Mt Fuji rises magnificent above the clouds in this painting by Fukuda Kodojin exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2023 and published in The Art and Life of Fukuda Kodojin p. 135 No. 35. Ink on paper in copper colored patterned silk with gold piping featuring bone rollers enclosed in a wooden box. The scroll is 42 x 191 cm (17 x 75 inches) and is in excellent condition.
The poem reads:
Sacred peak-three provinces—
The green goes on forever;
Dark or clear, through several changes
Roll the thunder bolts.
Clouds and mist so vast and wide,
Press on the foothill plains,
Sun and moon move on and on,
Departing from the great expanse.
At midnight, high and cold,
Our brilliant Monarch's throne;
For thousands of years, standing alone,
Manifesting divine intelligence.
His glowing face like jade
Causes men to feel reverence:
True gentlemen bequeath to their land
Model works as classics.
Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944) was an eccentric self-taught artist, his status as a poet, calligrapher and literati artist has reached legendary status. Born at a time of great change (4 years before the final fall of the Edo Government), he lived through the westernization of Meiji, Taisho Democracy, the rise of Imperialism and final defeat of the Showa eras. He was part of a small group of artists existing outside conventional circles in pre-war Japan. He moved to a village outside of Kyoto in 1901, where he supported himself and his family by privately tutoring those who wished to learn Chinese-style poetry. Kodojin was simply a scholar. His poetry, painting, and calligraphy all stem from a life-long cultivation of the mind. He was said to have taken the time just before his death to destroy the large portion of his own remaining work, leaving only that which must have met some personal criteria. Kodōjin’s paintings and calligraphy survive mainly in private collections, but significant works can be found in the collections of the British Museum, Freer Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Honolulu Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museo Kaluz, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, Tanabe City Museum of Art and Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Art among others including such well known Private collections as the Cowles Collection, Hakutakuan Collection, Manyoan Collection and Welch Collection. Twenty five paintings by the artist formed a private exhibition (from the Gitter-Yelen collection) at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2000. In recent years, exhibitions such as The Last Master of the Literati Tradition: Fukuda Kodōjin (Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2023) have brought renewed attention to his achievement. For more on his life see the book Old Taoist, or Unexplored Avenues of Japanese Painting.
