Page 24 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings May 27, 2019 Hong Kong

PROPERTY FROM THE CHOKAIDO MUSEUM COLLECTION ᯨᅿਕ⟞⻒㩉ⳉި (LOTS 923-930)

Observing the way with clear thoughts,

One can roam while reclining at leisure

he Chokaido Museum In 1923 the great Kanto earthquake wrought widespread
Thouses an histor ic destruction on Tokyo and the surrounding area. Yet Yamamoto’s
collection of classical Chinese Chokaido collection miraculously survived intact. To ensure
paintings and calligraphy, that these works were known to future generations, Yamamoto
for med by industrialist compiled the 12 volume Catalogue of Painting and Calligraphy
and politician Yamamoto from the Chokaido Collection, which documents 1,176 separate
Tejiro (1870-1937) in the works. Yamamoto also worked with Kinari Toraichi to compile
2019_0228 -161.tif early twentieth century. the expansive 16 volume Comprehensive Biographies of Eminent
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First institutionalised as the Painters and Calligraphers from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing
Chokaido archive in 1963, the Dynasties.
Chokaido Museum opened to
Japan has a long and illustrious history of collecting Chinese
the wider public in 1994. It is
painting and calligraphy. This history was defined by two
Yamamoto Teijiro (1870-1937) located in Yokkaichi township,
main periods: the classical period, in the 12th-16th century,
in Japan’s Mie prefecture,
and the modern period, in the late 19th to early 20th century.
where it serves as a major centre for the appreciation, study and
Yamamoto’s collection was formed during Japan’s second peak
research of Chinese painting and calligraphy.
of Chinese painting and calligraphy collection, in the modern
period.
Yamamoto was born in 1870, into a distinguished family
from Sado county (modern Sado City), in Niigata prefecture,
During Japan’s classical collecting period of the 12th-16th
Northern Japan. He was the second son of Yamamoto
centuries, Zen monasteries and the Ashikaga Shogunal
Katsura, a notable Confucian scholar of Chinese traditional clan amassed expansive holdings of Chinese paintings and
medicine. After a period of study in Germany, Yamamoto calligraphy. These monastic and shogunal collectors held Song
Tejiro held successive appointments as a member of Japan’s and Yuan dynasty works in the highest esteem. They placed
House of Representatives and as head of Taiwan Sugar Co.
Ltd (a forerunner of today’s Mitsui Sugar Co.). During his
political career, he served as Agriculture and Forestry Minister
in the cabinets of Tanaka Giichi (1864-1929) and Tsuyoshi
Inukai (1855-1932). In his youth Yamamoto received a solid
foundation in Sinology from his father, and in Confucian
learning from Maruyama Meihoku (1818-1892). Following
this early education, he began to develop an interest in the
arts of painting and calligraphy. Yamamoto’s collecting career
began with works by Zen monks and Japanese scholars,
before turning to Chinese painting and calligraphy. These
later acquisitions became Yamamoto’s lifelong passion, and a
subject of continuous, indepth research. An erudite and learned
man, Yamamoto was an accomplished Sinologist, capable of
composing original verses in classical Chinese. As a connoisseur
of painting and calligraphy, he assembled an extensive collection
of over 2,000 works. These pieces spanned a millennium of
Chinese history, dating from the Tang dynasty to the late Qing.
Catalogue of Painting and Calligraphy from the Chokaido Collection
22