Title: Shiki Sansui-zu Makimono (Four Seasons Landscape Scroll), 1866. An Emakimono Handscroll Depicting a Breathtakingly Painted Landscape of Mountains, Rivers, and More on Silk, In the Shan Shui Style of Painting, with Vivid Colors
Author: Attributed to Haruki Nanmei
Condition: Very Good
A Late Edo Period, mid 19th century emakimono handscroll, being a magnificent landscape painting, depicting the four seasons, and produced on silk. Beginning with verdant, lush, colors, we are presented with the beauty of Spring, and towering mountainscapes with trees, waterfalls, and a river flowing in between. Castles and small landmarks dot the scene, and one can see the visible transition of the seasons to Summer, and as Fall approaches, the verdant green hues fade, and the trees lose their leaves, before finally entering Winter, with bare trees and snow-covered landscapes and mountains. A stunning piece with incalculable tiny details and features.
The landscape has been very clearly painted in the Chinese Southern School Style, and more specifically, the Shan shui (mountain water) style. This is a type of Chinese painting that often focuses on natural landscapes and scenery, using an ink and brush style, with mountains, rivers and waterfalls being rather common subjects, which is evident here. There is a particular reason for this, as mountains have long been considered as sacred in China, being considered the home of immortals, and close to the heavens.
The requirements for a proper Shan shui paintings depend on the requirements of balance, composition, and form. Pathways must be ever winding and meandering, helping to add additional layers to the landscape, whether the path is the river, alongside it, or even the sun rays cresting over the earth. That pathway must lead to some sort of threshold, whether it is a primary mountain, its shadow, or even the cutting into the sky. And lastly, there should be a sort of heart, acting as a focal point for all the elements, and defining it. Shan shui paintings tend to also follow Chinese elemental theory, with five elements or phases representing various parts of the natural world, and their respective colors.
This landscape painting has been attributed to and signed several times by the Late Edo to Early Meiji Period artist Haruki Nanmei (1795-1878), a rather well-known literati artist for his time.
Born to literati artist Haruki Nanko (1759-1839), Nanmei’s given names were Hidehiro, Ryu, and Ryu. He inherited his father’s various painting techniques and coloring, which Nanko learned from the Zhang Qiugu and Fei Qinghu, two of the four great Chinese artists of the Qing Period who introduced the techniques of the Southern School of painting, and the art of literati painting to Japan in general.
Nanmei took his father’s style and excelled, with some truly masterful landscapes, as well as bird-and-flower paintings. He was well-known at the time, and because of his gentle personality, he gained influential patrons such as Lord Sanjo, Lord Hosokawa, Lord Nakagawa Hisanari of the Oka domain, and Taneki Akizuki. Daimyo Yamauchi Toyoshige (Also known as Lord Yodo) also favored Nanmei, so much so that he built a house for him next to his Hashiba villa. He passed away in 1878, at the age of 84.
There are several contemporary and later inscriptions to the box, including one helpfully pointing to the dating of this painting, stating that Nanmei produced this when he was 71.
The paintings have been laid down and bound in a scroll for preservation, with a beautiful brocade decorated cover, and there are jikusaki (knobs). There is a wooden box to accompany it, preserving the scroll.
One brocade bound emakimono (picture scroll) on silk, 41 x 463 cm. The knobs are not included as part of the measurement.
This emakimono is in very good shape, with minimal wear or rubbing to the brocade. There is a long, vertical crack due to a prior crease, which has been repaired. There is minor, scattered staining.