Plum Blossoms
Hashimoto Kansetsu Japanese
Not on view
A gnarled and twisted plum tree in bloom twists in and out of the curved picture plane formed by the arc of this folding fan. The remainder of the fan’s surface is filled with poetic inscriptions in Chinese by the artist. Although light touches of color appear on the angular tree trunk, the overall impression is monochromatic.
Hashimoto Kansetsu was the son of a painter and Confucian scholar, and it was likely his upbringing that encouraged his lifelong interest in Chinese art and culture. Although his best-known works are his paintings of animals, this fan, painted in a manner inspired by Chinese literati artists, with poems brushed in Chinese, may reflect the influence of Kansetsu’s frequent trips to China, where he traveled south along the Yangtze River, north to Beijing, and even further north to Manchuria. At a time when many Japanese artists and intellectuals were turning to the West for inspiration and models, Kansetsu championed the art and lifestyle of Chinese literati and expressed the need to maintain cultural exchange with China.
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