Pair of byobu or folding screens in six panels, painted on paper in mineral pigments, gofun or clam shell gesso, and sumi ink, with an autumn scene of a misting waterfall crashing amid rocks into splashing waves. Signed on the upper right of the right hand screen by the artist: Reimei, and sealed (Shindo Reimei, the go or art name of Shindo Shigehiko, 1897 – 1978). Showa 8 or 1933.

Titled: Bakutei or Foot of the Falls, these paintings were first exhibited at the 20th Inten in 1933, when they were acquired by the art patron and collector Hosokawa Rikizo. Along with the rest of his painting collection they entered the Meguro Gajoen Museum Collection after the War, from which they were acquired by Kagedo in 2003. They are illustrated in color in the Intenshi, volume 6, pages 144 – 145 and in Kagedo’s catalogue Light Through Clouds, number 59.

Shindo Reimei’s paintings are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art.

Born in Kumamoto Prefecture, Shindo Reimei moved to Tokyo at the age of 15 as a working student attached to the Hosokawa residence. He studied painting under Sugiura Shigetsuyo before entering the Nihon Gakuen (Japan Academy). There he developed an interest in Western art, and began studying Western painting and drawing at the Taiheiyogakai (Pacific Painting Research Institute). In 1915, greatly inspired by the paintings of Hishida Shunso and Yokoyama Taikan, Shindo switched his focus to Japanese Nihonga painting. He became a student of Katayama Nampu and joined the Nihon Bijutsuin Kenkyukai (Japanese Art Study Group). Later he also studied under Yokoyama Taikan, Yasuda Yukihiko and Kobayashi Kokei.

Shindo first had a work accepted for exhibition in 1917 at the 4th Saiko Inten. Around this time he moved to Nara to study ancient Japanese art for a time, and the experience led to a painting of Nara’s Mount Kasuga for the 1919 Inten. After a trip to China and Korea the following year, he immersed himself in the study of East Asian Art and in 1921 submitted a bird and flower painting to the 7th Saiko Inten. Also in 1921 Shindo was chosen as a member of the Nihon Bijutsuin. Thereafter he continued to submit paintings to the Inten on the themes of birds and flowers, and ancient customs. According to the Intenshi biography, his paintings of this period display a “distinction in graceful bird and flower paintings executed in superb colors,” and which incorporate a “precise realism.” In 1926 he also had a painting accepted to the 1st Shotoku Taishi Hosan Art Exhibition.

In 1929 Shindo traveled to the United States, where he held many private exhibitions before continuing on to Europe. There he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. He returned to Tokyo in 1930 to exhibit at the 2nd Shotoku Taishi Hosan Art Exhibition. Moving to Kyoto about 1937, he continued to exhibit at the Inten. Only once did Shindo participate in a government sponsored exhibition, when his invited submission was shown at the Hoshukuten in 1940.

After the War Shindo Reimei continued to exhibit at the Inten annually (with the exception of 1953). He became a member of the Nihon Bijutsuin Council in 1959, and from 1966 – 1971 taught painting at Matsuyama Toun Tanki University. He received the Prime Minister’s Prize at the 60th Inten in 1975, and died three years later in Kyoto at the age of 81.

Of Bakutei Shindo Reimei said “it isn’t any particular waterfall: it’s my own waterfall,” and indeed these paintings reflect an idealized beauty. The autumn sunlight sparkles off of stylized lapis lazuli waves, their whitecaps of glowing gofun or clam shell gesso. The wet brush strokes topping the waves contrast with the splashed and finely blown spray. On the right hand screen the falls plunge in a shaft of white through which can be seen the shadow of the angular cliff rocks framing in the composition. Painted in broad strokes of grey, green and black, the basaltic rocks shelve away from the falls on right and left. In the foreground of the left hand screen an ancient horse chestnut bends in a strong diagonal mirrored by the mossy green boulders running across into the right. Thin patches of grey-green moss hang from the tree trunk. Balancing the darker ground are the glowing autumn leaves of the horse chestnut and shimmering mists, the latter formed from two colors of gold in foil squares, dust and finely twisting threads. Shindo was a scholarly painter, noted for his study of the sources of Japanese Art and his modern turn of the traditional. These screens reinterpret the Momoyama period Kano style of painting to dazzling effect.

Now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.