Accession Number
2017/1.600

Title
Cranes in Pine Tree

Artist(s)
Okuhara Seiko

Object Creation Date
late-19th century

Medium & Support
ink on paper

Dimensions
81 in x 18 ⅝ in (205.74 cm x 47.31 cm);2 ⅞ in x 23 in x 3 ⅛ in (7.3 cm x 58.42 cm x 7.94 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Stuart Katz

Subject matter
"Nanga (southern painting) or Bunjinga (scholar or literati painting) artists took a form of Chinese painting as their model. The Chinese Ming dynasty artist/theorist Dong Qichang (1555–1636) established two categories of painting: northern painting, which was orthodox and academic (painters were formally trained and sold their work for a living); and southern painting, which was freely executed and expressive (ideally these artists were scholar-amateurs who did not paint for a living). Japanese literati artists, although forbidden to travel to China, studied and emulated the southern style of painting and Chinese art theories through imported books. Nanga painters generally declined to serve the samurai class, and preferred instead to survive by selling works to educated merchants and farmers. They often painted for each other and prided themselves as being intellectuals, poets, tea masters, raconteurs, as well as painters. They are most associated with smaller formats, such as hanging scrolls and fans, but several Nanga artists also produced screen paintings. Nanga artists primarily resided in Kyoto and Osaka."

“Japanese Painting: Nanga and Bunjinga School: Education: Asian Art Museum.” Asian Art Museum, education.asianart.org/resources/japanese-painting-nanga-and-bunjinga-school/.
 

Physical Description
A hanging scroll with loose brush strokes outlining a bird in the branches of a tree.  There are Japanese characters in the upper left corner, and a red seal in the lower right corner.

Primary Object Classification
Calligraphy

Primary Object Type
hanging scroll

Additional Object Classification(s)
Painting

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
Gruidae (family)
trees