“Bamboo in Snow”

Ema Saikō

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Artist Name
Ema Saikō
Title
“Bamboo in Snow”
Dimensions
painting：125.9×42.3cm
full length：188.2×58.0cm
Medium
Ink on Silk
Year
1860
Description
This work depicts snow-laden bamboo rendered entirely in ink. It is a *Bamboo in Snow* painting by Ema Saikō. By sweeping the background with pale ink and deliberately leaving areas of the paper untouched, the artist evokes the accumulation of snow upon the bamboo.

The inscription accompanying this work appears in Saikō’s poetry collection *Shōmu Ikō*. In a poem titled “Inscribed on a Painting,” written when she was thirty-five, she composed the line: “For twenty years I have labored with care; Heaven has opened its model book and lent it to me to behold,” expressing her joy at discovering nature itself as her true model. This reveals how essential direct study from nature was to Saikō’s artistic practice.

In the present work, however, the phrase “for twenty years I have labored” is altered to “for seventy years I have labored,” suggesting that throughout her lifetime Saikō maintained a deep and enduring commitment to the depiction of snow-covered bamboo.

**Ema Saikō (1787–1861)** was a kanshi (Chinese-style poetry) poet and literati painter of the late Edo period. She was the eldest daughter of Ema Ransai, a physician of the Ōgaki domain in Mino Province. Her given name was Taho; she used the art names Shōmu and Kizan, and her courtesy name was Saikō. From an early age she showed remarkable talent in Chinese poetry and literati painting. In 1813 (Bunka 10), she met Rai San’yō during his travels and thereafter studied poetry under him, maintaining a lifelong relationship of deep mutual respect. In painting, she studied under Gyokurin (1751–1814) and Uragami Shunkin (1779–1846). She was often mentioned alongside her contemporary, the female poet Yanagawa Kōran (1804–1879), as one of the leading women poets of her time.

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