Nihonga
Field with ferrySigned: Kakō
Seals: Shishun
Technique: sumi and some orange on paper 134.1 x 30.1
Mounting: blue-grey satin damask 196 x 41
Box: signed
Condition: some scatterd foxing, otherwise good
Box inscription: 野渡横舟図. no wata yoko fune zu. [signed:] 華香題 「印」華香 Kakō dai [seal:] Kakō
Kakō was one the most important painters of the modern Kyoto school. Kōno Bairei (1844-95) taught both him and Takeuchi Seihō (1864-1942), who eclipsed Kakô during his lifetime. Kakô was the better artist, an individualist, more innovative and daring.
Kakō was born in Kyoto. His father was a Yûzen textile artisan, who encouraged his son to pursue a career in painting. In 1880 more or less at the same time as Seihô, six years his senior he became a pupil of Bairei. With Seihô and other colleagues they worked at the Takashimaya warehouse painting textile designs for export. After being ill he started to travel Honshu and Shikoku extensively in the early 1890s. From 1899 on he studied Zen at the Kennin-ji under the Zen master Sōen Mokurai (1854-1930) and became an important element in his work. After a teaching career he started in 1909 at the Kyoto Municipal School of Fine Arts and Crafts, and the Special School of Painting he was appointed director of both schools. He served as adjudicator for the Teiten and several Kyoto exhibition groups and up to 1920 he was a frequent exhibitor and winner of prizes at the Bunten. In his later years Kakô composed a lot of haiku and painted haiga.
Reference:
Kyoto 2006
Berry & Morioka ‘99 p.40-53
Conant p. 327
Aburai p. 253-254
Roberts p.189
Roberts p.189
Price: EUR 750 / USD 750
