Japanese Landscape Folding Screen Rice Paper and Gold Leaf

(no image) With beautiful oxblood color lacquer frame with 19th century bronze mounts.

Japanese Two Panel Screen: Mountain Landscape with Calligraphy. Late Edo (c. 1850) painting of a dramatic mountainside carved by a waterfall with a crane flying in the foreground an...

Three Friends of Winter Nakajima Raisho (1796-1871) Late Edo period, circa 1850 Ink and gold leaf on paper. This is a double-sided Japanese Furosaki or tea-ceremony screen from the mid 19th century; bamboo and plum on the front, young pines the back. It by Nakajima Raisho, a master painter of the Maruyama school in the late Edo and early Meiji periods. In this work Raisho combines exquisite ink brushwork with large open spaces of brilliant gold-leaf to inspire the viewers imagination. Rather than naturalism, he is searching for the phycological impression of the motifs, resulting in abstraction and stylization. His simplification of the motifs the result of looking to capture the inner nature of the objects. This art motif is known as Sho Chiku Bai, or the Three Friends of Winter. Evergreen pine connotes steadfastness, bamboo suggests both strength and flexibility, while plum blossoms unfurling on snow-laden branches imply hardiness. Combined, this trio is emblematic of Japanese new year. Chinese literati were the first to group the three plants together due to their noble characteristics. Like these resilient plants flowering so beautifully in winter, it was expected of the scholar-gentleman to cultivate a strong character with which he would be able to show the same degree of perseverance and steadfastness even during times of adverse conditions. The screen would have been placed near the hearth of a room used for the Japanese tea ceremony, shielding the fire from draughts and also forming a stimulating and decorative backdrop behind the tea utensils. It would have been used in the Hatsugama, or first tea-ceremony of the new year. Nakajima Raisho (1796-1871) originally studied under Watanabe Nangaku before entering the school of Maruyama Ozui. He was the highest ranking Maruyama school painter at the end of the Edo period and was known as one of the ‘Four Heian Families’ along with Kishi...

Sparrows ravish freshly harvested rice, drying on stakes, beyond wild chrysanthemum. Mineral pigments on silk. Signed in the lower left corner, signature reads: Soetsu. With a simple...

Mineral pigments on gold leaf with brocade border. Calligraphy and sketching on back paper.

Japanese two-panel screen: ink painting of Palm Trees on paper, Edo period (1787) beautiful painting of Japanese windmill palm trees. Ink paint...

Japanese two-panel screen: Peony and Cherry, Edo period (circa 1800) painting, formerly fusuma (Japanese sliding doors), executed in the Kano school style, featuring a cherry tree in...

Late Edo period 19th century Japanese six-panel landscape screen featuring a cypress tree over a flowering hibiscus with a pair of hototogisu birds. Kano school painted with ink and ...

Edo period (dated 1787) beautiful painting of unfurling palm leaves with romping puppies in the background. Ink painting (sumi-e) on mulberry paper. Signature reads: Okyo. Calligraph...

(no image) on lattice frame. Pair available; Sold seperately.