”Chinese Magpie”

Tanaka Raishō

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Artist Name: Tanaka Raishō
Title: ”Chinese Magpie”
Dimensions: painting：99.0×37.2cm
full length：187.1×52.0cm
Medium: Color on Silk
Description: A single withered branch stretches diagonally across the composition from the lower left toward the upper right, as if cutting across the picture plane. Perched upon it is a lone happa-chō (magpie-like bird), rendered by Raishō Tanaka.

The bird is modeled through layered applications of ink, creating gradations of dark and light that give it a sense of volume. Above, the moon is expressed through the sotoguma technique, left white and encircled by a subtle halo of ink.

Raishō Tanaka (1868–1940) was a Japanese-style painter active in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Born in Shimane Prefecture, his given name was Daijirō and his early art name was Toyofumi. From the age of thirteen he studied Chinese classics under his father, and at seventeen he resolved to become a painter, moving to Hagi to study under Kansai Mori. In 1902 (Meiji 35), he went to Tokyo and became a pupil of Gyokushō Kawabata.

While receiving multiple awards at the Japan Art Association exhibitions, he also served as a judge for the Tatsumi Painting Society, a councilor of the Nihonga Association, and later as a professor at the Kawabata Painting School.