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Calligraphy: Bamboo and Peach Blossom

Kakemono, unique work, 203 x 50 cm
Product number: 4776

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.

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Details about the sold piece

  • Height 203 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

This calligraphy dates from the Shôwa period and renders a line from a classical Chinese poem: while the tall bamboo begins to turn green from below, the blossom of the small peach tree opens first at its tip – a subtle image for the different ways of growing and becoming in nature. Two entirely contrasting images of plants are interwoven here in a single short line.

The calligrapher's powerful, slightly cursive handwriting sets the characters with confident momentum from top to bottom, with density and emptiness alternating throughout the composition of the line, lending the sheet a calm, balanced harmony. Signature and red seal at the left edge of the image complete the composition.

The sheet is painted on paper and fitted with a wooden jikusaki. The olive-green, finely patterned mounting fabric lends the hanging scroll a calm, earthy character. For lovers of classical Chinese poetry and Japanese calligraphy, this work titled Calligraphy: Bamboo and Peach Blossom is a particularly poetic, fitting choice.

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?.