HASHIMOTO GAHO (1835-1908): A SCROLL PAINTING OF A GOISAGI (NIGHT HERON) By Hashimoto Gaho (1835-1908), signed Gaho and sealed Kokki
Japan, Meiji period (1868-1912)

Painted with ink on paper and mounted as a hanging scroll with a silk brocade frame and black-lacquered wood rollers (jiku), depicting a night heron (Gorsachius goisagi) with a leafy bamboo stalk in the background. Signed lower right GAHO with one seal reading Kokki.

SIZE 66 x 28 cm (image) and 161 x 47.3 cm (incl. mounting)

Condition: Very good condition with minor wear, little soiling, and minor creasing.
Provenance: From a US private collection in New York.

Hashimoto Gaho (1835-1908) was a Japanese painter, one of the last to paint in the style of the Kanō school. He was one of the first five painters to be appointed as an Imperial Household Artist and was one of the most authoritative painters in Japan at that time. He opened his own studio in 1860, but the political and economic upheavals surrounding the Meiji Restoration forced Gaho to seek income in other ways than by selling fine art. He produced maps for the Naval Academy, painted on fans, and used his skills in a number of other ways to earn a living. Gaho was invited in 1884, by Okakura Kakuzō, to become the chief professor of painting at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music), which would open five years later. In 1898, Gaho joined Okakura in leaving the Bijutsu Gakko and founding the Japan Fine Arts Academy (Nihon Bijutsuin). He would teach there until his death in 1908.

With a wood storage box inscribed to the cover Gaho-o suiboku goisagi zu (Ink painting of a night heron by Gaho), the interior of the cover with an inscription by Mizuta Chikuho (Nanga painter, 1883-1958) dated mid-February 1930.