Lot 37: A CHICKEN BENEATH A LOQUAT BRANCH

Ito Jakuchu (1716 - 1800) and Minagawa Kien (1735 - 1807) A Chicken Beneath a Loquat Branch Hanging scroll, ink on paper, sealed To Jokin in and Jakuchu koji, with a poem by Minagawa Kien, signed Heian Minagawa Gen dai and sealed Minagawa Gen no in and Hakkyo uji, a wood box with inscription Jakuchu ga Kien san [painted by Jakuchu, inscribed by Kien] 113.5 x 47cm. (excluding mount)

113.5 x 47cm.

Ito Jakuchu, listed along with Maruyama Okyo in the Who’s Who of Kyoto, was one of the foremost painters during the latter eighteenth century. Unlike Okyo, a professional painter, Jakuchu by trade was a vegetable wholesaler; but Jakuchu was so keen on painting that he retired at the first opportunity in order to become a lay monk and devote himself to his passion. He was particularly celebrated for his paintings of chickens, which he kept as pets and sketched from life – hence the unusual, often comic poses of his birds. He executed this favourite subject in both splendid polychrome and the uniquely playful monochrome technique we see here. Jakuchu used a special absorbent paper (gasenshi) and piled up layers and blots of ink with a wet brush producing a sensuous velvety effect both on the flora and the fauna. This painting epitomises Jakuchu’s approach to the subject: the exuberant cockerel seems to be showing off for an unseen mate. His feathers are fluffed, he dances on one leg, he glares intently, and he pulls his wings sharply down, imbuing the performance with a peculiar tension. With typical Jakuchu humor, the ovoid white shape on the chicken's body is echoed in the elonged round eye -- both suggestive of eggs. Adding to the unique value of the painting is the twenty-eight-syllable Chinese poem by another important Kyoto figure, the Confucian scholar Minagawa Kien. Like Jakuchu, Kien devoted himself to Chinese studies. He is particularly prized as a calligrapher. The appearance of Kien's Chinese poem on Jakuchu's painting suggests that they may have known each other through the auspices of the venerable Zen priest Daiten Kenjo (1719-1801), abbot of Shokokuji, whose fame in Chinese studies was legendary. Kien described Jakuchu's unique monochrome technique in a poem he inscribed on another painting of Jakuchu's, Chrysanthemum and Garden Rock in the Denver Art Museum: "Moving his brush on the white paper, his hand is steady; All he does is add layer upon layer of faint ink to depict petals; From where does he derive this unusual manner of painting? Looking at it, it appears to be flowers emerging from the frost" (see Kobayashi Tadashi, "Ito Jakuchu: A Man Rejoicing in Painting" (Orientations vol. 43 no.3, April 2012, p. 39). More study is required to comprehend the relationship between text and picture here. A tentative translation reads: Tide waters and verdant mountains spin around in the sunlight, My heart and mind link together as one. Try to catch the right moment as you did, Rarely a valiant sage in this universe.