Early Summer Scene

After attending Fudosha, Tsunetomo graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He started the magazine Hosun together with Hakutei Ishii and others. In 1914, he went to Europe and sympathized with C_zanne’s style. He returned to Japan the following year. In 1922, he took part in the foundation of Shunyokai. Although he started out as a yoga artist, after returning from Europe, he portrayed the nature in Musashino and lakeside districts in poetic brushstrokes of ink and wash and was praised as “the poet of the plains.”

The ink paintings by Tsunetomo are commonplace views of Musashino or lakeside districts, but a refreshing breeze drifts through and the smell of plants permeates there. Particularly when there are incidental human figures in the painting, we begin to hear their cheerful conversation and the monotonous landscape suddenly becomes full of life. Although there are no people in this painting, a dog frolicking vigorously after a butterflies plays that role. Employing the traditional nihonga method of building the composition upwards from bottom to top, the extensive rice paddies in the Kanto Plain are depicted ingeniously. Tsunetomo favored the plain in the early summer as a subject to paint and commented, “I like the greenness of the plants, brightness of the water, and that there is water in the summer plains.” He did many landscapes with water like this one.