Gibbon

ANONYMOUS (PREVIOUSLY ATTRIBUTED TO MU XI, 1210?-1269)
Gibbon
Hanging scroll, ink on silk
42 x 59 cm. (16 ½ x 23 ¼ in.)
Without signature or seal

NOTE:

There is an almost identical monkey painting by a Japanese painter of the Kano school. See no.5422, owned by Tokyo National Museum, which is illustrated in the catalogue of the Gotoh Museum “Mokkei (Mu Xi)”, (Tokyo, 1996), p.136.

Morikawa Nyoshun’an was a famous tea master, art collector. Some of the important pieces were registered as important cultural properties, and part of his collection were donated to the Nagoya City Museum.

Morikawa Nyoshun’an (1887-1980) Collection.

Mineo Hata was born to a family of soy sauce brewers in 1949 near Shimane Prefecture’s Izumo Grand Shrine. Growing up surrounded by this landscape and its palpable divinity, he developed a distinct aesthetic sensitivity. As with most families in the soy sauce business, his family was financially comfortable, and his grandfather also served as the chair of the village council.

In 1967 Mineo moved to Tokyo and began working for a company dealing in medical devices by visiting doctors’ offices door-to-door, but decided that this should not be his life’s work. Mineo’s interests began to shift toward antiquities at this time. He began to frequent antique shops, purchasing pieces that piqued his interest. Taking inspiration from the written work of Mingei folk-craft movement founder Yanagi Sōetsu, Mineo left his salaried job in 1976. By 1984, he opened his first storefront as Hata Kobijutsu on Osaka’s Nishitenma Oimatsu-dōri, where established major dealers, such as Hirano Kotōken, had their shops. In 1990, he was granted membership into what is perhaps western Japan’s most elite group of dealers, the Osaka Art Club, and in 1992 he opened a second store in Ashiya near his home in Kobe.

By the mid-1990s, between opening his own brick-and-mortar stores and gaining admission to the Osaka Art Club, Mineo’s business had grown steadily. He maintained relationships with both museums and individual collectors and began to participate in international auctions. In 2023, he consigned many Chinese art pieces in “Mineo Hata: An Instinctive Eye” sale at Christie’s New York and achieved tremendous results. Hata Mineo’s journey to prominence as an antique dealer drew upon many sources, from the philosophy of Yanagi Sōetsu to the divine beauty of his native Izumo. Given his remarkable background, surely there has been no greater joy in his career than that of engaging with exquisite objects.

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