Hanging scroll. Various insects walking in line with luggage, simulating a lord (daimyo) traveling with his entourage to or from the capital (samurai or daimyo gyoretsu). A butterfly, suzumushi, praying mantises, yellow jackets and grass hoppers are traveling in a line, holding flowers and grasses for keyari, carrying a honeycomb for a palanquin, and berries for luggage.
Black ink and colors on silk.
Signed Bunrei; two red seals reading bun and rei...

Antique Japanese scroll with a small painting of a building, possibly a shrine or a palace with gate high in the mountains and surrounded by trees. Painted in ink and light colors on silk. Calligraphy and signature and with tomobako. The seals are hard to make out but lowest two read 白山, White Mountain, Hakusan, Hakuzan artist's name.

Dimensions: Total size: 41 1/4" high x 12 1/2" wide (14 1/4" wide with rollers). Size of art: 7 3/4" high x 6 1/2" wide

Antique Japanese scroll painting of a noble courtier on horseback. He wears a green robe with swirling gold details and his horse is adorned in red tassels. His younger attendant hurries behind on foot. Both figures hold their long sleeves over their heads as they make their way through the snow. A tree in the background is partially obscured by a low mist. Painted in sumi ink and mineral colors on silk. Signed: Kiyohara shi onna Harunobu hitsu...

Antique Japanese scroll painting of a mountain scene. A pagoda rises in the distance, behind it, a misty mountain range. In the foreground a small figure crosses a bridge. Signed by Kano Tsunenobu (1636-1713). Sumi ink on silk. Provenance Collection of Vlasheslav Batov, Illinois

Age: Edo Period (circa late 1600's to early 1700's)

Dimensions: Total: 51 1/4" high x 29 3/4" wide (32 1/2" wide including rollers). Size of art: 15 3/4" high x 25 1/2" wide.

A dark forest rises in a field of white, as if still covered in frost or snow, over which is draped a poem brushed in the exquisite script of the poet-nun Otagaki Rengetsu, Itsu to naki, Tokiwa no sato ha, Hototogisu shinobu hatsune ni, Uzuki wo ya shiru?
With the first cry of the Cuckoo, in this village of Tokiwa
Will the people realize, Spring has arrived?
To the extreme left, the cuckoo flies off the page...

This Toba-e E-maki appears to be a 19th century Gi-ga follower of the later 18th to early 19th century Osaka "Manga-ka" Nichosai (Matsudaira Heisaburo). His humorous images of Hell were quite popular, known as Kakuyu painting.　Overall the genre has many names, Gi-ga being all encompassing, Toba-e being descriptive of this particular style, and Kakuyu-fu being the style of Nichosai. It ends with a simple stamp which reads Fish (Gyo/Sakana). It is 11 by 174 inches (28 x 442 cm)...

Large Japanese early Meiji period sumi ink on paper scroll by calligrapher Ito Keishu (aka Ito Shinpei), who was active circa 1870s to 1890s. Signed and with three red seals. Paper mount and wood scroll ends. The scroll measures 79” x 32 1/2" (painting size: 54 1/2" x 26”). Good intact condition with some rubbing and soiling evident. There is a small distressed area or repair to the paper mid-way down the scroll on the right side (see enlargement)...

Eight paintings on paper illustrating some excerpts from The Chronicle of the Heike (1968), a historical novel by the Japanese writer Eiji Yoshikawa (1892-1962). He describes with great realism, the accession to power of the Heike clan warriors or Taira particularly his struggles with the Genji clan or Minnamoto.
An ancient and extremely popular tale in Japan, the Tale of the Heike was originally declaimed by monks accompanied by the biwa...

Antique Japanese scroll painting of Buddha Amitābha also known simply as Amida Buddha. Here he stands with each foot on a lotus blossom, floating on swirling clouds against a black void as he descents. His hands are in vitarka mudra, also known as Raikō gesture of welcoming souls to Paradise (Jōdō or Sukhavati in Sanskrit). Amitābha (which means Infinite or Immeasurable light) is much loved for his gentle wisdom and his all accepting nature...

A Minimalistic Hanging Scroll Painting by Okada Hanko Hanging scroll painting depicting a group of rocks. Ink on paper. Signed Hanko and two seals. Okada Hanko (1782-1846) a Nanga painter and Caligrapher. He was born in Osaka, the son and pupil of Okada Beisenjin...

Hanging scroll. The founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kobo daishi (774-835), seated at a priest’s seat, holding a vajra and a rosary in his hands.
His shoes and a ewer stand underneath his chair.
Ink, mineral colors and gold on silk.
Japan, 19th century.

Painted area: ca. 34.7 x 15.95 inches (93.1 x 40.4 cm); total length 65.2 inches (165.5 cm)

Scratch through upper part, few horizontal dull creases, basically good condition...

A collaboration piece between the famed poet/ nun of the late Edo period Rengetsu and her younger protege Tessai, this scroll depicts a frightened cricket making his way to the top of a stalk of grass on a windy day. Set in the fall season, the viewer can imagine a message of frailty, loneliness, and possibly the feeling of trepidation that accompanies the turning of the seasons towards the colder months. Melancholic though it may seem at first glance, there is the deeper, more hopeful message o...

Small painting of the 11-headed Kannon standing on a lotus dais, flanked by Bishamonten and Fudo Myoo.
In the front two red colored Nio are guarding the deities.
Inscription on the central base reads: Ichijoten (name of the temple hall), junsan koichi hongu.
The inscription on the bottom reads: Kazusa Shibayama Tenozan Kanon kyoji.
Rollers cut off and framed in mounting.

Black ink and colors on paper.
Japan, Edo period, 19th century.

Painted area: 22 7/...

Antique Japanese byobu (screen painting) depicting a tiger. Standing in a bamboo grove, he looks upwards towards the gathering storm clouds. Bamboo leaves start to blow in the wind. Nearby a small stream crashes over rocks. The tiger and the dragon are often seen together in Japanese art. The tiger represents the wind and the West while the dragon represents water and the East. In this painting the tiger looks back over his shoulder up at the gathering clouds in anticipation, expecting t...

Antique Japanese byobu screen painting in six panels depicting a scene of a pair of pheasants sitting on the branch of a weeping willow tree. Ever feather is painted with care as is every leaf on the cascading willow. Lichen grows on it's gnarled trunk and a river flows calmly by. New shoots of bamboo peek over a low lying gold mist and pink azaleas spring from the rocks near the water.

Paired pheasants are a symbol of imperial elegance and are associated with Amaterasu-Omikami, g...

Hanging scroll. Portrait of probably Sugawara no Michizane, sitting in court dress - a black garment with a long white sash - holding a wooden mace. The black garment, with red liner, is delicately decorated with flowers between waving lines. The sash also decorated with stylized flower shapes.

Tosa style. Signature at bottom: Yuho Issho ga. Red seal: Issho no in.

Colors on silk.

Japan, early 19th century.

Painted area: 23 5/16 x 10 13/16 in. (39.7 x 27.9 cm).
...

Antique Japanese scroll painting depicting a dragon in clouds. In his left-hand claws, he holds the flaming hoju, the wish-granting pearl. Storm clouds billow below him. Painted in sumi ink on silk with details in white and gold ink.

Age: Meiji Period (1868-1912)

Dimensions: total size of scroll 75" high x 10 3/4" wide (12 1/4" wide including rollers). Size of art: 45 1/4" high x 9 3/8" wide

An antique Japanese large rare Ema (votive prayer board) hand painted in Makie gold over a black lacquer background. A hand forged iron pin mounted to the top center of the frame was used to securely hang this dedication sacred object at a Japanese shrine.

Back in the day, live horses were donated and dedicated to a shrine. As the times changed, prayer boards were donated instead with painted horses replacing the live ones. More recently, all forms of subject matter are shown on the J...