Ikegami Shūho
Magnolias, 1920s
Hanging scroll; ink, mineral pigments, shell powder and gold on silk
Overall size 102¾ x 33¼ in. (261 x 84.5 cm)
Image size 62 x 28 in. (157.5 x 71 cm)
Image size 62 x 28 in. (157.5 x 71 cm)
T-5167
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Signed at lower left Shūho 秀畝, with seals Ikegami no shō 池上之章 (Mark of Ikegami) and Shūho 秀畝 Comes with a fitted paulownia-wood storage box, inscribed outside Ikegami Shūho sensei...
Signed at lower left Shūho 秀畝, with seals Ikegami no shō 池上之章 (Mark of Ikegami) and Shūho 秀畝
Comes with a fitted paulownia-wood storage box, inscribed outside Ikegami Shūho sensei mokurenka no zu 池上秀畝先生木蓮花之図 (Painting of magnolia by Master Ikegami Shūho)
Filling the entire surface of a large hanging scroll, this full yet finely balanced composition by Ikegami Shūho reflects an artistic formation rooted in conservative studio practice but enlivened by an eclectic engagement with earlier traditions. The varied forms of flowering mokuren (magnolia) are observed with great sensitivity and rendered through the distinctive expressive properties of gofun, the finely ground, translucent oyster-shell white powder closely associated with Nihonga painting. The artist’s attentive observation of nature recalls the Shijō-school tradition in which he was raised by his father, Ikegami Shūka, but the realism of the blossoms is offset by the more abstract treatment of the tree bark, executed using the tarashikomi (wet-on-wet or “puddling”) technique associated with Rinpa painting. The overall composition, dominated by a gnarled branch thrusting boldly into the picture plane from the left, evokes the monumental pine screens of Maruyama Ōkyo, a titan of early modern Japanese painting, while bees gathering around the blossoms animate the scene much as birds do in the classical East Asian bird-and-flower tradition.
Born in Nagano Prefecture, Shūho moved to Tokyo with his father in 1889 and became the first uchideshi (live-in disciple) of the prominent painter Araki Kanpō (1831-1915). He exhibited at the Bunten national exhibition in 1908, its second year, and went on to show work almost annually at the Bunten and its successors, the Teiten (Imperial) and Shinbunten (New Bunten) exhibitions, until 1943. Renowned early on for large-scale compositions, including double pairs of folding screens, he received three consecutive Bunten Special Prizes beginning in 1916, enjoyed frequent selection for color reproduction in exhibition catalogues, and eventually rose to the rank of exhibition judge and non-juried exhibitor.
Often associated with the kyūha (“traditional”) current of twentieth-century Japanese painting, Shūho nevertheless developed a highly individual artistic vision. His work reveals a remarkable diversity of expression and represents a significant contribution to the development of modern Nihonga. Although he enjoyed considerable popularity during his lifetime, his achievement was later overshadowed by that of more widely studied artists of the late Meiji and early Showa periods. But a retrospective held in 2024 to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, staged in his native Ina City and other venues across Nagano Prefecture, renewed scholarly and public appreciation of his oeuvre and reaffirmed his place among the leading painters of modern Japan.
Comparison with other dated works by Shūho show that during the 1920s he increasingly turned away from expansive exhibition landscapes toward compositions grounded in the close and patient observation of nature that had long been a hallmark of the Shijō tradition. This painting, with its focus on a single flowering magnolia tree, appears to belong to that mature phase of his career.
Comes with a fitted paulownia-wood storage box, inscribed outside Ikegami Shūho sensei mokurenka no zu 池上秀畝先生木蓮花之図 (Painting of magnolia by Master Ikegami Shūho)
Filling the entire surface of a large hanging scroll, this full yet finely balanced composition by Ikegami Shūho reflects an artistic formation rooted in conservative studio practice but enlivened by an eclectic engagement with earlier traditions. The varied forms of flowering mokuren (magnolia) are observed with great sensitivity and rendered through the distinctive expressive properties of gofun, the finely ground, translucent oyster-shell white powder closely associated with Nihonga painting. The artist’s attentive observation of nature recalls the Shijō-school tradition in which he was raised by his father, Ikegami Shūka, but the realism of the blossoms is offset by the more abstract treatment of the tree bark, executed using the tarashikomi (wet-on-wet or “puddling”) technique associated with Rinpa painting. The overall composition, dominated by a gnarled branch thrusting boldly into the picture plane from the left, evokes the monumental pine screens of Maruyama Ōkyo, a titan of early modern Japanese painting, while bees gathering around the blossoms animate the scene much as birds do in the classical East Asian bird-and-flower tradition.
Born in Nagano Prefecture, Shūho moved to Tokyo with his father in 1889 and became the first uchideshi (live-in disciple) of the prominent painter Araki Kanpō (1831-1915). He exhibited at the Bunten national exhibition in 1908, its second year, and went on to show work almost annually at the Bunten and its successors, the Teiten (Imperial) and Shinbunten (New Bunten) exhibitions, until 1943. Renowned early on for large-scale compositions, including double pairs of folding screens, he received three consecutive Bunten Special Prizes beginning in 1916, enjoyed frequent selection for color reproduction in exhibition catalogues, and eventually rose to the rank of exhibition judge and non-juried exhibitor.
Often associated with the kyūha (“traditional”) current of twentieth-century Japanese painting, Shūho nevertheless developed a highly individual artistic vision. His work reveals a remarkable diversity of expression and represents a significant contribution to the development of modern Nihonga. Although he enjoyed considerable popularity during his lifetime, his achievement was later overshadowed by that of more widely studied artists of the late Meiji and early Showa periods. But a retrospective held in 2024 to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, staged in his native Ina City and other venues across Nagano Prefecture, renewed scholarly and public appreciation of his oeuvre and reaffirmed his place among the leading painters of modern Japan.
Comparison with other dated works by Shūho show that during the 1920s he increasingly turned away from expansive exhibition landscapes toward compositions grounded in the close and patient observation of nature that had long been a hallmark of the Shijō tradition. This painting, with its focus on a single flowering magnolia tree, appears to belong to that mature phase of his career.