Description:

East Asia, Japan, Edo period, late 17th to early 18th century CE. A finely painted hanging scroll depicting a woman as itinerant monk, a figure known as Onna Komuso (Otsu-e), playing a Japanese flute known as a Shakuhachi, the composition finely delineated in ink and color on paper. A Komuso was a Japanese mendicant monk of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism. Many of these women were widows of warriors who withdrew from the world and wore large basket-like hats called tengai to remain incognito. The Fuke sect appealed to such widows of samurai as well as ronin who found it acceptable to become beggars in the sect. Size (image): 8.75" W x 12.75" H (22.2 cm x 32.4 cm); (full scroll): 10.3" W x 36" H (26.2 cm x 91.4 cm)

See a similar example at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1983.9).

Provenance: private Minnesota, USA collection; ex Edson Spencer collection; ex Asian Fine Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

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#150447

  • Condition: Light tearing of paper along topmost periphery, with light water damage and staining to paper and image, and fading and abrasions to painted pigments, otherwise intact and very good. Nice remains of original pigment across painting.

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July 30, 2020 8:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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