Mid Edo Period (18th c.)／Ink on paper, hanging scroll
91.0 x 30.6 cm
SUMMARY
Jakuchu is known to have kept scores of chickens in his garden and sketched them. This piece may be one of those chickens, captured on a straw rice bag, balancing on one foot like a circus act. Similar front views of chickens appear not only in this piece but also in Roosters / Dōshoku sai-e (“Pictures of the Colorful Realm of Living Beings”) (collection of the Museum of the Imperial Collections) and Cactus and Fowls (collection of Saifukuji temple), and compared to profile views offer much more unique expression. This piece may seem roughly painted, but on closer inspection the straw rope around the rice bag, the facial feathers, and even the legs of the rooster have all been portrayed very carefully in different thicknesses of sumi ink. Looking even closer, slight dot-like patterns can be seen in the comb and wattle.
ARTIST
Ito Jakuchu
1716-1800
Born the eldest son to a greengrocer in Nishiki Alley, Takakura, Kyoto, with the given name Jokin and family name Keiwa. Also went by the names Tobeian and Beito’o. After devoting himself to painting and Zen, receiving the householder (Buddhist practitioners who do so from home) title of Jakuchu, at age 40 he turned the family business over to his brother to concentrate on painting. Studying under the Kano school at first, in time he copied Chinese paintings from the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties at ancient temples in Kyoto. Influenced by the detailed paintings of flowers and birds by Shen Nanpin, which were popular at the time, as well as ink paintings associated with the Obaku school of Zen Buddhism, he perfected an art style that skillfully blended realism and imagination. He died at the age of 85.
List of artworks by the same artist
INFORMATION
Monday, June 1 - Sunday, July 5, 2020
Great Masters of Japanese Painting from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Shimane Art Museum (Shimane, Japan)
Tuesday, March 26 - Monday, May 6, 2019
ITO Jakuchu: A Prayer for Recovery following the Great East Japan Earthquake Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (Fukushima, Japan)
Saturday, March 24 - Sunday, May 27, 2018
OEDO EXHIBITION NAGASAKI Nagasaki Prefectual Art Museum (Nagasaki, Japan)
Friday, July 28 - Saturday, August 26, 2017
Edo Period Paintings 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa, Japan)
Tuesday, October 4 - Sunday, December 4, 2016
Jakuchu Revealed: 300th Anniversary of Ito Jakuchu’s Birth Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (Kyoto, Japan)
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