Collection online

painting / hanging scroll

• Object type

  • painting
  • hanging scroll

• Museum number

  1881,1210,0.810

• Description

  Painting, hanging scroll. Brown shrike on leafless tree-trunk; with autumn plants (green ivy, red lacquer-tree leaves, burnets, and daisies) below; pampas-grasses in mist in background. Ink and colours on silk. Signed and sealed.

• Producer name

  • Painted by: Ikeda Koson (池田孤邨)

• School/style

  • Rinpa School

• Culture/period

  • Edo Period

• Date

  • 1830-1866

• Production place

  • Painted in: Edo
  • (Asia,Japan,Tokyo-to,Edo)

• Materials

  • silk

• Technique

  • painted

• Dimensions

  • Height: 121.5 centimetres
  • Width: 51 centimetres

• Inscriptions

  • • Inscription Type

      signature

    • Inscription Language

      Japanese

    • Inscription Content

      孤邨三信寫

    • Inscription Transliteration

      Koson Sanshin utsusu

    • Inscription Translation

      Painted by Koson Sanshin

  • • Inscription Type

      seal

    • Inscription Content

      蓮庵

    • Inscription Transliteration

      Ren'an

  • • Inscription Type

      seal

    • Inscription Language

      Japanese

    • Inscription Content

      三信信印

    • Inscription Transliteration

      Sanshin Shin in

    • Inscription Translation

      Seal of Sanshin Shin

• Curator's comments

  Hizo Nihon bijutsu taikan Vol 3

  A shrike is shown resting on the bare branch of a tree that has lost its leaves, while beneath the tree grows a profusion of autumn flowers and grasses, the whole presenting an atmospheric evocation of late autumn. The scroll's stylishness is typical of Ikeda Koson, a Rinpa artist of the late Edo period. The forms and organization of the bare tree, with its overlapping, twisting curves, are of a kind not often found in the flower-and-bird pictures of the Rinpa, while the brushwork, reminiscent of the 'mokkotsu' technique (relying on ink wash without outlines) used in ink monochromes, differs from the characteristic 'tarashi-komi' method of this school, which drops brown and green into the wet Chinese ink; to form complex patterns. However, the plants in the lower section of the picture, with the attractive contrast between the bright green of the ivy leaves and the red of the lacquer tree's autumn foliage, are pleasingly decorative, and the characteristic style of the Hoitsu school is fully apparent in the mingled hues of the leaves, which make full use of 'tarashi-komi'. The burnets, daisies, 'susuki' (Japanese pampas) fronds, and other wild flowers in the thicket add a lively variety to the work. The colorful, clear-cut treatment of the flowers in the foreground gives way, in the pampas fronds toward the rear, to a pale ink wash reminiscent of the 'sumi-e' ink painting - almost as though the pale ink mist brushed in the sky above has crept down to earth. The two small birds flying low in the sky at the lower left are also done in thin ink; together with the 'susuki' they conjure up an atmosphere of fantasy reminiscent of a shadow-picture.'810. Korin School'
  'Painted by Ko-son. Signed Koson Sanshin.'
  'by Ikeda Koson' (unattributed annotations in the specially interleaved Japanese Study Room copy of Anderson 1886)

  More 

• Bibliography

  • Hizo Nihon bijutsu taikan Vol 3 39

• Location

  Not on display

• Subjects

  • bird and flower

• Acquisition name

  • Purchased from: Prof William Anderson

• Acquisition date

  1881

• Acquisition notes

  The collection of over 2,000 Japanese and Chinese paintings assembled by Prof. William Anderson during his residency in Japan, 1873-1880, was acquired by the Museum in 1881. The items were not listed in the register, but rather were published separately as the 'Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum' (Longmans & Co, 1886).

• Department

  Asia

• Registration number

  1881,1210,0.810

• Additional IDs

  • Jap.Ptg.1358 (Japanese Painting Number)