Japanese Four-Panel Longevity Screen of Pine Cranes

Fascinating 19th century Japanese late Edo period six pane funpon screen. Large scale depicting Chinese scholars and officials engaged in leis...

Fantastic pair of 19th century Japanese late Edo/early Meiji period six-panel screens titled The seven sages of the bamboo grove. The Kano school screens...

Remarkable pair of early 19th century Japanese late Edo period screens depicting summer chrysanthemums growing along a brushwood fence. Ink and...

Spectacular 19th century Japanese late Edo period six-panel byobu screen depicting Yoshitsune and Benkei, two heroes of Japanese folklore. Crafted in ink and natural color pigments on mulberry paper with thick gold leaf borders on each panel. The character Yoshitsune is seated under a blossoming cherry tree in full armor holding a fan. The warrior priest or monk Benkei is depicted kneeling on a leopard skin...

In Japan, cranes symbolize fidelity as they mate for life and turtles symbolize longevity. Additionally, this screen also has the Japanese motif of sho-chiku-bai, or the three friends of winter (pine, plum, and bamboo). So called the three friends of winter because all three flourish during the cold months. This screen was originally fusuma doors...

Pines and Cranes Anonymous. Kyoto Kano School. Late 17th/early 18th centuries, circa 1700. Pair of six-panel Japanese folding screens. Ink, gofun, pigment and gold leaf on paper. This bold composition presents two pine trees extending to the left and right across a gold leaf background. One tree is silhouetted against a green ground, golden clouds obscuring its true size, the other stretches across a stylized waterway. The pines are paired with Manchurian cranes with red crests and snow white plumage. Both have been highly auspicious motifs in East Asia since Chinese antiquity. Here the artist utilized fluid and instinctive ink brushstrokes to define the trunk, branches and tail feathers, in strong contrast to the precision and sharp angularity of the crane’s legs and beaks. The adoption of this vast metallic painting support required an unerring sense of design and composition, so that the negative space surrounding motifs could imply context for the otherwise floating pictorial elements. The brushwork detailing the trunks of the pines, the exaggerated dimensions of the pine trees and the strength and dynamism of the composition are all reminiscent of Kano Eitoku...

Early Kano School painting of pine trees overlooking two beautifully painted cranes and floral design in a natural setting by water’s edge. Mineral pig...

Four individual mounted panels of calligraphy. Each panel contains a poem inspired by one of the four seasons. Each panel signed: To Rei. Ink on mulberry paper with silk brocade border.