Ink and color on paper. Japan, 17th to early 18th cent.
From the collection of Émile Javal, French physician and politician. Itcho was an important calligrapher, painter and poet in Japan, a many-talented allrounder. He was born in Osaka as son of a doctor. As a painter, he met Kano Yasunobu, then each followed their own paths. Because he dedicated many depictions to scenes from life in Edo (Tokyo), also of Yoshiwara, his style was termed as “between Kano and Ukiyo-e“. Also his banishment was famous after he painted a concubine of the Shogun in a burlesque version. Thus he spent more than 10 years on the island Miyake Shima. There he signed his (especially expensive) works with “the Island-Itcho“, Shima Itcho. The four drawings show respectively a figurative depiction – each with admirable precise strokes. All are cut irregularly and mounted (see below about the collector). The depictions are: 1. Man with unkempt hair and fan, presumably a theater scene 2. Woman with tall black eboshi on her head, courtly robes 3. The witch Hannya with horns, wild gesticulations and the well-known mallet 4. Old man with fishing rod, presumably Urashima Taro. The leaves themselves are in average good condition. They come from the collection of the eye specialist and politician Émile Javal, 1839 - 1907. He was a delegate, friend of Zola and wrote the decisive expert assessment in the 2nd Dreyfus trial. Javal was an officer in the Legion of Honour and had five children.
SIZES AROUND 10 TO 20 CM
From a British private collection