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Woodpecker on Cherry Tree

Kakemono, unique work, with box, 190 x 60 cm
Product number: 5871

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 190 cm
  • Width 60 cm
  • Item Type Kakemono
  • Jikusaki Bone
  • Material Honshi Silk
  • Period of Creation Meiji (1868–1912)
  • Technique Hand-Painted
  • Unique Work Yes
  • Wooden Box Yes
Sold

No longer available

Description

A small woodpecker sits attentively on a gnarled cherry tree branch, surrounded by delicate pink and white blossoms as well as young reddish leaves – a classic motif of Japanese bird-and-flower painting (Kachōga), finely executed on silk. The warm, golden-brown tone of the silk lets the colors of the plumage and blossoms emerge especially softly.

The composition, with its diagonally rising branches and the lower-hanging, more densely leaved branch in the lower part of the image, lends the work a natural depth and balance. The fine signature at the lower edge of the image points to a skilled painter of the Meiji period (1868–1912), from which this kakemono dates.

This kakemono comes in a signed wooden box (tomobako), which lends the work additional authenticity.

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?.