Page 19 - 2021 March 16th Japanese and Korean Art, Christie's New York City

Jakuchu favored this auspicious combination of white
cranes, pine and plum, emblems of the New Year. The
long-necked bird is said to live a thousand years and has
been an auspicious symbol in East Asia since Chinese
antiquity—in Daoist lore, the crane shares the world of the
immortals. Because of their lifetime monogamy, cranes
also symbolize happy marriage. In this work, we see the
familiar Manchurian crane (Grus Japonensis) with a red
crest and snow-white plumage.

Jakuchu inherited his father’s greengrocery business but
preferred to live the solitary life of a painter. Sometime in
his early thirties he became interested in Zen Buddhism
and met Daiten Kenjo (1719-1801), a scholar-monk who
became abbot of Shokoku-ji, one of the five most important
Zen monasteries in Kyoto. Daiten proved influential in the
artist’s life going forward. Jakuchu is usually described
as an idiosyncratic nonconformist, positioning him in
stark contrast to the prevailing orthodox Kano lineage.
However, his meticulously detailed paintings reveal his
own conscientious reliance on Chinese prototypes. Daiten,
his friend, patron and spiritual guide, made the Chinese
works available to him. For example, the artist was able to
study original paintings of cranes by the obscure fifteenth-
century Chinese artist Wen Zheng that were preserved at
Shokoku-ji. Jakuchu made a close copy of Wen Zheng’s
pair of hanging scrolls of cranes, pine and plum.