An orchid accompanied by a poem by the tragic nun Oishi Junkyo enclosed in a fine kiri-wood box. Ink and light color on paper in a fabulous silk border like a sunset sky filled with clouds and featuring ceramic rollers. The scroll is 57.5 x 125.5 cm (23 x 49-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition.
Junkyo’s life is a triumph over tragedy. Born into a low family, she was sent to a tea house where she became an apprentice Geisha. In a famous incident, the Tea House owner in a drunken rage murdered 5 of the Geisha, and cut off both of Junkyo’s arms. She survived. Becoming then a teller of stories and singer, she one day saw a bird feeding her young, and realized she could paint if she used her mouth to hold the brush. She enrolled into a studio, and became an accomplished painter in the Nihonga tradition. She then married and had two children, but later divorced, raising the two children alone. She became a nun, and opened a counseling/self-help center for the disabled. This was the war years, and the midst of Japan’s industrial revolution. Both mishaps in the machinations of industry and battle kept her half-way house filled with people in need. After the war she established a temple, and continued her philanthropic work.
