A delicate depiction of 4 small landscapes depicting the seasons by Kano Shosenin Tadanobu enclosed in a wooden box titled Shiki Sanzui no Zu decorated with seasonal flowers and annotated by Sakai Hoetsu. Pigment on silk in a fine silk border with red lacquered wooden rollers. The scroll is 65 x 215 cm (26 x 84-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition completely restored in fine silk mounting...

A calligraphic verse by Fukuda Kodojin written in his flowing hand dated the Plum Flower Time of the 14th year of Taisho (early Spring, 1925). Ink on paper in a fine silk border with solid ivory rollers (these will be changed for export) enclosed in a period wooden box. It is 46.5 x 196 cm (18-1/2 x 77 inches) and is in fine condition with minor marks typical of age.
Composing verses at Hanshan Temple:
No monk is even boiling tea...

An elongated sparse landscape in ink on paper by Fukuda Kodojin a humble abode held gently between steep walls in a valley studded with bamboo and shaded by ancient boughs. The lone scholar is visible through the window, quietly passing time in his retreat, swayed only by the coming and going of the leaves. The paper canvas is mounted in pale green cloth and the scroll features black lacquered wooden rollers...

This powerful hanging scroll by Fukuda Kodojin depicts an ancient pine tree, rendered with an intensity and abstraction that typify the painter’s most expressive ink work. Kodojin dissolves the foliage into a dense, radiating mesh of pine needles, built from sharply angled, intersecting strokes. These needle clusters—at moments appearing like bursts of energy or ink “constellations”—convey both the vitality of the living tree and the spontaneous inner movement of the artist’s hand...

An expansive bucolic scene by Fukuda Kodojin making unusual use of color enclosed in the original signed wooden box. Ink and light color on paper in a fine mounting of patterned green silk with bone rollers. It is 31-1/2 x 56 inches (79.2 x 142 cm) and in excellent condition.
Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944) was an eccentric self-taught artist, his status as a poet, calligrapher and literati artist has reached legendary status...

In the collection, two hanging scrolls by Fukuda Kodojin, while composed almost identically, reveal dramatically different expressive intentions through brushwork, ink handling, and spatial rhythm. They offer a rare glimpse into Kodojin’s evolving approach to literati painting, and his subtle negotiation between disciplined restraint and spontaneous expression. This second scroll, while depicting the same setting as the previous...

The ethereal fox appears in the mist dressed in the robes of a wandering Buddhist, the wispy characters of a poem by Otagaki Rengetsu draped around like rain. The poem reads:
Hito hakaru Tricking people
Sagano no hara no as is his nature
Yuumagure at twilight in these fields of Sagano.....

Lurid Umbrella-shaped hills float like clouds beyond a lone sage standing in contemplation of the rain under a tree rendered in wet washes among a cluster of huts on this small delicate image by Fukuda Kodojin. Ink on paper in the original patterned silk border with white glazed ceramic rollers. The pale ichimonji patterned with clouds accentuates the scene. It is 24.5 x 158 cm (10 x 62-1/4 inches) and in overall fine condition...

A small convoluted landscape by Fukuda Kodojin recently restored to its original state. Ink on paper in a blue cloth border retaining the original ivory rollers (these will be changed for export). It is 28 x 111.5 cm (11 x 44 inches) and is in excellent condition.
Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944) was an eccentric self-taught artist, his status as a poet, calligrapher and literati artist has reached legendary status...

A quintessential work by Fukuda Kodojin dated 1910 exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2023, published P. 55 No. 10 The Art and Life of Fukuda Kodojin. Executed in Kodōjin’s distinctive blend of ink and pale mineral pigment, the composition rises dramatically from a foothill hermitage—two rustic pavilions nestled among tall pines—into a towering vertical world of mist-veiled peaks...

A stately ink image of a sencha Kyusu tea pot by Fukuda Kodojin signed by his Japanese Poetry name Haritsu mounted in the Chagake tea room style. Ink on silk, in a crushed paper border terminating in humble wooden rollers befitting the tea room. It is 46 x 110.5 cm (18 x 43-1/2 inches) and has been fully restored in excellent condition...

This epic hanging scroll reveals Kodōjin’s fully developed ink idiom: a vast, tiered mountain landscape composed of layered dotting, pooling, and wash, where the upper forms evoke Mi Fu–style cloud mountains, while the lower section dissolves into abstract zones of mist and bamboo groves. The brush alternates between densely scored vertical strokes suggesting rocky strata and freely scattered ink dots. The result is an oscillation between solid and void, structure and vapor, conveying the D...

Kikuchi Hobun enclosed in the original signed wooden box which identifies the birds as Mejiro, or Japanese White Eye. Pigment on silk in a fine patterned silk border with solid ivory rollers. The rollers will be changed for export. The scroll is 43.5 x 186 cm (17 x 73-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition.
Kikuchi Hobun (1862-1918) was born into a family of Hyogu-shi (professional mounters of paintings) in Osaka during the waning years of the Tokugawa government. He was adopted int...

Spectacular Large Signed Scroll Painting of a Dragon, 19th c.

A spectacular large ink painting depicting a powerful dragon emerging through swirling clouds. Executed in bold brushwork with rich tonal variation, the image captures the dynamic energy and spiritual presence traditionally associated with the dragon motif in Japanese art.
Signed by the artist. Ink on paper.

Age: 19th century
Size: Overall W.88 × H.178 cm (34.5 × 70 in)
Painting only: 72 × 118 c...

A delicate chrysanthemum painting by the tragic Nun Oishi Junkyo painted with her mouth. Pigment on silk in a silk border patterned with floral sprays over woven bamboo fence featuring bone rollers enclosed in a period wooden box. The scroll is 57 x 135.5 cm (22-1/2 x 53-1/2 inches) and is in fine condition, with toning to the silk typical of age
Oishi Junkyo’s life is a triumph over tragedy. Born into a low family, she was sent to a tea house where she became an apprentice Geisha. In...

Rendered with flowing, rhythmic brushwork, Kodōjin’s mountains seem to breathe and shift, their forms defined not by solidity but by the movement of mist and spirit. Pale washes of vermilion and gray enliven the ridges and trees, evoking autumn foliage glowing through the haze. The composition ascends in a sinuous rhythm—peaks rising through cloud, dissolving into emptiness—expressing the continuous transformation of nature and mind. At the upper right, Kodōjin inscribes a Daoist-inspire...

Excursion Into the Mountains; an austere yet dynamic vision that fuses poetic sensibility with daring abstraction by Fukuda Kodōjin executed in bold, free-flowing ink dated September 1914. This was exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2023 and is published in the book The Art and Life of Fukuda Kodojin, P. 73 No. 17. The composition builds through layered dots, splashes, and calligraphic brushwork, allowing the forms of pine, rock, and pavilion to emerge as if from a half-remembere...

This sweeping vertical landscape by Fukuda Kodojin captures the sensation of wind moving through a mountainside of pines, conveyed not through literal depiction but by the charged rhythms of the brush. Kodojin builds the mass of the forest with layered dots and broken ink strokes—an almost calligraphic “texturing” that seems to quiver with motion—while faint mineral washes in rose and grey lend the scene a hushed, dreamlike atmosphere. A small thatched hermitage, barely discernible withi...