Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to main navigation

Bamboo in the Wind

Kakemono, unique work, 190 x 50 cm
Product number: 4011

Sold – no longer available

This piece was a handmade 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.

You might like these pieces

Details about the sold piece

  • Height 190 cm
  • Width 50 cm
  • Item Type Kakemono
  • Jikusaki Wood
  • Material Honshi Paper
  • Period of Creation Shôwa (1926–1989)
  • Technique Hand-Painted
  • Unique Work Yes
Sold

No longer available

Description

With sweeping, at times almost dry brushstrokes, the painter has captured a bamboo branch whose slender leaves bend to the side as if in the wind. The ink tones vary from deep black to delicate gray, creating a sense of depth and movement even though the picture is entirely without color. To the right, a multi-line poetic inscription with signature and red seal completes the composition.

Bamboo is counted among the "Four Gentlemen" of East Asian painting and traditionally stands for resilience, modesty, and upright character, as it bends in the storm without breaking. This symbolism made it a popular motif among scholars and calligraphers for centuries. Created in the Shôwa period on paper, the narrow, portrait-format hanging scroll is bordered in dark brown and mounted on a wooden rod.

This kakemono impresses with its reduced, energetic visual language and is ideally suited for lovers of classical ink painting who wish to bring a piece of East Asian scholar culture into their home.

Frequently asked

No – as a one-of-a-kind piece it exists in a single example only.
We would be glad to look for one. Get in touch with the details of the object you are looking for and we will see what we can do.
Because the two pieces of information speak about different things: the period designation describes the object – support, colors, condition – while the signature reflects which name appears on the painting. In most cases there is no attempt at deception behind this, but rather Japanese painting training: copying from workshop models was the curriculum for centuries, an utsushi is regarded as a bow to the teacher, workshops signed with the master's name, and artist names were passed down within a school. Such a hanging scroll is therefore not a forgery, but a hand-painted one-of-a-kind that continues the formal language of its school – just not the work of the famous name, and priced accordingly. We explain this in detail in the guide Why does a kakemono often bear the signature of an artist long deceased?.