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Murase Taiitsu (1803-1881)
Nanga / Bunjin
Ebisu
Signed: Taiitsu Rôjin heidai
Seals: Murase Shi Rei Taiotsu & Yukumo Nagamizu
Technique: sumi on paper 87,5 x 31,2
Mounting: cream paper 156 x 42,1
Box: authorized by Yamada Suidô (1891- 19..)
Condition: Original mounting. An old tear otherwise good

何哭者々跟占春
唖然喚醒也間人 / 々生知足心無怒 / 誰不金銭百東神 / 何哭者々跟占春
Ebisu
He looks ahead laughing, enjoying spring.
Without uttering a word of wonder, he opens people’s eyes.
Who knows what is enough in life, will live without malice,
Like a god without money and completely at peace.
(HK)
Comp. Sôjin ‘88 # 22

Ebisu, one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune (shichifukujin) and also the patron of fishermen, was the first child of Izanagi and Izanami, the deities who created Japan. Legend has it that he was born without bones. He is the only one of the seven whose origins are purely Japanese, without any Hindu or Chinese influence.

Murase Taiitsu was an highly individual and unconventional bunjin artist, perhaps the greatest individualist among the early Meiji painters. After the death of his teacher, the confucianist Rai San'yô (1780-1832), Taiitsu moved to Nagoya, where he started a private school in the small town of Inuyamahe. When the feudal educational system was abandoned at the beginning of the Meiji period he lost his position as a confucian teacher. Being unemployed, living far from Kyôto and Tokyo, Taiitsu was free to behave as he pleased and to paint as he wished, receiving little attention from any but his small circle of pupils and friends.

Reference:
Addiss 1979
Oranda Jin 2015
Roberts p. 168
Araki p. 343

WAS: € 950,- ($ 1,025 )

Price:
SOLD