A long and splendid Makimono hand scroll by the great literati artist Tanomura Chokunyu dated what appears to be 1865 with the title page dated from the plum month of 1905 enclosed in a box with the inner lid signed by his student Hattori Goro dated the 4th month of Meiji 40 (1908), the outer lid signed by what appears to be Chikuson in 1912. Titles such as this are always difficult to translate, as they are more picture than word, but this could be read “Cold Water Rings (like a bell) in the Green Mountains”. Ink with sporadic accents of green and brown on paper in a silk wrapping. It is 5.8 meters (19 feet) long, 22 cm (9 inches) wide and in overall excellent condition.
Tanomura Chokunyu (1814–1907) was a leading Japanese literati (nanga) painter active from the late Edo through early Meiji periods and the most prominent successor to the Bungo-school tradition established by Tanomura Chikuden. Born in Bungo Province (present-day Ōita Prefecture), he was adopted into the Tanomura family and trained rigorously under Chikuden, inheriting both his teacher’s scholarly ethos and command of Chinese literati painting models. Chokunyu excelled in ink landscapes, figures, and scholarly subjects, characterized by disciplined brushwork, balanced composition, and refined poetic restraint. After the Meiji Restoration, he relocated to Kyoto, where he became a central figure in the preservation and transmission of literati ideals at a time of rapid modernization. Through teaching, painting, and cultural leadership, Chokunyu played a crucial role in sustaining the continuity of nanga aesthetics into modern Japan, and his works are today regarded as exemplars of late literati painting imbued with historical consciousness and quiet intellectual depth.
