DESCRIPTION :
A Maruyama school work by Yamaguchi Soken (1759-1818) which references a popularly illustrated Japanese tale 'Kume no sennin' (Kume the transendent). In this tale Kume, a legendary immortal, soon after learning how to fly passes over the Yoshino river where he spots a young woman washing clothes. The sight of her beauty causes him to fall from the sky and drop at her feet. The woman in Soken's painting is elegantly attired and her hair and makeup allude to Chinese models. She is pictured delicately washing clothing under an overhanging willow. The Gitter-Yelen or Manyo'an collection features a very similar work by Komai Genki (1747-1797). Given Genki's seniority in the school and the reduction of pictorial motifs in Soken's painting it seems likely that this painting by Soken was inspired by Genki's. The richer color palette of the Soken work, namely her blue overcoat which is softly echoed in the river is particularly striking as is the greater depth and solidity of the willow's foliage. See; An Enduring Vision: 17th- To 20th-Century Japanese Painting from the Gitter-Yelen Collection. New Orleans Museum of Art; February 2003. pp 94, 253. Also search online for the gitter-yelen.org collection under the Maruyama-Shijo School. |
