Antique Japanese scroll painting depicting a pair of skeletons dancing beneath a poem. The poem is signed Shinyodojin. Painted in ink on paper.

Dimensions: Total size: 74 1/2" high x 14" wide (15 3/4" wide including rollers). Size of art: 50 3/4" high x 9 1/2" wide.

Antique Japanese scroll painting of a ghost leering over a painted screen. The specter's long hair falls over the image of a weeping willow, a tree often associated with ghosts and spirits. Painted in ink on silk. Signed and sealed: Chokuto-sei.

Age: Meiji Period (1868-1912)

Dimensions: Total size: 71 1/2" high x 20 1/2" wide (22 3/4" wide including roles). Size of art: 41 3/4" high x 15 3/4" wide

Antique Japanese scroll painting depicting a dead man being whisked away in a flaming carriage bound for hell. He is escorted by three demons brandishing weapons and pulling the cart through clouds of smoke. A section of the poem translates as "whether old or young, rich or poor [...] on the fiery carriage..." Painted and signed by the artist Kawamura Jakushi (1638-1707) with a verse possibly written by Banjisei...

Japanese scroll painting of a group of scholarly skeletons. At the top of the image, three skeletons drink tea while viewing scrolls. One skeleton displays a scroll on which the artist has signed his name. Other skeletons enjoy music played on a koto while others play go, paint scrolls and make tea. Painted in sumi-e ink and light colors on paper.

Dimensions: Total size: 78 1/2" high x 26" wide (28 1/4" wide including ends). Size of art: 52" high x 20" wide

Japanese scroll painting of a ghostly woman standing in a shoji doorway. Her robes are white, the color of death and her hair falls unkept around her shoulders. Tendrils of flame appear where rays of light shine down at an angle to catch on her sleeve. Painted in mineral colors and ink on silk.
Painted by Obata Chiura (1885-1975), painter and first professor of Japanese painting at University of California, Berkeley. Born in Ibara-cho and raised in Sendai, Japan...

Japanese scroll painting of 3 skeletons celebrating Obon. One skeleton dances with a fan while two others pay a drum and a shamisen. The Obon festival happens in summer and is a time to honor the dead with music, dance, parades and other events. It is believed that ancestors' spirits return to the world of the living during Obon. Painted in ink and light colors on silk...

Japanese scroll painting of two skeletons hard at work counting money. The calligraphy verse up top appears to be influenced by the Confucian scholar, Kameda Bosai and is sealed Gakubutsu. Below, the skeletons pour over accounting ledgers next to a large scale. This painted portion of the scroll is sealed Nisekisai. Painted in sumi-e ink on paper.

Dimensions: 81 1/2" high x 30 3/4" wide (33" wide including rollers). Size of art: 53" high x 26 3/4" wide

Japanese scroll painting of skeletons, one dancing and one playing a shamisen. Strewn over the ground are skulls and a giant gourd filled with drink. The calligraphy on the top of the scroll states that even the great sage Boddhidaruma and the beautiful Onna no Komachi are Doitsu Byodo (the same as the rest of us) when their flesh is stripped away...

Scroll painting of a female ghost appearing out of the mist near a waterfall. Painted after the famous image by Maruyama Okyo, the ghost of Oyuki, a lovely woman who died young. Her hair hangs loose over her face and shoulders. She hovers near the roaring water with one hand tucked into her kimono. Oyuki is a subject in Nihok Sandai Kaidan (Japan's "Three Great Ghost Stories")...

Namiamidabutsu sho (Praise to the name of Amiddha Buddha) is scrawled in faint verse down the upper right, while on the left is a warning, kono tori, minasama goyojin goyojin (all those on this path, be wary be wary…) The two scripts are separated by a grave marker at the base of which lies a skull and scattered bones among the unkempt dried grasses. A very unusual seal in the shape of a Buddhist ewer hugs the right edge. Early to mid Edo period in the style of Hakuin Eikaku (1686-1768)...

A radical image by the outlandish Doi Goga featuring a black devil and its child. The child reaches up to the monster, while the monster seems to be giving him a raspberry, his toungue flailing in the air. Ink on paper, it has been completely restored in beige cloth border with bone rollers reflecting the original mounting. The scroll is 42 x 181 cm (16-1/2 x 71-1/4 inches) ad is in excellent condition. Doi Goga (1818-1880) was a Confucian scholar of the late Edo to Meiji periods...

Antique Japanese scroll painting of an eagle. Skillfully painted and possibly of the Kanō School. The eagle stands on a rock over crashing waves. Large scale and dramatic with each feather delineated. Painted in ink and light colors on paper.

Age: Edo Period 1603-1867

Dimensions: Total size: 82 1/2" high x 41" wide (44" wide including rollers). Size of art: 54" high x 35" wide

Sadamitsu Sugimoto has been working with ink paintings "Zenga" not only pottery for the purpose to spread "wabi sabi" conception. Daruma Boddhidahma is the founder of Zen Buddhism He went to China from India and spreaded meditation method with Buddhism...

Antique Japanese scroll painting depicting 13 Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Wisdom Kings. The deity at the very top is Dianichi-nyorai (Vairocana) with his hands in dhyana mudra...

Hanging scroll. Painting of two noble men on horseback. The men and the horses are dressed up beautifully and are obviously competing with each other in one way or another. Probably a scene on a horse track, the men shortly before or after a race.

Ink and mineral colors on silk, in a gold brocade mounting with bone scroll ends.

Signed in lower right: Shogai...

Deceptively simple and notoriously difficult to apply with the calligrapher’s brush in one fluid, arching stroke; the symbol of the ensō has long been associated with strength, elegance, and the simultaneous being and non-being of the universe. A closed ensō (such as the one featured here) is more closely associated with the idea of transcendent perfection, while an open ensō represents movement, fluidity, and attainment in the corporeal world. Though the monk who created this piece, Hasega...

A classic renditions of the Bodhidharma (more commonly known as the Daruma in Japan), this scroll from the Muromachi period (1336-1573) depicts the legendary monk who famously introduced Buddhism to China. Originally from India, he is said to have traveled across the Himalayas on foot to share the wisdom and knowledge from his studies of meditation which later spread to Japan, Korea, and other parts of the world. In Japanese Buddhist paintings from Edo to the present, the Daruma is often seen as...

Revered Chinese scholar and tea master, Lù Yǔ is known as the “Sage of Tea” and is credited with advancing the practice of tea through the writing of his life’s work,The Classic of Tea. Here we see a masterful rendition of this historic figure done by one of the most iconic Kyoto painters—and founder of the Maruyama school—Maruyama Ōkyo.

Student of Ishida Yutei (1772-1786), Maruyama studied primarily Kano and Tosa painting and was influenced greatly by western art, par...