Ascending Dragon
Sold – no longer available
This piece was handmade by Kano Tsunenobu and was a one-of-a-kind work. It cannot be reordered and will never exist in this form again. The page stays online as part of our archive.
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Details about the sold piece
- Height 175 cm
- Width 53 cm
- Item Type Kakemono
- Jikusaki Bone
- Material Honshi Silk
- Period of Creation Meiji (1868–1912)
- Technique Hand-Painted
- Unique Work Yes
- Wooden Box Yes
No longer available
Description
This expressive hanging scroll dates from the Meiji period and shows a dragon in a powerful, almost vertical upward movement. Vigorous ink splashes and broad, dark washes create an impression of storm and motion, out of which the creature's head and coiled body, with wide-open eyes, emerge. The reduced, almost abstract pictorial language lends the mythical animal an untamed, elemental force, of the kind that classical Japanese dragon painting repeatedly sought to capture.
The hanging scroll bears a signature and seal in the style of the painter Kano Tsunenobu and is executed on fine silk. It is delivered including the signed wooden box, which serves as additional evidence of provenance and the care taken in its keeping.
Due to its powerful, vertical pictorial composition, the work is particularly well suited as an eye-catcher in the tokonoma or on a tall wall, where the dragon's upward movement comes fully into its own. For collectors of expressive ink painting, this unique work is a remarkable piece.
