This powerful postwar ink landscape, dated Shōwa 22 (1947), presents a rugged mountain ridge overlooking a quiet village nestled among leafless trees. Executed in dense, heavily worked brushstrokes and strong tonal contrasts, the painting blends the bold texture of early modern Japanese expressionism with underlying references to Chinese literati landscape structure. The massive foreground rock forms are rendered with muscular, almost sculptural force, their swirling ink masses lending the composition a sense of compressed energy. In contrast, the distant houses and winter trees are drawn with delicate, almost calligraphic precision, producing a compelling tension between abstraction and detail. Across the upper register runs a poetic inscription evokes images of winter cold, plum fragrance, chill winds, and the return of spring—motifs deeply rooted in Chinese-style kanshi poetry and traditionally associated with perseverance and renewal.
To the right, a short phrase reads: “Asking the Way—spring has yet to be recognized”. Created only two years after the end of World War II, the painting’s stark mountains, distant towers, and searching inscription resonate with the broader emotional tenor of early postwar Japan—an unsettled landscape poised between loss and the faint promise of renewal. Ink on paper in a superb mounting of patterned white silk extended with blue-gray paper and featuring bone rollers. It is 25 x 52 inches (63.5 x 132 cm) and in fine condition.
