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| Keywords: Kishi Ganku - Fusuma - Tigers and Dragon - Walters 35301 (2).jpg These fusuma Japanese sliding door panels were designed to cover two walls of a room forming an L shape They would have surrounded three tatami mats on two sides Each set of four panels forms an open-ended but stable composition with a tiger and birds on the left and a tiger and dragon on the right The left set of four is signed and sealed in the left-most panel These works are by Kishi Ganku the founder of the Kishi school of late Edo period 18th-century Japanese painting Originally named Saeki Masaaki the artists was born in the city of Kanazawa on Japan's north coast in either 1749 or 1756 records of his birth are in conflict He moved to Kyoto in 1773 and became a retainer to Prince Arisugawa In 1804 he entered the imperial court as an official and was appointed Echizen-no-Suke honorary governor of Echizen Province He again lived in Kanazawa from 1809 and finally settled in Iwakura outside Kyoto in 1813 In the same year he officially adopted the artist's name Kishi Ganku Initially Ganku studied Kano-style painting but early in his studies he shifted to explore the Nanpin style named for the Chinese painter Shen Nanpin active early 18th century Following his study of Nanpin he explored Japanese naturalism under Maruyama Okyo and nanga-inspired naturalism under Matsumura Goshun of the Shijo school in Kyoto Perhaps unsatisfied with any of these popular styles he founded his own school the Kishi school characterized by a rough and vigorous brush style but still reflective of the many influences his training had provided He is most well known as a painter of animals in particular tigers His works exhibit an almost Western-seeming solidity and are often filled with a sense of drama conveyed both by the subject matter and his muscular brushwork Even in his most individualized works visual links back to his training in the great painting traditions of the Edo period remain visible The Tigers and Dragon fusuma are representative of Ganku's mature style They were painted sometime after 1813 He uses the title of Echizen-no-suke in signing the left most panel and the seals below the name read Ganku and Funzen an alternate azana name he used as a painter The tigers are readily identifiable as Ganku's while the birds on branches reveal his Kano training The pair of birds in the left set of panels are nearly direct imitations of Kano Eitoku's birds in the Daisen-in fusuma in Kyoto The trees in Ganku's panels owe their form to his Shijo school training as they imitate the early 18th-century nanga style of Matsumura Goshun These fusuma serve as prime examples of the Kishi school style and owing to their near pristine condition they reveal the kind of commission that kept artists like Ganku active through the final years of the Edo period Works like this would serve as models for the following generations of Kishi painters including Gantai 1782-1865 Ganryo 1798-1852 Gankei 1811-1848 Ganrei 1816-1883 and Gansei 1827-1867 between 1813 1838 Edo ink gold leaf on paper lacquered wood cm 173 36 698 5 ; Panels A-D cm 172 72 76 2 ; Panels E-H cm 173 36 98 43 accession number 35 301 77479 These fusuma were brought to Kyoto from western Japan by a traveling dealer they were likely purchased from the family who originally commissioned them James Freeman Kyoto Japan between 1998 and 2000 by purchase Walters Art Museum 2008 by purchase Museum purchase 2008 Signature Echizen-no-suke Ganku place of origin Japan <gallery> File Kishi Ganku - Fusuma - Tigers and Dragon - Walters 35301 jpg </gallery> Walters Art Museum license 2D Japanese paintings in the Walters Art Museum Kishi Ganku Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review Paintings of tigers of the Edo period | ||||
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