Lot 302: Tsubaki Chinzan (1801-1854)

Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk; depicting the tall flowers growing amid garden rocks with rosehip-covered branches and autumn grasses, two insects hovering in the air at left, while others draw nectar from an orange cockscomb blossom, above; signed Tsubaki hitsu with seals Baki, Takuka and Chinzan no in; together with a double tomobako bearing an authentication signed Watanabe Kai and dated in accordance with 1880, to the inner box lid.
44 1/2 x 21 3/4in (113 x 55.2cm)

The inscribed poem celebrates the beauty of the cockscomb flower that survives even through a winter's frost. The style of the signature and the small seals used here date this work to the period around 1840-1845. The tomobako contains a letter of authenticity dated to 1948, by Seijo (dates unknown), a prominent Kyoto mounter.