”Fierce Tiger”

Maruyama Ōkyo

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Artist Name: Maruyama Ōkyo
Title: ”Fierce Tiger”
Dimensions: painting：106.0×48.7cm
full length：195.9×60.9cm
Medium: Ink and Color on Paper
Year: 1768
Description: ”Maruyama Ōkyo – Fierce Tiger”

This tiger painting was executed in 1768 (Meiwa 5), when Maruyama Ōkyo was thirty-six years old. At that time, there were virtually no opportunities in Japan to see a real tiger, and it is believed that he based his depiction on earlier paintings by his predecessors. Itō Jakuchū also produced a copy of a tiger painting attributed to Li Gonglin.

Perhaps because this is an early work, it does not yet display particularly delicate brushwork; however, the tiger’s body, shown flexing and twisting, is rendered with lively and energetic strokes.

There is another tiger painting bearing the signature “Maruyama Natsun,” which predates his adoption of the name Ōkyo. In contrast, this work is notable for including both a date inscription and the signature “Ōkyo,” making it a comparatively rare example.

Maruyama Ōkyo (1733-1795) was a painter of the mid and late Edo period.

He learnt about how to paint from some Chinase and European paintings.
His delicate art style let him establish his own group which is the origin of modern arts in Kyōto.