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Kakejiku With Gassaku Painting


eternal_newbie

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Not sure if this should be in the Izakaya or Translation section, but here goes:

 

A few years ago, I bought an interesting kakejiku with a sort of collage of five paintings of birds framed by geometric shapes, each with a different signature (making it a gassaku work, if I'm not mistaken) to hang on a wall that we were renovating. The renovation got delayed, then when it finally went through we ended up placing a sofa against it. The kakejiku remained in its tube for a while until we decided to move the sofa - at which point it's now coming back out to go on the wall.

 

I'm now curious to know a bit more about the painting, so was interested to see if anyone here would like to take a crack at either translating the signatures or analyzing the paintings themselves. I can say that it is in good condition, is rather wide - from roller end to roller end it's just over 100cm long - and is either from the Kano school of painting or inspired by that school. I'm not particularly interested in selling it (just wanted something nice to cover the wall), but on the off chance that it's actually valuable I thought it'd be better to get it checked out before leaving it exposed to the daily dust, wind and sunshine it would get from being on display.

 

Full gallery with closeups of signatures is here: http://members.iinet.net.au/~rjgengath/Kakejiku/gallery.html

 

01.JPG

 

 

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Rohan, you never know what you're going to find when you go to what we call garage sales. About 25 years back, I spent $5 on a very large tapestry made of tapa in Tonga, only to have a guest excitedly tell me last year that it should be in a museum, & is darn near priceless. It's some kind of Royal Tongan celebration from more than a century ago, but it still just hangs in my greatroom. You may have been lucky, too - I like your kakejiku. And of course Morita-Sensei has done his usual bang-up job of making translations look easy.

 

Ken

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

In case anyone's interested, I've done a bit of research on this scroll and Morita-san's very helpful translations, and here's what I've got so far (assuming that it's not gimei or a reproduction):

 

A - Hawk, pine and sparrow by Kano Isen'in Naganobu (1775-1828)

 

Son of Kano Yosen'in Korenobu; succeeded his father as seventh-generation head of the Kobikicho branch of the Kano school. Granted the rank of hogen ('Eye of the Law') in 1802, and was subsequently further elevated to the highest hoin ('Seal of the Law') rank in 1816, which is reflected in his mei here.

More information about Kano Naganobu: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=139768

 

B - Family of chickens by Kano Seisen'in Osanobu (1796-1846)

 

Son of Kano Isen'in Naganobu; succeeded his father as eighth-generation head of the Kobikicho Kano. Was a firm believer in the importance of the classics and made a great many copies of classical Japanese and Chinese works. Granted the rank of hogen in 1819, and hoin in 1834.

More information about Kano Osanobu: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=145043

 

C - Bird (dove?) on a branch by Kano Tan'en Morinao (1795-1866 or 1805-1853*)

 

The eldest son of Kano Tanshin Morimichi of the Kajibashi Kano. He was granted the rank of hogen, presumably sometime after this collaboration. Other than that, I can't find much about this artist at all from English sources - and that much, I got from listings of some of his paintings on eBay.

* The sources disagree on the dates - a number of eBay listings have Tan'en as 1805-1853, but Louis Frederic's Japan Encyclopedia has him as 1795-1866.

 

D - Crows in a tree by Kano Dotei Takanobu (1807-1878)

 

Son of Kano Tokinobu. Became the seventh generation head of the Saruyamachi Kano family. His pupils include Takahashi Yuichi (1838-1894) and Iwahashi Noriaki (1835-1883). Other than that, I can't find anything online. Virtually all of the search results are for the considerably more renowned Kano Takanobu (1573-1615) but the birth dates of the other artists in this collaboration exclude him as a possibility.

 

E - Pigeons in wisteria tree by Kano Tosen Nakanobu (1811-1871)

 

Fifth son of Kano Isen'in Naganobu (and therefore brother to Seisen'in). Was later adopted by Kano Yusen, one of the head artists of the Hamamachi Kano, and became a goyo-eshi (painter-in-residence) at the court of the Shogun.

More information about Kano Nakanobu - http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=145513

 

 

All in all, this looks like a nice little representative snapshot of the Kano school as it was in the mid-to-late 1820s (Tosen would have been 9 years old in 1819 and Isen'in passed away in 1828) - from the leading artists at the very top of the school to the promising young talent who would have just come of age as painters. I'm not sure if there's any significance as to the subjects of the paintings or the little shapes that border each painting - if anyone believes there is, please let me know your thoughts!

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