Orchid

Just a single sprig of pink orchid blossoms stands out from the spray of green leaves, twisting in the gentle breeze. The orchid, symbol of loyalty and unappreciated virtue, was a favorite theme of East Asian literati painters through the ages.

Kaigan Jōkō spent his early years as a priest at Shōfukuji 聖福寺, an Ōbaku Zen temple in his native Nagasaki. While there he also studied painting under Kumashiro Yūhi 熊代熊斐 (1712–1773), one of the most prominent Japanese students of the Chinese émigré painter Shen Quan (Shen Nanpin; 1682–1760), who had spent several years in Nagasaki in the early 1730s. Yūhi nurtured numerous students in Nagasaki, giving rise to a network of painters that would come to be known as the Nanpin school or Nagasaki school. Yūhi’s two top disciples, Kaigan Jōkō (better known by his sobriquet Kakutei, as used here) and Sō Shiseki 宋紫石 (1715–1786) are credited with transmitting the school’s colorful, naturalistic style of bird-and-flower painting to the cities of Kyoto and Edo, respectively.

For many years, the authenticity of this painting was disputed because the seals could not be verified by other accepted examples. In recent years, however, with the publication of numerous examples in Japanese temple, museum and private collections, Kakutei’s use a wide variety of seals, including these, has been confirmed.