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Japanese Two Panel Screen: A View Through the Trees

Circa 1935, this tranquil two-panel screen by Kyoto painter Oyabu Shunkō (born 1901) captures the quiet emergence of early spring through a grove of slender birch trees. Delicate blossoms and birds in flight animate the composition, while a softly graduated sky and layered mineral pigments create a remarkable sense of depth and atmosphere. This work is executed in the Nihonga tradition in mineral pigments on paper with a lacquer trim. A student of Yamamoto Shunkyo, Oyabu Shunkō was part of a generation of artists who carried forward traditional Japanese painting into the twentieth century, and examples of his work are held in the collection of the Matsumoto City Museum of Art.