ARTWORK OF JAPANESE MASTER PAINTER 'SHIMMERS' IN PARIS

The exceptional artwork of 18^th-century Japanese artist Itō Jakuchū is being shown in Europe for the first time, at the Petit Palais in Paris, France, from Sept. 15 - Oct. 14.

Titled “The Colorful Realm of Living Beings”, the exhibition brings together 30 delicate scrolls that make up the masterpiece of the same name. The show spotlights Jakuchū’s original use of color as well as his “keen sense of observation and his highly personal worldview”, according to the curators.

Ito Jakuchu "Fowls". 1795.

 The Museum of the

 Imperial Collections, Tokyo.

The artist, who lived from 1716 to 1800, was admired during his lifetime for his “shimmering colors and ingenious pictorial language”, the curators add. He found inspiration in nature and portrayed flowers, fish and birds (such as peacocks and roosters) in flamboyant hues and settings.

“It’s a surprise when you see his work for the first time because you don’t expect such bright colors,” said Aya Ōta, head curator, representing The Museum of the Imperial Collections in Japan (located in the gardens of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo). 

Jakuchū, a committed Buddhist, donated these paintings on silk to the famed Shōkoku-ji Temple in Kyoto, where they were displayed in the main building during religious ceremonies.

They then became part of the Imperial Collection and were eventually bequeathed to the Japanese State. The scrolls are shown in Paris courtesy of the Imperial Household Agency of Japan.

During the 20^th century, the public largely forgot about the works, however, as other artists became more noted. But in the past few years, Jakuchū has become the “object of serious scholarship, leading to a remarkable resurgence in his popularity,” say the curators.

The vibrant entrance to the exhibition.

“Jakuchū is highly important because he added to the currents and changed the style,” said Ōta in an interview, during the opening of the exhibition. “He inherited the traditions and built upon them.”

In 1999, restoration of the works began and lasted six years, highlighting Jakuchū’s skill in the use of the urazaishiki technique, in which certain areas of the back of the paintings are colored to increase of reduce the effect of the tint on the silk.

The exhibition gives a palpable sense of the Edo period in Japan from 1603 to 1867, when the arts flourished and certain artistic currents emerged, such as ukiyo-e (images of the floating world); this included vivid paintings of landscapes and of plant and animal life.

“The Colorful Realm of Living Beings” also emphasises Jakuchū’s place in the history of Japanese art.

“He’s really at the summit today, one of the biggest artists when you see what the critics write,” said Ōta. - Tasshon