nihonga
Preta, Hunger Spirits - SkullsSigned: Shunjudô seijin
Seals: Hako inshi
Technique: sumi on paper 136.2 x 40.5
Date: 1914
Mounting: beige paper 195 x 54.2
Condition: good
The waka reads:
篠の雪 / あへりて消えて / 日かげもの / 扇かがやて / 草にくねがさ羅。
Shino no yuki / a herite kiete / hi kage mono / ôgi ka gayate / kusa ni kune gasara
The snow on the dwarf bamboo melts away
the sunlight on the folding fan
illuminates the "hunger spirits" in the grass.
"hunger spirits" are skeletons emerging from under the snow.
Possibly in relation with the Russo-Japanese war??
Hakô was born in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture. He was a Meiji-Taisho era journalist and social entrepreneur. He published the Tohoku Mainichi Shimbun in Sendai and advocated the theory of freedom and civil rights. He moved to Tokyo in 1882 and became a playwright.
He used some 30 pseudonyms, Shunjudo was one of them.
Price: EUR 1,200 / USD 1,200
