Details
KIKUCHI YOSAI (1788-1878), SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891), SUZUKI SHUITSU (1828-1889), KANO NATSUO (1828-1898)
Kozukahara at midnight
Hanging scroll, ink, gold and color on silk, 195 x 54cm., the painting proper signed Yosai rojin and cyclically dated kinoto u (1855). The painting on the brown silk mounting is signed Tairyukyo Shiba Zeshin sha and sealed Shin. The painting on the blue silk mounting is signed Seisei Shuitsu and sealed Shukurinsai. The metal roller ends (jiku-saki) are signed Natsuo chu with one artist's seal. In fitted and inscribed double boxes.
Kozukahara at midnight
Hanging scroll, ink, gold and color on silk, 195 x 54cm., the painting proper signed Yosai rojin and cyclically dated kinoto u (1855). The painting on the brown silk mounting is signed Tairyukyo Shiba Zeshin sha and sealed Shin. The painting on the blue silk mounting is signed Seisei Shuitsu and sealed Shukurinsai. The metal roller ends (jiku-saki) are signed Natsuo chu with one artist's seal. In fitted and inscribed double boxes.
Provenance
Ikeda Sozaburo
Baron Go, sold at the Tokyo Bijutsu Club, November 24th, 1919
Property of a gentleman, sold in these rooms December 11, 1985, lot 21
Baron Go, sold at the Tokyo Bijutsu Club, November 24th, 1919
Property of a gentleman, sold in these rooms December 11, 1985, lot 21
Literature
A courtesan and her young attendant appear in a roundel that looks rather like a bright moon illuminating the melancholy night landscape of the moor at Kozukahara, an execution ground in the suburbs of Tokyo. The juxtaposition of a beauty from the demi-monde and death was an allusion to the transience of life and the penalties incurred for dedicating oneself to the pleasures of the floating world, or ukiyo. A visual pun is made on the word keijo which can mean both execution ground and courtesan. The courtesan's roundel overlaps the pale silhouette of a seated statue of Jizo, a compassionate Buddhist deity whose image often appears in cemeteries, and who is believed to travel to the underworld to rescue the damned. The allusion to hell is expanded in Shibata Zeshin's painting of the kings of hell on the brown scroll mounting (chumawashi), while the possibility of rebirth in paradise is suggested by Shuitsu's painting of lotus pond and musical instruments for divine musicians (on the blue portion of the mounting). Shuitsu is the son of Suzuki Kiitsu (1786-1858). Kano Natsuo designed roller ends with the Chinese characters zen and aku, meaning good and evil. Natsuo is the greatest metal worker of his generation. He was born in Kyoto and later moved to Tokyo where he taught at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and was a member of the Art Committee of the Imperial Household.
Kikuchi Yosai was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the finest painters of his period. He first studied Kano painting but later evolved a personal style based on influences he absorbed from the work of Kano Tanyu, Maruyama Okyo, and Tani Buncho. His style was eclectic but he specialized in historical figure paintings. In 1876 he won an award at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
Kikuchi Yosai was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the finest painters of his period. He first studied Kano painting but later evolved a personal style based on influences he absorbed from the work of Kano Tanyu, Maruyama Okyo, and Tani Buncho. His style was eclectic but he specialized in historical figure paintings. In 1876 he won an award at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
Exhibited
Shibata Zeshin gojunen kinen tzuizen-kai (Memorial exhibition of Shibata Zeshin on the 50th anniversary of his death), held at the Yaozen in Tsukiji in Tokyo in 1941.