Plum blossoms

伊藤若冲筆 梅図 一幅 紙本墨画 江戸時代 1795年頃
KYOTO painters
Ito Jakuchu, one of the most highly regarded individualist painters of the 1700s, is known for two distinct styles of painting flora and fauna: intricately decorated multicolored depictions on silk; and dynamic representations in ink on paper. The signature on this understated depiction of a single blossoming plum branch tells us that Jakuchu painted it at the age of eighty (by the Japanese method of calculating age), allowing us to date it to 1795. At this time in his life, Jakuchu lived in a cottage outside of the Obaku Zen temple Sekihoji in southeast Kyoto.