AN IMPORTANT LACQUER PANEL DEPICTING A CROW IN THE NIGHT, SIGNED HACHIJUICHI O ZESHIN [AN OLD MAN IN HIS 81ST YEAR, ZESHIN (SHIBATA ZESHIN, 1807-1891)], MEIJI PERIOD, LATE 19TH CENTURY (1887)

Collection of Sakamoto Goro, Kyoto

Goke Tadanori, ed., Bakumatsu Kaikaki no Shikko Kaiga - Shibata Zeshin Meihin shu [Lacquer and lacquer craftsmen from the period of enlightenment at the end of the Tokugawa regime: Shibata Zeshin masterpieces], (Tokyo, 1981), no. 118.

Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) studied the art of lacquering under Koma Kansai II (1767-1835) from the age of eleven. He later studied painting in the studio of Suzuki Nanrei (1775-1844) who seems to have been fond of him and gave him the familiar name Reisai. Nanrei also gave him the names he is well known by - Zeshin, Tanzan and Rensai. He worked also with the colour print artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1862). Zeshin became quite a celebrity in Edo with his varied repertoire of popular subjects and depiction of everyday customs. He was a skilled lacquer artist and painter in the Shijo and Rinpa styles, and introduced the technique of painting with lacquer on paper to give a three dimensional effect. His range of colours and textures was unsurpassed. Zeshin made a speciality of sabiage, a lacquer surface that imitates corrosion. Zeshin made a range of lacquer work following the earlier style of Ogawa Haritsu imitating the various materials which Haritsu used as inlay, like pottery, lead and coral, all with his varied coloured and textured lacquer. His pictorial work, like the present panel, has a vivid three-dimensionality emphasised by the hue of differing sizes and textures of inlay, including maki-e with gold and silver. Zeshin was firmly established as a popular artist in the Edo period and he saw the transformation of Japan from a feudal society ruled by the samurai to a Western democracy under the Emperor Meiji. His Edo period work so fashionable in Japan made a great impact in the West, and established a ready market for his later great lacquer works. Another panel depicting a lobster was sold, Sotheby's, Fine Japanese Art, lot 157, 14 May, 2019.