Artists

Ikegami Shūho

Ikegami Shūho (池上秀畝, 1874–1944) was Araki Kanpō's first student and was awarded prizes three times in succession at the Bunten for landscapes and kachō-ga.

Published on: Jan 31, 2025

Kakemono by Ikegami Shūho: bird on an autumn-colored branch. — Bird on an Autumn Branch – Kakemono by Ikegami Shūho (池上秀畝) (Detail)

In a nutshell

Ikegami Shūho (池上秀畝) was a Japanese Nihonga painter (1874–1944) whose common name was Kunisaburō. He was born in Takatō in Nagano Prefecture. He became the first formal pupil of Araki Kanpō and remained with him for four years. His field of work was landscapes as well as bird-and-flower painting. From 1916 to 1918 he received the Special Selection of the Bunten three times in succession, and from 1933 he was a juror of the Teiten. He died in Tōkyō in 1944.

Ikegami Shūho (池上秀畝): Landscape and Kachō-ga Between Taishō and Shōwa

Ikegami Shūho (池上秀畝, 1874–1944) was a Japanese Nihonga painter. He was born in Takatō in Nagano Prefecture and bore the civilian name Kunisaburō. His field of work was landscapes and flower-and-bird painting; he died in 1944 in Tōkyō.

First Student of Araki Kanpō

Shūho became the first formal student of Araki Kanpō and remained with him for four years – at a time when Kanpō himself was still little known and his great recognition still lay ahead. Through Kanpō, Shūho is connected to the lineage of Tani Bunchō and thus to literati painting, in whose methods he was trained. A temporary excursion into Western techniques did not find his teacher's approval and remained an episode.

Special Selection at the Bunten Three Times

From 1916 to 1918, Shūho received the special selection of the Bunten three times in succession – an honor that in those years practically conferred the rank of an established painter. From 1933, he served as a juror of the Teiten and thus himself stood on the side that decided on acceptance and rejection.

The Bird on the Autumn Branch

A bird on a branch turning color captures what Kachō-ga is meant to achieve: the leaf gives the season, the bird the moment. In the combination of landscape painting and flower-and-bird imagery that characterizes Shūho's work, a third element is often added – a suggested pictorial space behind the branch that lifts the motif out of the purely decorative. For the autumn change in the tokonoma, such hanging scrolls are the obvious choice.