Sagawa Kakoku – 佐川華谷 (1867-1946) – Winter Landscape – 冬山水

風捲凍雲天未晴冬空 – 莅下雪更輕亦林枯木 – 皠無白飛百茫昩
別樣清

Winds swirl through frozen clouds; the winter sky remains grey.
A light snow descends upon the withered, barren woods.
All is veiled in a vast, pristine whiteness
A unique and tranquil clarity.

Sagawa Kakoku (1867–1946) was a prominent Nihonga (Japanese-style) painter from Ibaraki Prefecture who famously began his adult life working as a local police officer. Driven by a passion for art, he trained under masters Komuro Suiun and Araki Juppo, eventually resigning from the police force to paint full-time. He specialized in elegant, classical Sansui (mountain landscapes) and Kachō-ga (bird-and-flower) compositions, drawing heavily from traditional brush techniques.

His major national breakthrough arrived in 1920 at age 53, when his triptych landscape scroll was selected for the 2nd Imperial Art Exhibition (Teiten) and immediately purchased by the Imperial Household Agency. This prestigious acquisition cemented his reputation as an elite artist of the Taishō and Shōwa eras. Today, his masterworks are preserved in premier institutional collections, including the Ibaraki Modern Art Museum and the Museum of the Imperial Collections inside the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

Mist, fog and cloud are the intangible things in life that we can’t grasp / mountains are symbolic of longevity and immortality / bare trees are a Zen reminder that life is fleeting and transient / a bridge is the transition from one realm to the next.

Dimensions: LONG – 22″ x 80″ – All original scrolls and paintings come with a sealed document of authenticity.

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