Welcoming the Spring

Fang Ming (1881-1940) 方洺

“Naruto Whirlpools” 1935

Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper
74.4 x 87.5 cm. (29 5/8 x 34 1/2 in.)

Inscription:
“In Japan there is a fortress-like pass,
the strait called Naruto;
Each day at noon and midnight
the tide comes like a rushing dragon.
Turning round and round,
it makes a whirlpool;
Blue waves splash white and cold,
pouring down like an overturned plate.
Dangerous and narrow, the boat men lament,
its strangeness requires the soul of a painter;
Climbing high and looking around,
one feels as though in the K’un-lun Mountains.

Master of the Ts’an-chu Retreat, Fang Ming (painted this)
and also inscribed a poem during spring of the year 1935.

Artist’s seal:
Fang Tzu-i Shih

P’u-ju (1887-1963) 傅儒

“Snow Landscape”

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
118.5 x 40.4 cm. (46 5/8 x 15 7/8 in.)

Inscription:
“The moon rises and snow begins to crystallize, winter light regulates the rippling waves;
The goblet’s mouth is filled with fine clouds, neither heaven nor earth has fixed forms.
Shadows from drawn out willows at times encroach, terraces above the pond have solitary halls;
At the very top a wild goose calls.
what the river imprisons is mostly pure and tall.
Select clothes that are strong against the capital winds,
in the midst of night don’t be disappointed by unfulfilled wishes. Hsin-yu (P’u-ju, painted and) also inscribed this.

Artists’ seals:
Tung-tung wang-sun; Hsi-ch’uan i-shih; Fan-yang chih-chien

(see write up below)

Wang Chi-ch’ien (C.C. Wang, 1907-2003)
王己千

“Still-life” 1954

Hanging scroll ink on paper
72.5 x 53.9 cm. (28 1/2 x 21 1/4 in.)

Inscription:
“During spring of the year 1954, (painted by) Chi-ch’ien.”

Artist’s seal:
Wang Chi-ch’ien

(see write up below)

Luo Jianwu (b.1944) 羅建武

“Han Dynasty Cypress” 2003-2011

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
30.5 x 127 cm. (12 x 50 in.)

Inscriptions:
“Pure and odd, old and strange.”
“This cypress of the Han is two thousand years old, while the Republic is only one hundred years old. I took up my brush on this painting at age sixty (sui, i.e. in 2003) and completed in at sixty-eight (sui, i.e. in 2011.) Luo Jianwu. Before my eyes what was pure has withered away.”

Artist’s seals:
Jianwu; Holuo (“The River Luo”)

Luo Jianwu (b. 1944) 羅建武

K’ung-miao Ku-po “Old Cypress at Confucian Temple” 2012

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
140 x 70.5 cm. (70 x 27 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions:
“Old Cypress at the Confucian Temple.” “During the year 2012, painted in Beijing by the sixty-nine sui
old man Luo Jianwu.”

Artist’s seals:
Luo Jianwu; Ho-lo (“South of the Yellow River”); Ch’a-ch’ih (“Crazy for Tea”); Ts’ung wu so hao (“Following what I love”); Ch’eng-huai (“Embracing purity”); Sui-han hou-tiao (“In the depths of winter (one knows) that (pines and cypress) are the last to wither,” a quote from Confucius.)

(see write up below)

Zhu Daoping (b. 1949) 朱道平

“The Guanyin Pavilion at Swallow Jetty.”

Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper
54.5 x 62 cm. (21 1/2 x 24 3/8 in.)

Inscription:
“The Guanyin Pavilion at Swallow Jetty (in Nanjing).”

Artist’s seal:
Daoping

Okada Beisanjin (1754-1829) 岡田米山人

“World of Sumiyoshi” 1826

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
136.4 x 58.7 cm. (53 3/4 x 23 1/8 in.)

“Sharp enough to slice a hair blown by the wind, the sword is cold and shining even in its sheath. All the demons are humbled and raise their hands together in worship. Demons curse the Buddha just as the dog of King Jie barked at the sage King Shun. Painted by Beisanjin at the age of seventy-three sai.”

Artist’s seals:
Koku; Shigen

Box inscription:
Kai Sumiyoshi (“The World of Sumiyoshi”).

Published:
Santogakakurabe Kyo, Osaka, wo mite Edo wo Shiru, (“Painters in the Three Capitals of Kyoto, Osaka, Edo”), Fuchu Art Museum, March 2012, cat. 135, p. 185.

(see write up below)

Ito Jakuen (later 18th-early 19th century) 伊藤若演

“Rooster on Rice Basket”

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
93.8 x 41.5 cm. (36 7/8 x 16 3/8 in.)

Artist’s seals:
To Masatoki; Jinjyu; Jakuen

(see write up below)