Gouache Painting of the View of Hong Kong with European Ships, circa 1850

With careful brushwork, this 19th century painting honors the four treasures of the scholar's studio - paper, calligraphy brush, ink, and inkstone. Essenti...

Signs of honor were presented as a gesture of gratitude to individuals who had bettered their community or in acknowledge of a respected person’s birthday. The sign would have been h...

The experience of art itself can be an intimate one and this bed canopy, hand painted over 100 years ago by an artist in Canton, was more intimate than most. Delicately painted birds...

The owners of this work of art were likely the only two people in the world lucky enough to have access to its beauty. The experience of art itself can be an intimate one, and this b...

Prevalent in fine Chinese interiors as early as the Tang dynasty (618-906), standing screens with decorative stone panels served numerous functions as portable architecture. Used to ...

Unpei Kameyama (1821-1899) A view of black (American) ships in the bay of Uraga Senminato, Miura district, June 1853 The Japanese text reads: ‘The seventy-six old men for the Kitamura-clan, drawn in 1897 on request of Yoshisada Kitamura, Himeji, the black ships which so much changed the fate of Japan, enjoy please this masterpiece by Harima Shonin Bisei who brings back memories of his young days.’ Watercolour on paper, laid down on cardboard, H. 44.5 x W. 115.5 cm Provenance: Collection of Yoshisada Kitamura, Himeji Yoshisada Kitamura (1838-1899), the son of a farmer in the village of Ogawa, in the district of Harimakashikihigashi, studied under Matajiro Otaka and got heavily involved in the anti-Shogunate movement. He was active in several military incidents against the Shogunate. After the Meiji restoration, he served the Meiji government as a local official in the Himeji domain. Kameyama Unpei was a Confucian scholar, a Shinto priest...