“One Hundred Cranes and Tortoises”

Ikeda Koson

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Artist Name: Ikeda Koson
Title: “One Hundred Cranes and Tortoises”
Dimensions: All three scrolls
painting：96.1×32.2cm
full length：182.0×44.6cm
Medium: ink with colors on silk
Year: 1850-1868
Description: The cranes and tortoises are counted as one hundred in the title though it is not so much. It seems like there are actually a lot of them like one hundred at the first looking.
Cranes, tortoises, and Horai Island, they all represent fortune in Japanese new year.

Ikeda Koson (1803-1868) was a painter of the late-Edo period.
When he was a teen, he studied under Sakai Hōitsu with Suzuki Kiitsu.
He was not only a painter but also a good poet.