Page 38 - Bonhams Royal Collection Fine Japanese Art London Nov. 2019

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SHIBATA ZESHIN 柴田是真 (1807–1891)
PAIR OF SIX-PANEL SCREENS DEPICTING THE LEGEND
OF TAKASAGO
高砂図六曲屏風一双
Meiji era (1868–1912), dated 1888 and 1889

A pair of six-panel screens painted in ink and colours on silk depicting Published:
auspicious scenes from the legend of Takasago: on the right-hand Kanō 2003, cat. no. 79
screen, the elderly couple Jō and Uba beneath a pine tree by the sea; Toyota-shi Bijutsukan (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art) 2011, cat. no. 13
and on the left-hand screen, the rising New-Year’s sun with a crane Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum) 2012, cat. no. 133
flying down to a wave-lashed rock; the metal-embossed mounts
lacquered with seaweed and shells; the black-lacquered frame £20,000 - 30,000
decorated with aquatic plants and shells in gold and silver, each screen JPY2,600,000 - 3,900,000
with a seal-style gold lacquer signature on the reverse Koma Taishin US$24,000 - 36,000
古満泰真; the painting signed on the right screen Gyōnen hachijūni-ō
Tairyūkyo Zeshin 行年八十二翁対柳居是真 (Tairyūkyo Zeshin, aged 82) The subject of one of the most famous of all Noh dramas, the legend
and signed and dated on the left screen Meiji nijūni natsubi utsusu of the elderly couple—Jō and his wife Uba—has a very long history;
Zeshin 明治二十二夏日写是真 (Drawn on a summer day in 1889 by as here, they are typically portrayed living in happy harmony by a pine
Zeshin), each sealed Zeshin 是真 tree, he with a rake and she with a broom which they use to gather
pine needles. As noted by Tahira Namiko in her catalogue entry for
Overall: 163cm × 319.8cm (64¼in × 126in) each the Nezu Museum exhibition held in 2012, Shibata Zeshin evidently
Image: 158cm x 315cm (62½in x 124in) each received many commissions for auspicious and festival-related
themes. This was especially the case during the last decade of his
(2) long life, when this large and ambitious composition, an exceptionally
rare example of a pair of six-panel painted screens by the artist, was
Provenance: completed over a period of more than one year, as indicated by the
Christie’s New York, 24 March 2010, lot 628 two signatures. For a miniature depiction of Jō and Uba in an album
Takashi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts, Kyoto of urushi-e paintings dating from around the same time as this lot,
compare Gōke 1981b, pl. 183. Very unusually, the lacquer frames to
Exhibited: this pair of screens were decorated by Zeshin’s faithful leading pupil
Toyota-shi Bijutsukan (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art), 2011 Ikeda Taishin (1825–1903), who appears to have played a leading part
Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum), 2012 in the administration of the aging master’s busy studio.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2017–2018

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
36 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.