Camellia Petals Scattering (Important Cultural Property)

This painting depicts the camellias at Jizô-in Temple in Kyoto's northern district, popularly known as the Camellia Temple. The painting centers on the double petal multicolored camellias whose petals scatter individually like those of the camellia sasanqua. At the time that Gyoshû made his onsite sketches, these camellia plants were already 400 years old. Those original trees have since died and the plants seen there today represent the second generation. The color plane compositional form sought by Gyoshû in his Emerald Mosses and Verdant Turf, is even more apparent in this work. The composition almost cuts up the gold ground, clearly an aesthetic learned from Sôtatsu's Pines, and his close observation of the camellias reveals the results of the material feel depiction sought in the Taishô period, particularly in the rendering of the flowers and stems. The full evocation of beautiful pigments seen here is based on the superior understanding of Nihonga pigments gained through years of study in the Taishô era. The gold ground was created through the sprinkling of fine gold powder onto thin kanbishi type paper, a means of subduing the glossy effect of a gold ground. This work was named an Important Cultural Property in 1977, the first time such an honor was bestowed upon a Shôwa or later era work.