Two Cranes

Two humorously depicted standing cranes are the subject of this painting signed "Beito-ō gyōnen hachijussai ga" (Painted by the Eighty-Year-Old Four-Gallon Rice Man). The signature indicates that the work belongs to the final phase in Itō Jakuchū's long career, when he kept a studio in front of Sekihōji, south of Kyoto. There he sold quickly executed ink paintings to support himself after the disastrous Kyoto fire of 1788 had left him in financial ruin. Because he would exchange a drawing for a to (about four gallons) of rice, he began to call himself Beito-ō (Four-Gallon Rice Man). While thus engaged, he was also trying to finance a project begun about 1776 to design five hundred stone rakan statuettes for Sekihōji.[1] Most of the hastily brushed ink-monochrome images from this period are characterized by an exaggerated style. They appear, for the most part, to have been made by Jakuchū 's assistants, of whom he evidently had at least four.[2]

This painting on silk shows a pair of cranes in quiet repose, resting contentedly on three sticklike legs. Like the roosters often depicted in late ink paintings attributed to Jakuchū , these birds are highly stylized and abstracted in form, showing none of the obsession with minute detail that characterized his earlier, polychrome works, such as White Plum Blossoms and Moon (cat. no. 119). This work differs, however, from many of his late ink-monochrome paintings on paper in that it is done simply, without the overwrought hyperbole that points to execution by pupils rather than by the master himself. It is therefore likely that Two Cranes is the product of Jakuchū 's own brush.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

1. A number of these statuettes still remain at the temple; see Umehara Takeshi 1968, pls. 58–66.
2. Myōhōin Shin 'nin Shin 'nō gochoku nikki, which is unpublished. See Kano Hiroyuki 1993, p. 313.

Signature: Beito-o gyonen hachijussai ga

Marking: Seals: To Chugin in; Jakucu koji

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

Kyoto National Museum. "Jakuchū!: Special exhibition, 200th Anniversary of Jakuchū's Death," October 24, 2000–November 26, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan I," March 1–September 21, 2003.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II," March 22–September 21, 2003.

Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," July 5, 2005–August 19, 2005.

Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 4, 2005–December 11, 2005.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," January 24, 2006–March 5, 2006.

Miho Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 15, 2006–June 11, 2006.

Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, cat. no. 100.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 352, cat. no. 429.