Tsuji Kakō
Cranes Calling On a Sunlit Shore, 1910s-1920s
Hanging scroll; ink, mineral pigments, and gofun (calcified crushed shell) on silk
Overall size 78¾ x 19½ in. (200 x 50 cm)
Image size 44¼ x 14¼ in (112.5 x 36 cm)
Image size 44¼ x 14¼ in (112.5 x 36 cm)
T-4975
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Signed and sealed at lower right Kakō Comes with its original double fitted wooden tomobako storage boxes inscribed outside Chōyō meikaku zu (Picture of Cranes Calling On a Sunlit Shore);...
Signed and sealed at lower right Kakō
Comes with its original double fitted wooden tomobako storage boxes inscribed outside Chōyō meikaku zu (Picture of Cranes Calling On a Sunlit Shore); signed inside Kakō dai (Titled by Kakō) and sealed Kakō
This boldly cropped composition, typical of the artist’s middle years, shows two tanchōzuru (red-crested cranes) standing side by side on a sandy ocean beach as the tide comes in, almost dwarfed by the surging waves that sweep up the shore. A pupil of Kōno Bairei, Tsuji Kakō received his early training in the Maruyama-Shijō style of naturalist painting using atmospheric ink washes, but he quickly established his own distinctive manner, specializing at first in dramatic historical and religious compositions. Always questioning his creative intentions and abilities, he began his practice of Zen in 1899 and would remain a diligent lay student throughout his life.
During his middle decades, Kakō was one of the most celebrated earlier masters of Nihonga (neo-nativist painting) and developed a wide range of painting modes, including both an imposing, tall, brushstroke-rich bunjinga landscape style and, as here, a revolutionary manner of rendering waves with the flavor of the Rinpa decorative style but an almost watercolor-like quality that diverges from traditional approaches to the handling of mineral pigment. Constantly pushing the boundaries of conventional Kyoto painting, Tsuji Kakō did not enjoy the same degree of commercial success during his life time as the more famous, politically astute and worldly Takeuchi Seihō.
A pair of screens by the artist was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022. Depicting women and children gathering shellfish along the seashore, its treatment of sea and sand and its lavish use of mineral colors offer striking parallels to the present scroll.
Reference
For an earlier work by this artist previously offered by Thomsen Gallery, see Erik Thomsen Gallery, Japanese Paintings and Works of Art, New York, 2014, cat. no. 15. Tsuji Kakō’s screens of Green Waves and Plovers, formerly in the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection, are now in the Seattle Art Museum, and other works by Kakō, in both screen and scroll format, were introduced in our 2009 (cat. no. 3) and 2010 (cat. no. 19) publications.
Comes with its original double fitted wooden tomobako storage boxes inscribed outside Chōyō meikaku zu (Picture of Cranes Calling On a Sunlit Shore); signed inside Kakō dai (Titled by Kakō) and sealed Kakō
This boldly cropped composition, typical of the artist’s middle years, shows two tanchōzuru (red-crested cranes) standing side by side on a sandy ocean beach as the tide comes in, almost dwarfed by the surging waves that sweep up the shore. A pupil of Kōno Bairei, Tsuji Kakō received his early training in the Maruyama-Shijō style of naturalist painting using atmospheric ink washes, but he quickly established his own distinctive manner, specializing at first in dramatic historical and religious compositions. Always questioning his creative intentions and abilities, he began his practice of Zen in 1899 and would remain a diligent lay student throughout his life.
During his middle decades, Kakō was one of the most celebrated earlier masters of Nihonga (neo-nativist painting) and developed a wide range of painting modes, including both an imposing, tall, brushstroke-rich bunjinga landscape style and, as here, a revolutionary manner of rendering waves with the flavor of the Rinpa decorative style but an almost watercolor-like quality that diverges from traditional approaches to the handling of mineral pigment. Constantly pushing the boundaries of conventional Kyoto painting, Tsuji Kakō did not enjoy the same degree of commercial success during his life time as the more famous, politically astute and worldly Takeuchi Seihō.
A pair of screens by the artist was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022. Depicting women and children gathering shellfish along the seashore, its treatment of sea and sand and its lavish use of mineral colors offer striking parallels to the present scroll.
Reference
For an earlier work by this artist previously offered by Thomsen Gallery, see Erik Thomsen Gallery, Japanese Paintings and Works of Art, New York, 2014, cat. no. 15. Tsuji Kakō’s screens of Green Waves and Plovers, formerly in the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection, are now in the Seattle Art Museum, and other works by Kakō, in both screen and scroll format, were introduced in our 2009 (cat. no. 3) and 2010 (cat. no. 19) publications.