Yuhara Ryūho
Zansetsu kyūtan (Snow Melting in the Rapids), 1936
Six-panel folding screen; ink, mineral colors, and shell powder on silk
Size 68¾ x 133 in. (174.5 x 338 cm)
T-5019
Further images
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 1
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 2
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 3
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 4
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 5
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 6
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 7
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 8
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 9
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 10
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 11
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 12
)
Signed at lower left Ryūho with seals Yuhara Toku in (Seal of Yuhara Toku[zō]) and Ryūho. Another version of this work was exhibited at the Bunten National Exhibition, Tokyo, 1936...
Signed at lower left Ryūho with seals Yuhara Toku in (Seal of Yuhara Toku[zō]) and Ryūho.
Another version of this work was exhibited at the Bunten National Exhibition, Tokyo, 1936
Using a combination of lavish white powdered oyster shell with ink and sparingly applied mineral pigments, Yuhara Ryūho has created a striking depiction of a mountain torrent in late winter, racing with full force between snowbound banks and throwing up spray when it flows over or comes up against rocks that stand in its way, snow still lingering on their downstream faces. Ryūho almost invariably included a bird or birds in his paintings; here, the dramatic, dynamic composition of waves and rocks is offset by a solitary Asiatic white wagtail flying calmly into the distance. The artist shows himself to be the worthy heir to a tradition of powerful, semi-naturalistic wave painting with its roots in one of the earliest masterpieces in the Nihonga (neo-nativist) tradition, Shiokawa Bunrin’s River Landscape with Fireflies (1874), a pair of six-panel folding screens now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Born in Yamagata Prefecture, Yuhara (also Yubara) Ryūho (birth name: Tokuzō) was a pupil of the bird-and-flower painter Araki Juppo. His first recorded painting, exhibited at the Dokugakai Exhibition in 1906, was a fashionable image of the white-robed bodhisattva Kannon riding on a dragon but from 1915, when he first showed his work at the national salon, Ryūho appears to have specialized mostly in subjects drawn from nature, as in an outsize folding screen, selected for the Eighth Teiten Exhibition in 1927, that was previous held by Thomsen Gallery. Ryūho would go on to participate in the national salon in 1929, 1933, 1934 (another painting with a bird and a mountain torrent), 1936 (see below), 1939, and 1940 (again, birds and waves).
While his earlier paintings sometimes preserved vestiges of the Chinese style seen in the work of Araki Juppo and his father Araki Kanpo, here Ryūho fully embraces the expansive manner that was in vogue during the early years of the Showa era, combining touches reminiscent of works in the Rinpa tradition (dating back to the seventeenth century) with up-to-date Western conventions of representation, shading, and spatial depth.
A very similar version of the central section of this screen was shown at the Bunten National Exhibition, Tokyo, in the fall of 1936.
Another version of this work was exhibited at the Bunten National Exhibition, Tokyo, 1936
Using a combination of lavish white powdered oyster shell with ink and sparingly applied mineral pigments, Yuhara Ryūho has created a striking depiction of a mountain torrent in late winter, racing with full force between snowbound banks and throwing up spray when it flows over or comes up against rocks that stand in its way, snow still lingering on their downstream faces. Ryūho almost invariably included a bird or birds in his paintings; here, the dramatic, dynamic composition of waves and rocks is offset by a solitary Asiatic white wagtail flying calmly into the distance. The artist shows himself to be the worthy heir to a tradition of powerful, semi-naturalistic wave painting with its roots in one of the earliest masterpieces in the Nihonga (neo-nativist) tradition, Shiokawa Bunrin’s River Landscape with Fireflies (1874), a pair of six-panel folding screens now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Born in Yamagata Prefecture, Yuhara (also Yubara) Ryūho (birth name: Tokuzō) was a pupil of the bird-and-flower painter Araki Juppo. His first recorded painting, exhibited at the Dokugakai Exhibition in 1906, was a fashionable image of the white-robed bodhisattva Kannon riding on a dragon but from 1915, when he first showed his work at the national salon, Ryūho appears to have specialized mostly in subjects drawn from nature, as in an outsize folding screen, selected for the Eighth Teiten Exhibition in 1927, that was previous held by Thomsen Gallery. Ryūho would go on to participate in the national salon in 1929, 1933, 1934 (another painting with a bird and a mountain torrent), 1936 (see below), 1939, and 1940 (again, birds and waves).
While his earlier paintings sometimes preserved vestiges of the Chinese style seen in the work of Araki Juppo and his father Araki Kanpo, here Ryūho fully embraces the expansive manner that was in vogue during the early years of the Showa era, combining touches reminiscent of works in the Rinpa tradition (dating back to the seventeenth century) with up-to-date Western conventions of representation, shading, and spatial depth.
A very similar version of the central section of this screen was shown at the Bunten National Exhibition, Tokyo, in the fall of 1936.
47
of
47