, the elderberry blossoms

with a nashiji base and gold details on top, and the

crickets in minute details, done entirely in takamakie

black lacquer. The inside surfaces are decorated

with okibirame,—individually inlaid flakes of gold

leaf—and the edges are in kinji gold lacquer.

The autumnal scene is described with the following

plants, flowering in the late summer and early

autumn: nadeshiko (wild pink), hagi (bush clover),

susuki (eulalia), kuzu (arrowroot), and kikyō (bell-

flower), among others.

The tasseled conch horn refers to the Yamabushi,

Japanese ascetic mountain priests who regularly

use such horns in religious rituals. The Yamabushi

perform major rituals in the autumn, for example

during the Dewa Sanzan pilgrimage, and have long

been associated with nature in the Japanese

mountainsides. Thus a connection can be made

between the outside and inside of the box.

Furthermore, the box is a good example of the

uramasari aesthetics in Japanese art. The term,

which can be translated »hidden decoration« or

literally »inner victory,« was originally used for

textiles. From the outside, a piece of clothing (e.g.

haori) could look simple, but when opened, would

reveal a complex, luxurious design. This is often a

characteristic in many fields of Japanese art,

including architecture: the artist hides the more

intricate and skillfully created sections from the

outside viewer and the inner riches are revealed

only upon entering the inner space. In the case of

the lacquer box, the relative simplicity of the

outside design was probably created in order to

increase the sense of delight upon seeing the inner

complexities. The cover with its slightly puzzling

object (what could be connected to a conch?)

might have been designed as a provocation to the

viewer—who would then open up and be dazzled

by the luxurious splendor of the autumn scene.

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84

26

Suzuribako with wisteria and full moon

Taishō-Shōwa periods, 1920s

H 2" × L 10" × W 9"

(5 cm × 25.2 cm × 22.7 cm)

Box inscription: »Writing Box« 硯箱

»Box number 56« 第硯ノ五十六号.Seal: Chō 長

This exceptional suzuribako writing box has been

decorated with blooming wisteria in various shades

of takamakie relief gold lacquer, which varies in

hue from green to reddish brown. The wisteria

leaves and blossoms appear on a bokashi ground

of sprinkled gold powder, which gradates from

almost solid gold to faint sprinkles of gold dust on

mirror-black. The wisteria design continues down

the sides, imparting a luxurious three-dimensional

motif to the writing box.

On opening the lid, the viewer is met by a striking

depiction of the full moon, created in the togidashi

lacquer technique. The silver full moon is contrasted

with several bright gold takamakie leaves of various

late spring plants, appearing against a roiro deep

black ground. The suzuri ink stone is covered with

thick gold lacquer on its top and sides and with

nashiji gold flakes on the bottom. The gold lacquer

ink stone and the accompanying solid silver suiteki

water dropper with its rectangular beveled edges,

creatively echo the interplay of gold and silver on

the inside cover. On either side of the ink stone are

rests for brushes and other writing tools, decorated

with gold lacquer plants. The overall effect is of

refined and controlled luxury.

The plants appearing on this writing box are care-

fully selected in order to fit a certain season, as is

often the case in Japanese works of art. The cover

is decorated with wisteria, which flowers during the

fourth month of the Japanese calendar. The plants

on the insides of the box also flower at this time;

however, the artist decided to show only the leaves

and not the flowers of these plants, possibly to

create a contrast with the rich, flowering wisteria on

the exterior. The plants shown are the mabushigusa,

a plant of the wild potato genus, the long stems

of the umanoashigata, and the fine patterns of the

nemunoki leaves. All plants live in the wild, in the

forests of late spring, and the artist has presented

a nicely calibrated contrast between the public

display of the wisteria on the cover of the box and

the inner private and poetic walk at night, through

the forest path lit by the full moon.

The rims of the writing box are fitted with bands of

solid silver and its bottom is sprinkled with fine

nashiji gold flakes. It comes complete with its original

protective outer box, featuring an inventory label

from the collector.

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86

27

Suzuribako with chrysanthemumsKiitsu 淇一 (ac. early 20th century)

Meiji-Taishō periods, 1910s

H 1 ½" × L 8 ½" × W 7 ¼"

(3.7 cm × 21.4 cm × 18.3 cm)

Box inscription, outside: On-suzuribako, kiku makie

御硯箱　菊蒔絵 (»Venerable writing box, chrysanthe-

mum gold lacquer«)

Box inscription, inside: Kiitsu 淇一

with seal, Kiitsu 淇一

The viewer is faced with a veritable symphony on

the theme of chrysanthemums, both outside and

inside the box.

The artist has highlighted his many skills in making

this superb writing box. The cover of the box is

decorated with two groups of chrysanthemums

with numerous flowers and buds, presented in

takamakie high-relief gold lacquer in two tones.

The leaves and the center of the flowers are

adorned with many inlaid squares of kirigane gold

foil. The flowers are placed on a bokashi ground

that gradates from almost solid gold to faint

sprinkles of gold powder on a roiro mirror-black

ground. Inside the box is an elaborate remov-

able tray that holds the suzuri ink stone and the

lozenge-shaped silver suiteki water dropper in a

chrysanthemum form—a finely chased work with a

gilt center. The tray has two pairs of bridges to

support the ink brushes, and the suzuri ink stone

is gilt on the top edges and decorated in nashiji

gold flakes on its other sides.

On the inside lid, the chrysanthemum are rendered

against a bamboo fence in takamakie raised gold

lacquer with fine details in inlaid kirigane gold foil

pieces on a bokashi gold powder and nashiji gold

flake ground. The inside and the bottom of the

box are with evenly sprinkled nashiji gold flakes;

the outside surfaces continue the decoration from

the lid top. Silver rims enclose this fine rectangular

lacquer box.

The chrysanthemum enjoys a number of sym-

bolic meanings in East Asia. The one that is refer-

eed to here is surely the Chinese poet Tao Qian

(365 – 427), who described, in a famous poem, the

chrysanthemum growing along his garden hedge,

a motif that became a symbol for the poet. In this

lacquer box we see Tao Qian’s flowers, recreated

1500 years after his death—perhaps as a tribute to

the poet by the lacquer artist.

The writing box comes with its original kiri-wood

tomobako box which is inscribed on the top and

signed on the inside by the artist Kiitsu with his

hexagonal seal. Lacquer scholarship has yet to find

biographical material on this outstanding artist,

who created his masterful appreciation of the

chrysanthemum flower.

87

88

28

Suzuribako with cranes

Taishō-Shōwa periods, 1920s

H 2 ¼" × L 9 ½" × W 8 ¾"

(5.5 cm × 24.3 cm × 22.2 cm)

A suzuribako writing box with a cover decoration

of five cranes by a meandering stream; the cranes,

four adults and one chick are shown in brightly

polished takamakie relief gold lacquer in three

different shades with hiramakie details on a roiro

mirror-black ground. The clouds are rendered

with nashiji and makibokashi details using very fine

gold powder, and the stream is crafted in togidashi

gold lacquer.

The inside of the writing box is depicted with a

design of a flowering plum tree and young pine

seedlings in takamakie with kirigane inlays and

striking mother-of-pearl inlays. A removable tray

holds the original suzuri ink stone, the rim of which

is ornately decorated in the oki-birame technique

with individually inlaid pieces of gold foil, and the

original mixed-metal suiteki water dropper in the

shape of the rising sun, partially hidden by clouds.

The inside and the bottom are decorated with

evenly sprinkled nashiji gold flakes and the rims

with kinji gold lacquer.

The cranes depicted on the cover of the box are

Nabezuru or Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha), a

type of crane that spends its summers in Siberia

and reappears in Japan, Korea, and China during

the winters. Arriving in the winter, it has become

one of many symbols of the New Year, along with

the rising sun, young pine seedlings, and the

flowering plum, all of which are included within the

design of this lacquer box. The New Year symbols

indicate renewal, a steadfastness of purpose, and

auspicious beginnings. All these can be seen in the

depiction of the cranes, where the idea of renewal

is literally shown with a newly born chick, protected

by the adults around it. Thus a wish for healthy

offspring accompanies the seasonal message,

conferring the writing box with numerous happy

meanings.

It is likely that this writing box was used at New

Year, perhaps in the ceremony of kakizome, an

important ritual for calligraphers performed on the

second day of the New Year. In this ceremony, the

calligrapher would be seated facing in an auspi-

cious direction, and, after opening his or her writ-

ing box, would write out a Japanese waka poem

with appropriately promising content.

90

29

Suzuribako in half-moon shape

Taishō period (1912 – 26), 1920s

H 1 ¼" × L 9 ¼" × W 6 ¼"

(3.3 cm × 23.5 cm × 15.8 cm)

Box inscription:

keisetsu ōdoku no zu 蛍雪横読之図

(»picture of reading by fireflies and snow«),

hantsuki gata 半月形 (»half-moon shape«),

shinken 真硯 (»genuine inkstone«).

With seal: Rinrō 鈴琅

An elegant suzuribako writing box in a half moon

shape, decorated on the cover with poetry books

and numerous fireflies, some trapped inside a

Japanese washi paper bag and some flying freely.

The decoration is done in hiramakie gold and silver

lacquers on a roiro mirror-black lacquer ground.

The fireflies are in black and red lacquer with inlaid

mother-of-pearl. The book of poetry is decorated in

takamakie raised flowers, while the book title and

spine are created in togidashi lacquer, the flowers

on a ground of very fine nashiji gold flakes. Refer-

ences to the moon continue on the inside of the

writing box with a silver moon-shaped suiteki water

dropper, as well as the silver lacquer that is applied

on the rims of the suzuri ink stone. The rims of the

box are in pewter and the inside and bottom of the

suzuribako are decorated with sprinkles of nashiji

gold flakes.

The decoration has a number of finer references

that are not obvious at first glance. A reference is

made to the Chinese historical annals of the Jin

dynasty (265 – 420 AD), which describe two virtuous

but poor young men who educated themselves

by reading texts at night after work, the one using

the reflection of the moon on the snow and the

other capturing fourteen fireflies in a bag in order

to read Confucian texts, as both were too poor to

light oil lanterns. In due time, both men became

high officials and the term keisetsu 蛍雪 (literally

»fireflies and snow«) became a term for learning in

spite of difficulties.

The decoration refers to this story, but places it

within a Japanese context. The book is decorated

with the title of an early Japanese poetry anthol-

ogy, the Manyōshū, and a poem written in Japanese

kana style is partially visible. The flower on the

cover is the nadeshiko, a summer flower, placing

this image into the correct seasonal context. The

joke is that instead of reading the difficult Confucian

classics, the modern Japanese reader is now

perusing love poetry.

There is, however, one more layer of meaning in

addition to the story clearly depicted on the cover

of the writing box. We may recall that the original

Chinese story was a story about two men, and that

the term keisetsu (the term written on the outer

box) refers to both their reading methods. The art-

ist has in fact cleverly combined both stories into

this writing box: we see the story of the fireflies on

the cover, but the second story—that of reading

under the moon—becomes obvious only when we

open the box and see the moon-shaped water

dropper. One then sees that the two halves of the

writing box themselves form the shape of the

moon, nearly identical in form to the water dropper,

and the intentions of the artist become clear.

91

92

30

Tebako with Pine Cones

Shōwa period (1926 – 89), dated 1929

H 5" × L 11 ¼" × W 9 ¼"

(12.8 cm × 28.4 cm × 23.5 cm)

Inner inscription: lengthy inscription written by

Shōsho Dōjin 松処道人, or Dōryo 道亮, the latter

name also appearing in a seal. The orchid painting

by the artist Takemaro 武麿, with seal Rankō 蘭岡

A striking black lacquer tebako box for the tea

ceremony with surface decoration in hiramakie

gold lacquer, inlaid pewter and mother-of-pearl

inlays depicting pine seedlings and pine cones.

The decoration of pines continues from the top of

the rectangular box down its gently rounded and

tapered sides. The inside cover is decorated with

flowering orchids in two tones of hiramakie gold

lacquer with an extensive calligraphic inscription.

This particular work constitutes a fine example of

work from the early years of the Shōwa period,

when Japanese artists were strongly influenced by

the Art Deco movement. At the time, many artists

experimented with ways to combine traditional

Japanese themes with the new ideas from abroad.

News of this international movement was eagerly

reported by art journals at the time, which illus-

trated objects from the West, and by actual objects

brought into and exhibited in Japan.

The lengthy inscription inside the box was the project

of an older Japanese intellectual, Shōsho Dōjin,

who starts his text with a long essay on the virtues

of the orchid, »Essay on Loving the Orchid«.

It starts with the words:

»I have heard that Yuanming (Tao Qian) loved the

chrysanthemum and that Lianxi (Zhou Dunyi) loved

the lotus.1 But I have yet to hear of someone who

loved the orchid.«

The text goes on to make a case for the appreciation

of the orchid, concluding with two autobiographi-

cal notes. The first describes a moment during the

youth of the author, when he traveled back to his

hometown to plant an orchid with the hope that it

would enrich him in his business ventures. At this

time he also wrote the aforementioned essay. Now,

almost fifty years later in celebration of the New

Year 1929, he asked the artist Takemaro to draw an

orchid and write out his old essay, dedicating

the lacquer box to the »eternal fascination« of the

orchid.

The essayist and his painter friend were probably

members of the same cultural salon, where mem-

bers typically engaged in collaborative events such

as composing poetry and brushing calligraphy

and paintings The lacquer box was likely displayed

at an event held at the New Year of 1929, and

celebrated as the collaboration between members

of the group. The essayist likely commissioned the

work from a lacquer artist, who incorporated the work

of the two salon members into this elegant New

Year object. Little is known of the true identity of

either member, as both chose to use playful artist

names. It is certain, however, that the box they

created was no isolated example of the rich and

varied cultural activities that took place in Japan

during the early twentieth century during the

Taishō and Shōwa periods.2

The tebako comes with the original fitted kiri-wood

box with an label on the inside lid.

93

94

Signatures and SealsReproduced actual size

Nr. 3 Left Nr. 3 Right

Nr. 4

Nr. 2

95

Nr. 7

Nr. 5 Left

Nr. 5 Right

Nr. 6

Nr. 8

96

Nr. 9

Nr. 12

Nr. 13

Nr. 10

Nr. 11

Nr. 12 Left

Nr. 12 Right

97

Nr. 15

Nr. 15

Nr. 30

Nr. 17

Nr. 16 Nr. 18

Nr. 20

Nr. 14

98

Box InscriptionsReproduced half size except as noted

Nr.10

Nr. 9 ¹∕¹ size

Nr. 6

Nr. 9¹∕³ size

99

Nr. 12

Nr. 13

Nr. 15 ¼ size

Nr. 15 ¹∕³ size

100

Nr. 15 ¼ size

Nr. 17

Nr. 19 ¹∕¹ size

Nr. 20Nr. 18 ¹∕³ size

Nr. 23

101

Nr.24 ¹∕¹ size

Nr. 27

Nr. 26 ¹∕¹ size

Nr. 29 ¹∕¹ size

Nr. 25 ¼ size

102

Nr. 1 Flowering Wisteria

1 Nakajima Junshi, et al., Nihon byōbue shūsei

日本屏風絵集成. Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1980, Vol. 7,

page 111, cat nrs. 11 and 12.

2 See also ibid., cat nr.9 for the pair of wisteria

screens signed by Hasegawa Sōen (fl. 17th century).

Nr. 2 Yamaga Seika, Painting of a Cuckoo

1 See also Hosono Masanobu 細野正信, ed., Bunten,

Teiten, Shinbunten, Nitten: Zenshuppin mokuroku 文展・帝展・新文展・日展：全出品目録. Tokyo: Nitten

日展, 1990, vol. 2, 17, for references to this painting

2 For information on the Cuckoo, see Mark Brazil,

The Birds of Japan. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian

Institution Press, 1991, 176 – 7

3 Uki ware o sabishigarase yo, kankodori. From the

Narrow Road to the Interior (oku no hosomichi).

Translation by Sam Hamill, Narrow Road to the

Interior: And Other Writings. New York: Shambhala,

2000.

4 Shinbi Shoin 審美書院. Monbusho daigaokai

bijutsu tenrankai zuroku 文部省第五回美術展覧会図録.

Tokyo: Shinbi Shoin 審美書院, 1911.

5 See, Stedelijk Museum, Stedelijke internationale

tentoonstelling van kunstwerken van levende

meesters: catalogus (Catalog: The Stedelijk Interna-

tional Art Exhibition of Living Masters). Amsterdam:

Stedelijk Museum, 1912.

6 For biographical information on this artist, refer

to the major retrospective catalog from 1985: Kyoto

City Museum 京都市美術館 and Asahi Shimbunsha

朝日新聞社, eds., Kindai senshoku no sōshisha:

Yamaga Seika ten 近代染織の創始者山鹿清華展.

Kyoto and Osaka: Kyoto City Bijutsukan 京都市美術館 and Asahi Shinbunsha 朝日新聞社, 1985.

7 The influence of Sekka must have been substan-

tial, as Seika chose the same path in life, creating

modern designs that crossed over into different

genres. See Donald Wood, Kurt Gitter, et al.,

Kamisaka Sekka: Rimpa Master, Pioneer of Modern

Design. Birmingham and Kyoto: Birmingham Mu-

seum of Art and National Museum of Modern Art

Kyoto, 2003.

8 Published in Kokumin Bijutsu Kyōkai 國民美術協会,

ed., Kokumin Bijutsu Kyōkai daiikkai seibu tenrankai

kessakushū 國民美術協会第一回西部展覧会傑作集.

Tokyo: Kokumin Bijutsu Kyōkai 國民美術協会, 1913.

9 The present pair of screens marks the very first

acceptance into national exhibitions. His list of ex-

hibitions includes the Bunten, Teiten, Nitten and a

number of other expositions. See Hosono Masanobu

細野正信, ed., Bunten, Teiten, Shinbunten, Nitten:

Zenshuppin mokuroku 文展・帝展・新文展・日展：全出品目録. Tokyo: Nitten 日展, 1990, vol. 1, 115.

10 He also took part in the 1922 exposition in Paris.

See Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Exposition

D’Art Japonais: Salon de la Société Nationale des

Beaux-Arts. Catalogue des Ouvres Moderne de

Peinture, Sculpture, Arts Décoratifs et les Oeuvres

Anciennes. Paris: Éditions de l’Abeille d’Or, 1922), 37.

11 Two of his publications focus on textile design:

Mukashi watari sarasa 昔渡更紗. 3 vols. Geisōdō 芸艸堂, 1917 (reissued fifty year later in one volume

as: Mukashi watari sarasa むかし渡更紗. Geisōdō

芸艸堂, 1967); and Teorinishiki: Yamaga Seika

sakuhinshū 手織錦・山鹿清華作品集. Mitsurinsha

Shuppan 光琳社出版, 1972

Notes

103

Nr. 3 Tsuji Kakō, Young Pines

1 For biographical matter, see 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 references 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 of 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 Otsu: University of Washing-

ton Press, Otsu City Museum of History 大津市歴史博物館, 2001. An important recent contribution is

the museum catalogue: The National Museum of

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 Exhibition 都路華香展. Kasaoka 笠岡and

Kyoto 京都: The National Museum of 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.

2 This collection is depicted in Paul Berry and

Michiyo Morioka (1999)

3 See many examples in National Museum of

Modern Art, Kyoto (2006); in Berry and Morioka

(1999); Otsu (2001); and Conant (1995)

Nr. 4 Minakami Taisei, Melting of the Snow

1 For biographical information, see, for example,

Roberts (1976), 106

2 He entered the Bunten from the seventh to the

twelfth exhibitions, and entered the Teiten from

the third to the fifteenth exhibitions (except the

eighth occasion). He entered the Shinbunten twice

(1n 1941 and 1943), was invited to the Bunten

Shōtaiten in 1936, and entered the wartime Senji

Tokubetsuten in 1944. For details, see Hosono Ma-

sanobu 細野正信, ed., Bunten, Teiten, Shinbunten,

Nitten: Zenshuppin mokuroku　文展・帝展・新文展・日展：全出品目録. Tokyo: Nitten 日展, Heisei 2, vol.

1, 30, and vol. 2 for painting titles.

3 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, ed.

Official Catalogue, Illustrated, of the Department

of Fine Art, Panama-Pacific International Exposition,

San Francisco, California, 1915. San Francisco:

Wahlgreen Co, 1915.

4 Eugen Neuhaus was a professor in the Art De-

partment of Berkeley and was, for over decades,

a leading American critic on the arts. The quote

comes from his The Galleries of the Exposition: A

Critical Review of the Paintings, Statuary, & Graphic

Arts in the Palace of Fine Arts. San Francisco, Paul

Elder and Company, 1915.

Nr. 5 Hirai Baisen, Kyoto in the Winter

1 Later works have been criticized by contemporary

Japanese critics, who have characterized Baisen

as an artist who peaks early and then levels off to

mediocrity. In retrospect this criticism seems highly

undeserved, as the works of the mature artist are

just as imaginative as the earlier, though not in an

openly demonstrative manner. A reappraisal of the

artist’s career and of his role in the twentieth cen-

tury Nihonga movement are needed. For one thing,

his remarkable success in national exhibitions is

hard to deny: his work was accepted into every

Teiten exhibition from the first to the very last and

into all but one Bunten exhibitions, twice with two

entries. For short but useful biographies with paint-

ings of this artist, see Ōtsu City Museum of History

大津市歴史博物館, ed. Shirarezaru Nihon kaiga 知られざる日本絵画. 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:

104

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.

2 An excellent example of this is his Burning of the

Daibutsu, a screen that caused a sensation in 1910.

He also visited China in the 1910s and created a

number of impressive views that were based on his

travels.

3 Can be seen in: Yoshizawa Chū 吉沢忠, Yosa

Buson 与謝蕪村. Nihon bijutsu kaiga 日本美術絵画,

vol 19. Tokyo: Shūeisha 集英社, 1980, nr. 29. See

also the recent catalogue from Miho Museum: Yosa

Buson: On the Wings of Art, published in 2008 on

the occasion of the important retrospective exhibi-

tion of the artist.

4 See examples in McKelway, Matthew. Capitalscapes:

Folding Screens and Political Imagination in Late Me-

dieval Kyoto. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 2006

Nr. 6 Itō Jakuchū, Chicken by a New Year’s Cask

1 See Tokyo (1971) nrs. 26 – 31; and Kyoto (2000),

nrs. 9 –11 and 121. All date from the 1790s.

2 For details of Jakuchū’s life, see Satō and Hickman

(1989).

3 The poet, as with a number of other inscribers of

Jakuchū’s circle, has not yet been identified. There

are also examples of Jakuchū’s paintings where

inscriptions are added quite a bit later, such as

the painting in Kyoto (2000), nr. 68. This work was

bought in Kyoto, taken to Kyūshū, and then signed

by the Zen monk and painter Sengai.

4 Jakuchū had an unusual way of counting (and

signing) his age as he grew older. For a theory on

this counting system, see Kano Hiroyuki’s introduc-

tory essay in Kyoto (2000)

Nr. 7 Itō Jakuen, Rooster on a Lantern

1 Who appears in another entry in this catalog.

2 For the problem of Jakuen, see, for example,

Tokyo (1971), Tsuji (1974), Satō (1987), Kyoto (2000),

Kobayashi (1996), Shimizu (2006), and Hickman and

Satō (1989).

3 For a newly-discovered large screen, see Kobayashi

(1996).

4 See Shimizu (2006), cat nrs. 22 – 26

5 For example, Kano Hiroyuki suggests that, as the

seal impressions of Jakuen show little wear, he

might only have been active as a painter for a few

years. (See, Shimizu (2006), cat. nr. 23). The Jakuen

painting in this catalog, however, shows the same

seals with significant added wear, seeming to place

this theory into doubt. As such this painting adds

valuable insight into future Jakuen research.

Nr. 8 Miyoshi Joka, Exotic Birds and Grapes

1 The birds are native to a large area of mainland

Asia, from the Himalayas to China and Vietnam.

They are not native to Japan, but were brought in

as exotic birds during the Edo period.

2 See Urushiyama Tendō 漆山天童, Ukiyoe nenpyō

浮世絵年表. Tokyo: Fūzokuemaki Zuga Kankōkai風俗絵巻図画刊行会, 1934, page 173.

3 For details, see Araki (1991), vol. 1, 812 and vol.

2, 2134. The latter reference shows a confusion

of the present artist with an artist by the name of

Yokota Fukuan. See also Sawada (1970) 546.

4 See Satō Yasuhiro and Money Hickman, The

Paintings of Jakuchū. New York: Asia Society Gallery,

1989.

105

Nr. 9 Hironaga / Sukenobu, Cuckoo in the Autumn

1 See, for example, Araki (1934), vol. 2, 2424. The

father’s name was Sakatani Hiromasa坂谷広当

2 See, Kokushi daijiten (1908), 464 – 5

3 For another scroll in the catalogue with a similar

theme, see Nr. 11 Deer and Autumn Maples.

Nr. 10 Kano Seisen’in, Misty Cherry Blossoms

1 For biographical information, see, for example,

Roberts (1976), 140, and Araki (1934), 2069

Nr. 11 Uchida Hirotsune, Deer and Autumn Maples

1 See, for example, Hyakunin issu, »The cry of the

stag / is so loud in the empty / mountains that an

echo / answers him as though / it were a doe«

(Translation by Kenneth Rexroth)

2 For examples, see Howard Link, et al., Exquisite

Visions: Rimpa Paintings from Japan. Honolulu:

Aonolulu Academy of Arts, 1980.

3 Araki Tadashi 荒木矩. Dai Nihon shoga meika daikan 大日本書画名家大監. 4 vols. Original ed.: 1934. To-

kyo: Dai-Ichi Shobō 第一書房, 1991, vol. 2, p. 2426

Nr. 12 Fujiwara Hakuei, Successful Carps

1 For details of his life, see Shimonaka Kunihiko

下中邦彦, ed., Nihon jinmei jiten 日本人名辞典.

Tokyo: Heibonsha 平凡社, 1979, vol. 4, 513.

2 His works include the popular Noto meguri

能登めぐり and Tōyū nikki 東遊日記, two travel dia-

ries that included numerous haiku poems and were

written in the style of Basshō’s poetry books, such

as his famous travel diary Oku no hosomichi.

3 For information on the Maeda family, see ibid.,

vol. 5, 565

Nr. 13 Nomura Bunkyo, The Moon in the Rain

1 For details, see, for example, Roberts (1976), 122;

Araki (1934) vol. 1, 232;

Nr. 14 Kōu, The Jōruri Chanter at a Puppet Theater

1 See Kendall Brown and Sharon Minichiello,

Taishō Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, and

Deco. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2003

2 See, Ozaki Bansetsu, Kokon shoga Kantei hyōka

sōran. Kyoto: Rakuyō Bijitsusha, 1925, Part 4, 46

3 A number of the painters in this catalogue have

not been identified, except for the information in

their signatures or seals. See, ibid., cat. nrs. 11, 13,

15, and 33 – all which are identified with either just

first names or none at all.

Nr. 15 Yamamoto Gempō, Long Life

1 For a biography of Yamamoto Gempō, see

Stephen Addiss and Audrey Seo, The Art of Twen-

tieth-Century Zen: Painting and Calligraphy by

Japanese Masters. Boston and London: Shambhala,

1998, 93 –107.

Nr. 18 Kyokushōsai

1 For an overview of plaiting techniques, see

Rinne, Melissa in collaboration with Koichiro Okada.

Masters of Bamboo: Artistic Lineages in the Lloyd

Cotsen Japanese Basket Collection. (San Francisco:

Asian Art Museum, 2007), 130 – 4. A more complete

overview with 50 distinct patterns is illustrated and

explained in Japanese in Nihon Keizai Shinbun,

106

Inc., ed. Bamboo Masterworks: Japanese Baskets

from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection. (Tokyo: Nihon

Keizai Shinbun, Inc., 2003), 130 – 8.

Nr. 21 Shigaraki Jar

1 For similar examples of Shigaraki jars, see: Ford

and Impey (1989), 46 – 7; MOA Museum (1982),

ills. 31– 5; Price (1987), 200 –1; Capon, et al. (1982),

126 – 7; and Earle, ed. (1986), 36 – 7

Nr. 22 Bizen Shallot Flask

1 See, for example, Tanikawa Tetsuzō and Kawabata

Yasunari, eds. Bizen. Nihon no tōji, vol. 6 (Tokyo:

Chūō Kōransha, 1974), 119 – 44. The mark of the

present flask is close to number 173 depicted on

page 144.

2 See ibid, numbers 15 – 6, 183, and 185 – 6. Se also

Okada Shūei, ed. Bizen koyō shūsei. Tokyo: Sōjusha

Bijutsu Shuppan, 1983, nrs. 17, 65 – 7 and 79 – 80.

Nr. 23 Okugōrai Tea Bowl

1 For comparisons, see Ōhashi Kenji, et al.

»Tokushū: Shimijimi, Kogaratsu.« Rokushō 9 (1993),

6 –11, 25 – 8, and 64 – 8; Aichiken Tōji Shiryōkan

Gakugeibu Gakugeika, ed. Momoyamatō no kareina

sekai: Aichi Banpaku kinen tokubetsu kikakuten.

(English title: Breaking the Mold—Birth of an

Original Style, Momoyama Ceramics 16 –17th Cen-

tury). (Seto: Aichiken Tōji Shiryōkan, 2005), 97 – 8,

158 – 60; Idemitsu Bijutsukan, ed. Kogaratsu.

(Tokyo: Idemitsu Bijutsukan, 1986), 11– 8, 68,

105 – 6; Tokugawa Bijutsukan and Gotoh Bijutsukan,

eds. Niitanaru Edo no biishiki: Chanoyu meiwan.

(Tokyo and Nagoya: Tokugawa Bijutsukan and Go-

toh Bijutsukan, 2005), 44 – 9; and Tanikawa Tetsuzō

and Kawabata Yasunari, eds. Karatsu. Nihon no tōji,

vol. 5. (Tokyo: Chūō Kōransha, 1974).

Nr. 24 Kōgō Incense Box, »Distant Landscape, with-

out Compare«

1 See numerous examples in Miyeko Murase, ed.,

Turning point: Oribe and the Arts of the Sixteenth

Century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art,

2003.

2 See, for example, Tanikawa Tetsuzō and Kawabata

Yasunari, eds. Shino. Nihon no tōji, vol. 2 (Tokyo:

Chūō Kōronsha, 1974), nrs. 110 – 31.

3 See Yagi Ichio, »Uta-mei: The Poetic Names of Tea

Utensils.« Chanoyu Quarterly 83 (1996), 16 – 40.

4 From his »Auguries of Innocence« in the Pickering

Manuscript

5 For a discussion of tea ceremony aesthetics, see

Haga Kōshirō. »The Wabi Aesthetics throughout

the Ages,« in Tea In Japan: Essays on the History

of Chanoyu. Kumakura Isao and Paul Varley, eds.

Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 1994, 195 – 230

Nr. 30 Tebako with Pine Cones

1 Tao Qian (365 – 427) who has been described in

an entry for another lacquer box, was a Chinese

poet who wrote about the chrysanthemum growing

in his garden. Zhou Dunyi (1017– 73) was a Neo-

Confucian philosopher and cosmologist, who often

wrote of natural phenomena. He became known for

having said that the best life is that of a pure lotus

growing out of dirty water, and that the lotus is the

natural equivalent of the lofty gentleman.

2 For other examples of Japanese cultural indus-

trialists from this time, see Christine Guth, Art, Tea,

and Industry: Masuda Takushi and the Mitsui Circle.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

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Addiss, Stephen and Audrey Seo, The Art of

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Aichiken Tōji Shiryōkan Gakugeibu Gakugeika, ed.

Momoyamat. no kareina sekai: Aichi Banpaku kinen

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ics 16 –17th Century). Seto: Aichiken Tōji Shiryōkan,

2005

Araki Tadashi 荒木矩. Dai Nihon shoga meika taikan

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Erik Thomsen 2009

Japanese Paintings and Works of Art

© 2009 Erik Thomsen

Photography: Cem Yücetas

Design and Production: Valentin Beinroth

Printing: Henrich Druck + Medien GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

Printed in Germany

Cover:

Flowering Wisteria

Hasegawa School, anonymous artist

Detail, pair of six-panel folding screens (cat. nr. 1)

Edo period (1615 –1868), 18th century

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