Birds and Flowers of Four Seasons

These four scrolls were entered in the 11th Bunten Exhibition held in 1917. Each is painted in vivid colors, covering the entire composition with simplified depiction of flowers and plants in a Rimpa school decorative style. While labeled an old-school Nihonga painter, the bright freshness of the color palette and simplified forms, reveal both a beginning in Edo Rimpa effects, along with Jippo's strong desire to break new ground from his Rimpa studies. Jippo himself commented, "Differing from existing methods and colors, in 1917 I was able to create bird and flower paintings from my ideals," and, "Copying nature is second, my heart is focused on discovering my own artistic will." His experimentation can be seen in the use of tonal variation of colors to create a sense of perspective in the stand of trees, and in the expression of external light.