Byobu or screen in two panels, mounted with cotton panels resist-dyed and hand-painted with abstract waves. With chestnut wood frames. By Kimura Uzan (Kimura Uzan, the go or art name of Kimura Bunji, 1891 – 1977). Showa era, circa 1935 – 1955.

This screen is illustrated in the catalogue Ningen Kokuho, Kimura Uzan or Living National Treasure, Kimura Uzan, plate 13, captioned Mizu-e or Water Study.

Born in Kanazawa City, Kimura Uzan attended the Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial Supplementary School. After graduating, he studied Kaga textile dyeing under Uemura Matsutaro (Wada Unsho), a master craftsman in Kaga yuzen. In 1923, Uzan became an independent artist. He began exhibiting at the government-sponsored salons with the Teiten in 1928. He Teiten entry in 1934 won the Special Award; and in 1937 at the Paris World Exposition took the Silver Award. In 1954, he participated in the first Nihon Dento Kogeiten (Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition). In 1955, he was honored by the Japanese government as Jūyo Mukei Bunkazai Hojisha or Preserver of Important Intangible Cultural Properties (commonly referred to as Ningen Kokuho or Living National Treasure) for yuzen dyeing. The same year, he became a board member of the Japan Crafts Society. In 1976, he was awarded the Class Three Zuiho Medal.

The tradition of Kaga yuzen dying was famous for careful gradation and a painterly treatment of design. Kimura Uzan studied Japanese painting under the Nanga artist Onishi Kin’yo and Western painting under Okada Saburosuke. Under the tutelage of Masaki Naohiko, principal of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Uzan was able to examine many old masterpieces of Kaga dyeing. With this background, he made his own sketches the basis of his work. His textiles skillfully echoe the color tones and styles of Tawara Sotatsu and Ogata Korin, as well as the world of modernist design.