Japanese Showa Four Panel Screen Songbirds in Cherry Blossoms

Dramatic and beautifully executed cherry blossoms trickle down the two panels with natural willows calmly coexisting with luminous gold dust fading to the ground. Mineral pigments an...

Japanese Four Panel Screen: Banana Grove, early Showa period (late 1920s-1930s) painting of life-size fruiting banana trees in a style that ...

Cherry Blossoms Kano Sanrakuki (1898-1981) Showa period, circa 1930 2-panel Japanese Screen Color, gofun and gold leaf on paper Against a backdrop of gold-leafed ground, the lichen covered trunk and branches of the life-sized cherry blossom tree reach out and beyond the confines of the pictorial surface. The overall composition has a feeling of flatness which draws emphasis to the surface and the three-dimensionality of the cherry blossoms. Painstakingly built-up layers of thickly applied shell-white gofun detail the voluminous blossoms and cover large areas of this tour-de-force of Japanese Nihonga painting. By simplifying the background, minimizing the number of colors and depicting the blossoms with such heavy relief, the artist has emphasized the stunning presence of the cherry tree. The type of tree depicted is the Yae-Zakura; a double-layered type of cherry blossom famed for its beauty and strength. When we think of Japanese cherry blossoms, the first thing that comes to mind is Somei Yoshino variety, which has a single flower with five almost white petals. This type is fragile and easily blown away by strong wind or rain. Most of the double-flowered cherry blossoms begin to bloom when the Somei-Yoshino falls, and the flowering period lasts longer than that of the Somei-Yoshino. Kano Sanrakuki originally studied painting at the Kyoto City Arts and Crafts School under the tutelage of Yamamoto Shunkyo...

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...

Four individual mounted panels of calligraphy. Each panel contains a poem inspired by one of the four seasons. Each panel signed: To Rei. Ink on mulberry paper with silk brocade border.

A lotus scene with flowers in bloom floating on the water's surface. As the lotus rise from below for an enlightening process that brings an abundance of purity and beauty. Mineral p...

Cherry blossoms and maples among ragged pines. Mineral pigments on mulberry paper with gold mist clouds. Completely remounted utilizing an antique silk brocade...

Modern painting in mineral pigments on mulberry paper with a silk brocade border.

This is an exceptionally powerful and evocative four-panel screen depicting a sprawling Tibetan monastery set against a backdrop of massive, towering mountains. Executed in ink on pa...

Hinoki (Japanese red pine) and other deciduous trees in mineral pigments on mulberry paper. Signature reads: Yosui.