About "Calligraphy"
Ink on paper, with a box signed and sealed by Tanikawa Tetsuzo (112×23㎝ / 186×35㎝)
An Ivy-like climbing plant tumbles, its leaves changing colors here and there, fortunately preventing the tiny thorns from creeping in.
"Master Gyokudo's hand is outrageous and other-worldly" wrote Tanomura Chikuden in his Chikuden-so Shiyu Garoku (Records of Chikuden's Teachers and Friends). Calligraphy by Uragami Gyokudo is certainly extraordinary and is said to be recognizable at first glance with his strongly characteristic and non-conforming ways. If a work represents the creator, his hand certainly shows Gyokudo's anti-conventional spirit. Each character in this calligraphy work, mainly written in semi-cursive script with some cursive characters mixed in, has strong personality, but as a whole piece they are united to provide a unique rhythm. Gyokudo, a Koto harp lover, declared that there was no works of him without a harp. Though there is no Koto directly mentioned in this piece, it may represent the scene in which strings of Koto vibrate the air, fading to silence, and it is not hard to imagine the picture of Gyokudo sitting in front of the seven-stringed Koto harp.
About "Uragami Gyokudo"
Nanga (Southern School (of Chinese painting)) painter from end of Edo era. Served at Okayama Domain but left at age 50 to devote himself to travel and arts.
He wandered around various places in Japan with his koto (a Japanese stringed musical instrument), interacting with many writers, and later settled down in Kyoto.
He is a self-taught artist, but his free-spirited landscape paintings possess a unique dignity, opening up new horizons for the successful staging of an innovative and exciting literati painting.
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Kashima Arts Co., Ltd.
3-3-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031
TEL：+81(0)3-3276-0700
FAX：+81(0)3-3276-0701
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Office Hours：10:00 - 18:00
Closed：Sunday and national holidays
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