Painting on silk in sumi ink and mineral pigments mounted as a hanging scroll, depicting hikers in a deep forest gorge. Signed by the artist: Kakuyu, and sealed twice (Shoda Kakuyu, the go or art name of Shoda Tsuneyoshi, 1879 – 1948). Showa 8 or 1933.

Provenance:

Titled: Ryokuin or Green Shade, this painting was first exhibited at the 14th Teiten in 1933. It is illustrated in the Nittenshi, volume 11, page 125, number 157. Acquired directly from the painter by the art patron and collector Hosokawa Rikizo, Ryokuin along with the rest of his painting collection entered the Meguro Gajoen Museum Collection after the War, from which it was acquired by Kagedo in 2003. Shoda Kakuyu’s work is in the collections of the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art and the Shiga Prefectural Museum of Art. This painting is also illustrated in Kagedo’s catalogue Light Through Clouds, number 55.

Biography:

Shoda Kakuyu was born in Nara Prefecture. In 1885 his family moved to Kyoto and in 1898 he graduated from the Painting Department of the Kyoto Municipal School of Art. Soon afterwards he became a student of Yamamoto Shunkyo. His art studies were interrupted the following year by induction into the Imperial Japanese Army’s engineering corps, serving from 1899 – 1902. Upon discharge from the army, Kakuyu immediately returned to painting. With Shunkyo’s encouragement, he submitted a large landscape painting to the 5th Domestic Industrial Exposition, and the piece won an award. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Kakuyu was reconscripted into the army from 1904 – 1906. Following his second discharge he returned to Kyoto, and one of his paintings was accepted for exhibition at the first Bunten in 1907. In 1908 he married Shunkyo’s niece. Subsequently Kakuyu was accepted at many Bunten, winning awards in 1910 – 1912 and in 1914 – 1915. He then became an assistant instructor and later professor at the Kyoto City Special Painting School. Through the 1920s Kakuyu withdrew from the official exhibitions, and instead showed with Shunkyo’s Sanekai group and the Nihon Jiyu Gadan or Free Painting Group of Japan. In 1933 he returned to the official venues with this painting at the 14th Teiten, with the status of a suisen or nominated artist. He participated in the Bunten Kansaten in 1936, and from 1938 in the Shin-Bunten with mukansa or non-vetted artist status. After the War Kakuyu suffered from increasingly ill health, and died in Kyoto in 1948.

Kakuyu’s work is appreciated for his tremendous technique. His brushwork and coloration were similar to that of his teacher, Yamamoto Shunkyo, and the continuing focus of his work was on an idealized imagery of mountain vistas, spectacular waterfalls and river gorges.

With Green Shade Kakuyu follows a group of summer hikers with tripod cameras searching for scenery deep in a mountain gorge. This may be painted from life, for Kakuyu’s teacher Yamamoto Shunkyo was also an amateur photographer noted for taking his painting students on just such excursions. Sunlight illumines the cascading spray of the river and the shelving cliff rising to the left. Above overhanging trees and bushes filter the light into green shadows that obscure the distant walls of the canyon. Behind the falls a wood bridge crosses the composition with the white clad hikers starting on the right. The deep blue of the pooling stream beckons them in the background. The mood seems quiet, outside of time and the everyday. The beauty of the painting and scenery frames the moment like a photograph of a perfect afternoon.