ARTIST :
Both of these paintings bear seals reading Yukinobu. The lower of the two is very similar to a seal impression published in Arakai (p.463), although it wasn't made from that exact seal. Is this a painting by Yukinobu? Most likely not. More appropriate would be to consider it an object from the early Edo period by a highly competent artist. The pair would certainly have been painted for a wealthy and important client. Presumably somewhere along the line someone has impressed a spurious seal of Yukinobu on the paintings. This could have been an act of a connoisseur, an overly enthusiastic owner or a later Kano school artist trying to complete what they believed to be the true circumstances of the painting.Kano Yukinobu's father was Kano Masanobu (1434-1530), the father of the Kano School of Art. Continuing on from the development of ink painting which began in the 14th century with zen priests, Masanobu developed his own distinct style of ink painting or suibokuga employing light colors and simple, open compositions. Masanobu had two sons, the other being Motonobu (1476-1559) who essentially created the structure and lineage of the Kano school which went on to dominate Japanese art for some 300 years. Yukinobu, whilst trained as a painter, was the second son and as such didn't provide heirs and his fame was dwarfed by Motonobu to such an extent that even his dates are unknown. |
DESCRIPTION :
The pairing of the tiger and dragon is symbolically rich and a subject matter which appealed greatly to the Shogunate and samurai lords. The dragon represents the east, spring and water in traditional Chinese cosmology - the tiger the west, autumn and wind. The tiger also represents the passive female principle or yin and the dragon the masculine spirit or yang. together the pairing can be thought of as a representation of the world and even the entire cosmos. |
CONDITION :
Painted with ink on paper the paintings are in good condition. Numerous restorations have been performed over the years, generally to rectify both horizontal and vertical creasing. These restorations are achieved with thin strips of reinforced backing paper. Some paper losses have also been addressed, predominantly in the lower section of the dragon painting and also at the top of the tiger painting. Retouching of the painting itself is very minimal. The paintings are framed with fine Edo period brocade. Insect damage is present at the extremes and staining is present around the upper wooden bars. Even so the paintings present wonderfully. |
