International studio (60.1916/1917)

Studio-Talk


TEA-JAR NAMED “ DAN-SETSU ”
(“REMAINING snow”)
(COUNT DATlS SALE, 27OO YEN')

11,000 yen, and a pottery tea-jar named Dan-setsu
(“ Remaining Snow ”) fetched 2700 yen. Okyo’s
drawing of a group of cranes under a pine-tree by
the seashore was sold for 1600 yen. Two pairs
of screens with landscape-paintings by Kano-
Furunobu were sold for 2500 yen. A kakemono
of Shoki by Sesshyu, though it brought only the
modest sum of 806 yen, possessed strong yet
pleasing qualities rarely found in his figure-sub-
jects. But no painting among those offered for
sale has given a more profound serenity, that
comes from a harmonious blending of man and
nature, from a perfect concord of man’s expression
of his inner self with the voice of nature, than
Motonobu’s Shiki and Hakuga, which was sold at
the auction for 29,000 yen. In this painting
Motonobu seems to have soared to an unusual

height, much above the plane he attained in his
famous landscape in the shin style, which brought
30,000 yen in the first sale.

Another subject by the same artist attracted
considerable attention—a set of three kakemono :
sneezing Hotei in the centre, a long-armed monkey
on a pine-tree on the right, and another embracing
a baby monkey and sitting on an oak-tree on the
left. The set was sold for 30,000 yen. A peculiar
custom of drinking through the nose in order to
refresh oneself is said to have been in vogue in
Southern China, whence Hotei is believed to have
come. This custom developed a habit of sneezing
by thrusting a piece of grass or twisted paper into
the nostril, as shown in Motonobu’s painting
of Hotei under discussion. There was a belief
that sneezing dispelled everything unpleasant and
cured all sicknesses. Our ancient literature shows
that there was a time when sneezing was considered
to be a sign of being in love. A popular super-
stition still has it that one sneeze is a sign of being
well spoken of, two of being disliked, three of
being in love, and four is a sure sign of catching
cold. Motonobu seems to have been the first of
our artists to depict Hotei in this peculiar habit.

The second sale brought a little less than half
a million yen, making the total of the two sales up
to 1,460,000 yen. Encouraged by this splendid
result several old houses in Tokyo and Kyoto
opened the doors of their godowns and put up
their family treasures to auction. Thus an un-
usually large number of art objects changed hands
last year, stirring the artistic enthusiasm of our
people. Harada-Jiro.


210

“GROUP OF CRANES.” BY MARUYAMA OKYO. (COUNT DATE SALE, l6oo YEN)