Searching for Plums at Tsukigase
Overall (without knobs): 89 1/2 × 26 1/2 inches (227.33 × 67.31 cm)
Image: 57 1/2 × 20 1/4 inches (146.05 × 51.44 cm)
Tomioka Tessai admired the culture of Chinese scholar-artists, to whom the plum represented purity of spirit. Following their tradition, Tessai often created ink paintings of idealized mountain landscapes, such as this scene of Tsukigase, a famous plum-viewing site near Nara, Japan, which he visited several times.
In the inscription on the upper left, the artist refers to his memory of visiting the Tsukigase valley with his friend Itakura Kaidō (1822–1879):
No valleys, no mountains are without plum trees,
The blossoms are profuse by the winding river,
You may laugh at my solitary habit of searching out rare scenes,
But I have also come here with a companion.
Appreciating plum blossoms with the venerable Kaidō at Tsukigase; painted and written by Tesshi in the third month of Meiji 8 [1875].
Translated by Stephen Addiss; Tesshi is one of the artist names Tessai used.
With Bishop Sakamoto Kojo, Hyogo, Japan, by 1958;
His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.
