SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-91)

SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-91)
KAWANABE KYOSAI (1831-89)
AND OTHERS
EDO/MEIJI, 19TH CENTURY

A rare Japanese collaborative makimono (handscroll painting), ink and colour on paper, with a title slip inscribed Kinsei Meika gassaku ga makimono (Collaborative Painting Scroll by Renowned Artists of the Early Modern Period), featuring eleven sketches by various artists, including:

-1/ Shibata Zeshin (1807-91), a depiction of Hotei, the God of Good Fortune standing, holding his large sack of treasures over his shoulder, signed Zeshin;
-2/ Shibata Zeshin (1807-91), branches of pine, signed Zeshin;
-3/ Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89), Hotei dreaming of Ebisu carrying the Goddess Okame on his back, signed Seisei Kyosai ga;
-4/ Shibata Nankoku (1802-73), a mountainous river landscape to the right and a horse rider and attendants in a snow landscape to the left, signed Nankoku;
-5/ Kawabata Gyokusho (1842-1913), a large standing deer, signed Gyokusho;
-6/ Sato Genran (1818-85), Shoki and an oni, the demon carrying a bunch of irises, signed Genran;
-7/ an unsigned depiction of Mount Fuji;
-8/ Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89), another depiction of Okame wearing colourful robes, signed Seisei Kyosai ga and with a red seal Bankokuhi ('Flying all over the world') in the shape of crows;
-9/ Sato Genran (1818-85), tortoises and flowering prunus, signed Genran sanjin (Genran the Mountain Man);
-10/ Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89), the Goddess Bishamonten pouring sake for Jurojin, signed Seisei Kyosai ga;
-11/ and an unsigned painting of radishes;

28cm x 494cm.

Provenance: from the Estate of a Collector, Heath House, Hampshire, and thence by descent. By repute, acquired in Asia at the turn of the 19th century.