Japanese Two-Panel Screen: Cranes on Gold

Japanese two panel screen: Amorous Cranes and Turtles. 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...

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...

Japanese two panel screen, lotus and heron Colored mineral pigments on silver leaf on handmade mulberry paper.

Country farm geese with early spring blossoms and a bamboo fence. Beautiful details on the feathers. Signature and seal read Keibo Joshi (Ms. Keibo) min...

A pair of six-fold Japanese screens from the 17th century depicting a flock of cranes arriving at their wintering grounds. The expansive scene is heavily atmospheric. The cranes are...

Amazing 19th century pair of large Japanese Meiji period six panel screens each depicting a sedge of Manchurian red-crowned cranes along the shore. The screens are crafted in the Nihonga school style with intricate details and beautifully depicted cresting waves. Each screen is signed by artist Hakundo Keikan and studio name of Watahiki Tokai (Japanese 1837-1915). Both screens are signed with red seals on the left and right side. Tokai was a Chinese scholar from the late Edo period and served in the Imperial Household...

Dazzling Chinese export lacquered four-panel coromandel screen featuring a flora and fauna waterscape with stylized cranes. The carved lacquer panels...

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...