The right-hand screen signed and sealed at lower right Taizen; the left-hand screen sealed at lower left Taizen

Exhibited:
Ninth Monbushō Bijutsu Tenrankai Exhibition (Bunten), Takenodai Gallery, Ueno Park, Tokyo, 14 October–14 November 1915

Illustrated:
Nittenshi Hensan Iinkai (Nittenshi Editorial Committee), Nittenshi 4 (History of the National Salon 4), Bunten hen 5 (The Bunten Exhibition 5), Tokyo, Nitten, 1981, pp. 35, 88–89 (no. 79)

Expertly steering his traditional flat‑bottomed boat and assisted by three workmates hauling long tow ropes, an oarsman threads his way through the rocky, constricted channels of the Hozu River—a vital 13‑mile transport artery engineered by Suminokura Ryōi (1554–1614) to convey timber and rice from Tanba to Kyoto, Japan’s former capital. To the right, two fishermen trudge along the towpath, bamboo rods slung over their shoulders, their burdens heavy. The scene evokes an earlier era, for by the time these screens were first shown in Tokyo in the autumn of 1915, the Hozu Rapids had already become more a leisure destination than a conduit of commerce. By 1901 the railroad reached (by way of seven tunnels) Kameoka, a short ten‑minute walk from Hozu, where boatmen waited to ferry tourists down the rapids to Arashiyama—a 90‑minute journey celebrated for its scenic drama.

In keeping with long‑standing conventions rooted in Chinese landscape tradition, in this painting—his most ambitious recorded work—Kuriyama Taizen diminishes the human presence against the overwhelming geology of the Hozu gorge and the river’s surging, perilous currents, an approach that marries, to almost overpowering effect, the delicate dance of the East Asian brush with the compositional grandeur allowed by the Japanese two-screen format.

Taizen renders the scene with a rich vocabulary of dry, flickering brushstrokes, layering brown and gray ink washes punctuated with touches of mineral green. His style deftly fuses the naturalistic manner of the Shijō school—founded in Kyoto in the eighteenth century—with pointilliste effects adapted from European impressionism. As Taiyō magazine observed when these screens were first exhibited, alongside other paintings, in 1915, “... works such as Yamashita Chikusai’s Wind and Snow, Kuribayashi Taizen’s By the Hozu River, and Yamamoto Shunkō’s Kegon Falls no longer rely on the strict techniques of yesteryear; instead, they introduce color, stir mist and haze, and strive quietly to merge with nature.” Yamamoto Shunkyo, a senior painter and one of the exhibition judges, found himself caught between the surging new artistic tendencies of the younger generation and the Bunten’s cautious, moderate policies.

Documentation on Kuribayashi Taizen remains scant. Born in 1885 on Awaji Island in Hyōgo Prefecture, he was residing in Kyoto by 1913, the date of his earliest recorded work. He first appears in banzuke (ranked artist listings) in 1902 at the age of 17, and his final listing dates to 1937, when he was about 52. His death date is unrecorded, though the absence of later references suggests that he may have died during World War II. He exhibited only five times at the national salon: the Seventh through Tenth Bunten (1913-1916) and the Fifth Teiten (1924).

Presentations of his work are rare today and tend to appear in regional or thematic exhibitions at the Awajishima Museum (Awaji Cultural Museum), which includes Taizen in its “Modern Art of Awaji” collection. A solo exhibition may have been held in May–June 1988, though its full documentation has not survived. Taizen was also related to Fudō Ritsuzan, another Awaji‑born artist whose work was recently acquired by Thomsen Gallery.