Yamaguchi Soken / Rabbits

Perhaps he used the rabbit paintings of his teacher Okyo as a reference. The slightly humorous expressions on the rabbits’ faces are a nice touch. It’s a fun rabbit painting to look at.

2020年9月13日

Yamaguchi Soken / Cormorant fishing

The smooth brushstrokes vividly and beautifully depict the scene of cormorant fishing. This work was painted by Yamaguchi Soken, one of the Ten Excellent Painters of the Okyo School.

2021年5月30日

Yamaguchi Soken / A tiger drinking water in a strong wind

A tiger drinking water from a river while being buffeted by a strong wind. Its expression is adorable and not the least bit scary. Yamaguchi Soken specialized in Japanese-beauty paintings, but he also painted a variety of animal paintings.

Tags: Chinese Zodiac Sign, Tiger, modern times

2020年8月25日

Watanabe Seitei / Two Hanging scrolls of Iris and carps

This is a rare combination of carp and irises. Seitei barely depicts the surface of the water, instead depicting the overlapping carp and aquatic plants from a bird’s-eye view, creating a sense of depth and transparency below the water’s surface.

Tags: latter half of the Edo period, modern times

2025年3月11日

Watanabe Seitei / Two carps under a waterfall

円山応挙の《青楓瀑布図》を彷彿とさせる構図ながら、省亭ならではの乾燥した張りのある筆遣いが活かされています。岩の墨色に対し、鯉は一割程度の濃度で描かれていますが、その巧みさにより、水飛沫の中であたかも鯉が見え隠れしている様が目前に浮かんでくるようです。

Tags: latter half of the Edo period, modern times

2025年3月16日

Watanabe Nangaku / Children playing with rabbits

Although European rabbits were introduced to Japan during the Muromachi period (1336-1573), albino rabbits were first seen in the painting done by Nangaku’s teacher, Maruyama Okyo, in 1784 in the Edo period.

Tags: modern times

2024年6月6日

Watanabe Kaiko / Peacocks under the Pine, A half of four-panel folding screen

The Watanabe family, village headmen of Suga in Nishi Ward, Niigata City, were
active over three generations which include Tanchi, the family’s fifth generation and Kaiko’s father who studied under Matsumura Keibun, the sixth generation Kaiko, and his son Etsuzan, the seventh generation.

Tags: latter half of the Edo period, modern times, modern times

2024年2月7日

Ukita Ikkei / Setting sun and a flock of crows

Ukita Ikkei is also known as Tomioka Tessai’s master of Yamato-e painting. This work vividly depicts a flock of crows.

Tags: modern times, year round

2024年6月4日

Tosa Mitsuoki / 3 Hanging scrolls of rising sun and quails

Mitsuoki, a representative painter of the Tosa school in the Edo period, was especially known as a master of quail paintings.

2023年3月29日

Tomita Keisen / Spring snow in the garden

Tomita Keisen (1879-1936) was a Japanese painter from the Meiji to Showa periods. He studied the Kano school and the Shijo school, and later became an admirer of Sengai Gibon and Tomioka Tessai. He also studied Buddhist paintings from the Nara and Heian periods. He is known for his interactions with the poet Paul Claudel, who was the French ambassador to Japan.

Tags: modern times, Shijo Faction (of the LDP), small birds

2024年2月18日