Lot 83: Pine Trees in Moonlight

Attributed to Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610)
Pine Trees in Moonlight
Pair of six-panel screens; ink and gold wash on paper
59¼ x 138¼ in. (150.5 x 351 cm.) each (2)

Kyoto National Museum, "Kaikan hyakushunen kinen tokubetsu tenrankai - Ogon no toki, yume no jidai - Momoyama kaiga sanka/The 100th anniversary of the Kyoto National Museum, Special Exhibition - The Age of Gold, The Days of Dreams: In Praise of the Paintings of the Momoyama Period," 1997.10.21-11.24

Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, "Nichirin to Gachirin - Taiyo to tsuki o meguru bijutsu" (The orb of sun and moon - Art featuring sun and moon), 1998.9.1-10.11

Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum, Nanao, "Hasegawa Tohaku shirizu - Hasegawaha no eshi tachi" (Hasegawa Tohaku series - Painters of the Hasegawa School), 2001. 8.25-9.24

PUBLISHED:
Kyoto National Museum, ed., Kaikan hyakushunen kinen tokubetsu tenrankai - Ogon no toki, yume no jidai - Momoyama kaiga sanka/The 100th Anniversary of the Kyoto National Museum, Special Exhibition - The Age of Gold, The Days of Dreams: In Praise of the Paintings of the Momoyama Period (Kyoto: Kyoto National Museum, 1997), pl. 53.

Miyata Ayako, Tsukiyo shorinzu byobu (Pine forest in moonlight), Kokka 1227 (January 1998).

Suntory Museum of Art, ed., Nichirin to gachirin - Taiyo to tsuki o meguru bijutsu (The orb of sun and moon - Art featuring sun and moon) (Tokyo: Suntory Museum of Art, 1998), pl. 21.

Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum, ed., Hasegawa Tohaku sirizu - Hasegawaha no eshi tachi (Hasegawa Tohaku series - painters of the Hasegawa School) (Nanao: Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum, 2001), pl. 12.

NHK Educational (DVD), Nihon no bijutsu 2 - Hasegawa Tohaku - Sengoku eshi Tenkaichi eno michi (The Art of Japan 2 - Hasegawa Tohaku - The road to the top: A painter in the age of civil war) (Tokyo: NHK Enterprises, 2006).

Pine Trees in Moonlight is a fairly recent discovery. Although it has no signature or seal, it is obviously closely related to the famous National Treasure screens of Pine Trees by Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610) in the Tokyo National Museum. Both works feature four clusters of pines arranged in almost identical groupings. There are some subtle differences, however. Most striking is the addition of a moon in the pair of screens shown here. Gold wash suggests moonlight, and ink was applied to the back of the paper to darken the surface and enhance the contemplative, nocturnal mood.

According to Miyata Ayako, writing in a recent issue of Kokka, Tohaku injured his right hand in 1604, leaving his immediate followers in a difficult position. Over the course of the following decade, Hasegawa Sotaku (d. 1611) and Hasegawa Toshu (d. 1613) studied Tohaku's oeuvre and introduced new motifs into paintings in his style. Pine Trees in Moonlight is thought to date from that period. No one doubts that it was painted during Tohaku's lifetime either by a close student working under his supervision or by the master himself.