Studio: international art (72.1918)

Studio-Talk

KOBURI IDO CHAWAN (TEA-BOWL)

(Sold ror 2219 yen at Viscount Akimoto's sale)

TOKYO.—A very important art sale
took place recently at the Tokyo Art
Club on the bank
of the Sumida River.

A collection of rare treasures
of the old family of Viscount
Akimoto, a former feudal
lord, was put up for sale
and realized 1,460,000 yen
(about £146,000). The col-
lection contained 260 items,
consisting mainly of paint-
ings by old Japanese and
Chinese artists in the form
of kakemono (hanging pic-
tures), makimono (rolls), byobu
(folding screens), and gajo
(albums). It also contained
some handwritings by famous
persons, as well as a number
of chaki (articles such as
caddy, bowl, kettle, used in
connexion with cha-no-yu,

“ an institution founded upon
the adoration of the beautiful
amidst the sordid facts of
every-day existence ”). Fur-
ther, a collection of lacquer-
wares formed no small part
of the sale. Whatever the
ware, each article, teeming
with the tradition of the old
feudal family to which it
belonged, was of the best
that could be procured. The
sale drew connoisseurs from
all parts of the empire and
enthused our art world with
a fervour hitherto unknown.

The highest price was brought by an
album containing eight small paintings
by Keishoki. The paintings, alive with
strong brushwork in black with very slight
colouring, depicted the “ Eight Scenes of
Shosho,” along the bank of Lake Dotei
in China : a distant snowy peak at sunset,
the descending of a flight of wild geese, a
rainy night, the tolling of a temple bell at
dusk, an afterglow, a sunset glow, a re-
turning sail, and an autumnal moon. In
these characteristic scenes, of which the
second, third, and sixth, are here repro-
duced, the subtle beauty of sublime
nature is presented with remarkable power for
such small paintings. The album with the

‘KOKEI SANSHO

A PAIR OF KAKEMONO BY MASANOBU

(Soldfor 82,000 yen at Viscount Akimoto's sale)

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