Page 113 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

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IMANAKA SOYU (1886-1959)
Chomonkyo (Chomon Gorge)
Signed Soyu and sealed Sokoken Shujin
Ink, color and gold on silk; framed
44¿ x 71√ in. (112.1 x 181.9 cm.)
$20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE:
Hosokawa Rikizo Collection
Meguro Gajoen Museum of Art, Tokyo
Chomon Gorge is a highly scenic portion painting at the 8th Bunten, and in the following
of the Abu River in Yamaguchi Prefecture, year received a prize at the 9th Bunten. His
punctuated by steep cliffs, deep pools, rapids submissions were also accepted at the 11th and
and waterfalls. Up to the end of the 19th 12th Bunten in 1917 and 1918, and at the 2nd
century, its isolation and inaccessibility Teiten in 1920. Between 1927 and 1934, Soyu’s
restricted knowledge of its existence to paintings were accepted at the Teiten six times.
woodcutters and hunters from local villages. He showed a painting at the 2nd Shotoku Taishi
The first record of its presence was made Hosan Art Exhibition in 1930 as well. After a
when a General Staff Office surveying long absence from the government sponsored
expedition mapped the area in 1899. By 1908 exhibitions, he showed a painting at the 5th
photographs of the gorge began to circulate, Shin-Bunten in 1942, with the honorary mukansa
and the area began to draw painters and or non-vetted artist status. In the years before the
sightseeing expeditions. By 1923 Chomon Pacific War, Soyu painted many commissions for
Gorge was named a “Famous Site and Natural the Imperial Family, as well as for temples and
Monument” by the Japanese government. shrines. Following the war, he participated in the
Imanaka Soyu painted a series of studies 5th Nitten in 1949.
of the gorge in 1925 and 1926. The high
level of detail and the execution of different Soyu painted three images of Chomon Gorge in
perspectives from painting to painting suggest 1925 and 1926, and all represent impressions of
that Soyu visited the site and made at least the light and color. The paintings reveal a fascination
initial under drawings from life. with the reflections of sunlight off of rocks, sand
and water, the way it clouds in misting water or
Imanaka Soyu was born the son of a wealthy filters into banks of green vegetation. A stylized
farmer in Fukuoka Prefecture. He began abstraction marks the treatment of the rocks and
studying painting in Hakata under Ueda bushes, details dissolving into expanses of color
Tekko, then in 1905 moved to Tokyo to and suggestions of form. The basaltic rocks seem
further his painting studies with Kawai almost cubist, and a flowing pointillism flecks
Gyokudo. Soyu’s work was first accepted at a the greenery. Broad washes of color framed
government sponsored exhibition at the 2nd by geometries of rock mark these powerful
Bunten in 1908. In 1914 he again showed a compositions.