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Japanese Scroll: Black Cat by Katsuta Shokin

This lovable feline is beautifuly painted in realistic form with mineral pigments on silk in a silk brocade border.  Kiriwood makers box. Painting dimentions: 25 1/2"h. x 34"w. Katsuta Shokin (1879-1963) started in the arts under Node Shou around the age of 12. He began advanced painting studies in Tokyo under Hashimoto Gaho in 1899, enrolling in the Tokyo School of Fine Arts the following year. He advanced rapidly, completing a four year course in three. Under the influence of Rabindranath Tagore and with a letter of introduction from Okakura Tenshin, he moved to India in 1905, where he taught at the Calcutta University of Art. He returned to Japan in 1907, and was accepted into the first Bunten that same year, and entered the Kokuga Gyokusei-Kai art society. He was awarded at the 7th Bunten in 1913. Along with Ishii Rinkyo he helped to establish the Josuikai art society in 1919. In 1929 he was selected as a juror for the Teiten National Exhibition. However, in opposition to policies of that organization during the war years, he left in 1935. He spent the war years in Fukushima, taking on the name Kenshiso.