Happy new year!

This year I borrowed a picture of Jakuchu, who I loved because I knew it was the year of the tiger.  Jakuchu Ito is a Japanese painter who was active in the Edo period in the 1700s.  Jakuchu, who studied painting on his own and continued to paint by the time he passed away at the age of 84 in 1800, left many works in his life.  His elaborate painting method is powerful enough to keep other painters away.  However, until recent years, Jakuchu was a heretical painter in the middle of the Edo period, known only to some experts.  It was Mr. Joe Price and his wife Etsuko and  who made this Jakuchu known to the world.  Mr. and Mrs. Price are known as the world’s number one collector of Ito Jakuchu, and the “Jakuchu Exhibition” held at the Kyoto National Museum in 2000, 200 years after the death of Jakuchu, triggered the subsequent explosive boom.  The excitement of having observed this “Jakuchu Exhibition” is still vividly revived.

明けましておめでとうございます。

今年は寅年と知って大好きな若冲の絵を借りました。伊藤若冲は、1700年代の江戸時代に活躍した日本の画家です。独学で絵を学び、1800年に84歳で他界するまでに作品を描き続けた若冲は、生涯にわたり多くの作品を世に残しました。その精緻な画法は他の画家達を寄せ付けない迫力があります。しかしながら若冲は、近年まで一部の専門家のみが知る江戸中期の異端の画家でした。この若冲を世に知らしめたのが、エツコ&ジョー・プライス夫妻です。プライス夫妻は世界一の伊藤若冲のコレクターとして知られ、夫妻が関わり2000年に京都国立博物館で開催された、若冲没後200年の『若冲展』がその後の爆発的ブームの引き金になりました。この『若冲展』を奇しくも見学した興奮が今も鮮やかに蘇ってきます。