Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum

A catalogue of the Ashmolean's collection of Japanese paintings by Janice Katz (published Oxford, 2003).

Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum by Janice Katz

Publications online: 43 objects

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Flowering pink bush clover, or hagi

  • Literature notes

    Three gently sloping stems of bush clover painted just before the buds open are the subject of this simple fan composition. Bush clover or hagi is one of the seven plants of autumn and is a primary element in many compositions of the flowers of the four seasons in Edo period art, most notably in the work of Rimpa artists using the Inen seal in the seventeenth century. The white bush clover is most often featured in those works, however Soken clearly preferred the pink variety. The flowers appear in his large-scale flower paintings as well, such as a pair of screens of spring and autumn grasses and flowers painted on gold leaf ground in the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art [Minamoto and Sasaki, 41, 187]. This fan painting is almost an exact quote of a section of that larger composition.

    Though details of his personal life are few, Yamaguchi Soken was one of Maruyama Ōkyo’s ten best pupils, known traditionally for his paintings of beauties. However, his talent was by no means limited to figure paintings, and he produced several printed books of his ink painting and flower and grasses compositions. His Soken gafu kusabana no bu (Illustrations by Soken, Flowers and Grasses Part) was published in 1806 and contains a full three volumes of illustrations [a copy is in the British Museum. Unfortunately, it does not contain an image of bush clover].
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    AsiaJapanHonshūKyōto prefecture Kyoto (possible place of creation)
    Date
    early 19th century
    Artist/maker
    Yamaguchi Soken (1759 - 1818) (artist)
    Maruyama-Shijō School (active late 18th century - late 19th century)
    Material and technique
    ink and colour on paper
    Dimensions
    mount 36.2 x 55.3 cm (height x width)
    painting 24.1 x 51.5 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Dr Michael Harari, from the collection of his father, Ralph Harari, 1981.
    Accession no.
    EAX.5366
  • Further reading

    Katz, Janice, Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with an introductory essay by Oliver Impey (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2003), no. 27 on p. 102, p. 84, illus. pp. 102-103

    Hillier, J., The Harari Collection of Japanese Paintings and Drawings, copyright owned by Michael Harari, 3 vols (London: Lund Humphries, 1973), no. 337 on p. 562, illus. p. 563 fig. 337

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum by Janice Katz

    Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum

    Three gently sloping stems of bush clover painted just before the buds open are the subject of this simple fan composition. Bush clover or hagi is one of the seven plants of autumn and is a primary element in many compositions of the flowers of the four seasons in Edo period art, most notably in the work of Rimpa artists using the Inen seal in the seventeenth century. The white bush clover is most often featured in those works, however Soken clearly preferred the pink variety. The flowers appear in his large-scale flower paintings as well, such as a pair of screens of spring and autumn grasses and flowers painted on gold leaf ground in the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art [Minamoto and Sasaki, 41, 187]. This fan painting is almost an exact quote of a section of that larger composition.

    Though details of his personal life are few, Yamaguchi Soken was one of Maruyama Ōkyo’s ten best pupils, known traditionally for his paintings of beauties. However, his talent was by no means limited to figure paintings, and he produced several printed books of his ink painting and flower and grasses compositions. His Soken gafu kusabana no bu (Illustrations by Soken, Flowers and Grasses Part) was published in 1806 and contains a full three volumes of illustrations [a copy is in the British Museum. Unfortunately, it does not contain an image of bush clover].
Notice

Object information may not accurately reflect the actual contents of the original publication, since our online objects contain current information held in our collections database. Click on 'buy this publication' to purchase printed versions of our online publications, where available, or contact the Jameel Study Centre to arrange access to books on our collections that are now out of print.

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