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5.2 Matsumura Keibun (1779-1843) with Kamo no Suetaka (1752-1842)
Shijô
Ayu, sweetfish in the Tamagawa river
Signed: Keibun, Suetaka
Seals: Kaô (Keibun)
Technique: colours silk 64 x 29.4
Mounting: blue decorated brocade and blue silk 149 x 40.3
Box: inscribed
Condition: very good

The text, a bit difficult to read is a waka as well as a san, a eulogy on ayu, sweetfish
Sweetfish enjoy themselves diving into the rapids of the Tamagawa river and so, completely wet, they spend the day.

Young ayu are consumed at drinking parties from early June (until August). They are caught by trained cormorants and flares at night. The Tamagawa river is located in Musashino near Edo.

Keibun was the younger brother of the painter and poet Matsumura Go Shun (1752-1811). Go Shun was, in fact, 27 years older than Keibun and took care of his education. After Go Shun’s death in 1811, Keibun inherited the studio on Shijô Street. Together with Okamoto Toyohiko (1773-1845), he carried on the Shijô School, Keibun specializing in kachôga and Toyohiko in landscape painting. Keibun was one of Kyoto’s leading artists and the teacher of many talented pupils.

Reference:
Roberts p. 74
Araki p. 2948
Hillier pp. 126-13

Suetaka was a scholar, a poet and a priest of the Kamo shrine in Kyoto. In his younger days he had studied poetry under Tachibana Chikage in Edo. He contributed many prefaces and other literary embellishments to newly published ehon and other books, and was closely associated with many of the poets and artists in Kyoto and Osaka during the early nineteenth century.

Reference
Araki p. 1193
Mitchell p. 177

Price:
SOLD