Lot 226: Enomoto Chikatoshi (1898-1793)

Senninbari (A thousand needles to support the troops)
Sealed Chikatoshi in
Ink and color on paper, framed and glazed
86 3/4 x 60 5/8in. (220.2 x 154cm.)

Hosokawa Rikizo Collection
Meguro Gajoen Museum of Art, Tokyo

As a part of the Zen culture of Imperial Japan, Japanese women created these senninbari for their men. These belts were believed to confer courage, good luck and immunity from injury (especially bullets) upon their wearers. The women had to be the man's mother, sister or wife. The belts were worn under uniforms of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Born in Tokyo, Chikatoshi became a student of Kaburagi Kiyokata in 1916. He exhibited together with Ito Shinsui, Yamakawa Shuho and other students of Kiyokata in 1918 and graduated from the Nihonga section of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko) in 1921. A year later, in 1922, his painting "Trip" won an award in the fourth Teiten; subsequently he received many more awards and gained popularity for his paintings of modern beauties in Japanese style. Chikatoshi had a reputation for "avant-garde" compositions. His daughter and his wife both posed for him as models for his paintings in the 1930s. He exhibited in Teiten and Shin Bunten throughout the 1930s. In addition to showing his work at public exhibitions, he participated in Kiyokata's private Kyodokai and Shinsui's Seiginkai. After the war he became a juror for Nitten exhibitions. In 1962 he was commissioned to paint murals for the Hotel Okura in Tokyo.

This lot is offered without reserve.