Japanese color woodcut, ink, paper, 21x27 cm (paper size), artist's signature, publisher's inscriptions in Japanese in the margins
An analogous woodcut is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The work is from an album entitled: Keibun Kachō Gafu (Sketches of Flowers and Birds by Keibun, Part II) published in Osaka in October 1892 by Aoki Kôsaburô. A total of 12 woodcuts were published in the album. This is the first edition of these woodcuts.
Matsumura Keibun (1779 - 1843), born Naoji Matsumura, lived and worked in Kyoto in the early 19th century. He began his artistic career as a painter of the Shijo school, studying with his older brother Goshun Matsumura and Okyo Maruyama. He exhibited his works as early as 1796, and inherited Goshuna's studio after his death in 1811. In 1813 he was listed in a directory of Kyōto's most famous citizens. Well-educated in the art theories of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Keibun had close ties with sinologists in Kyoto's intellectual circles. He became a leading artist of his generation, securing the position of the Shijo school. In terms of printmaking, he is known for his delicate and elegantly composed studies of birds and flowers (kacho-e). In addition to his artistic career, Keibun served as an assistant to Prince Shinnin, who took Buddhist vows. Myoshoin in Kyoto has many paintings by Keibun, who lived in this Buddhist temple for a time. After his death, he was initially buried at Daitsū-ji, a Ōtani-ha temple, but was later moved to Konpuku-ji, a more prestigious Zen temple. His works are in several museums, including the British Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Birmingham Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The term "kachō-ga" in Japanese is a combination of three words: "ka" - flower, "cho" - bird, "ga" - painting, so it literally means paintings of flowers and birds. In Far Eastern art, it is one of the leading artistic themes. It also encompasses plants, grasses, trees, animals, fish, insects - in fact, the entire living natural world except humans and landscapes. Kacho-e prints have been highly regarded for their beauty and accuracy, and have been widely collected both in Japan and abroad. The popularity of these prints is due in part to their reflection of traditional Japanese values and aesthetics, which placed a high value on harmony with nature. The woodcuts were often imbued with symbolic and allegorical meaning, such as the association of certain birds or flowers with certain seasons or features. The kachō-ga masters were driven by both expression and emotion; they succeeded in capturing the colors and delicacy of flowers and the behavior of birds in the wild. Saturated with metaphorical meaning beyond their physical beauty, specific pairs of birds, insects and flowers became the basis of a tradition that continues to this day.
