Painting on silk in mineral pigments, gofun or powdered clam shell, and sumi ink mounted as a hanging scroll, depicting cormorants on rocks amid crashing surf below a high sea cliff and a snow-laden pine branch. Signed on the lower left by the artist: Keigaku, and sealed: Keigaku (Nishii Keigaku, the go or art name of Nishii Keijiro, 1880 – 1937). Showa era, circa 1928.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Fuyu no Umi or Winter Sea; and on the reverse of the lid signed: Keigaku Jidai or Titled by Keigaku, and sealed twice: Nishii Kei no In or Seal of Nishii Kei(gaku), and again: Keigaku.

This painting, Fuyu no Umi, was exhibited in Tairei Kinen Kyoto Bijutsukan Bijutsu Tennrankai (Coronation Celebratory Art Exhibition (at the) Kyoto Museum), held in 1928 to mark the accession of the Showa Emperor.

Born in Takefu City in Fukui Prefecture, Nishii Keigaku moved to Kyoto in 1901 to study under Yamamoto Shunkyo. In 1907, he was chosen as an exhibitor at the Bunten or Ministry of Education Exhibition. He continued to show at eight more Bunten.

For other examples of his work, c.f. Kagedo’s catalogue Awaiting the Moon, number 158 and 159, and numbers 1 and 24 in Kagedo’s catalogue Light Through Clouds.

The rocky coast near his home in Fukui was a subject to which Keigaku returned numbers of times. In 1917, he exhibited a set of three paintings at the 11th Bunten, one of which focuses on surf crashing over rocks (c.f. the Nittenshi, volume 5, page 97, number 102), and our catalogue Light Through Clouds illustrates a similar study of the coast in late spring of summer. However, this painting of the sea in winter may be his most masterful treatment of the theme, and considering the occasion and venue for which it was painted, that is small wonder.

The cliff looms high on the left into a brown, snow-laden winter sky. Across the upper right, snow weighs down a great pine branch and forms a downward diagonal that balances the upward sweep of the rolling waves and crashing surf. Snow falls down to mingle with the rising splash and foam. Framed centrally, a group of cormorants watch on rocks, still observers amidst the sweeping winter sea. Keigaku depicts the birds and pine with delicate realism. In contrast, his treatment of the water and rocks employs broader, more abstract brushwork that conveys the dramatically powerful movement of wind and wave against the escarpment.