Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944), Moon over Azure Mountains, 1899, ink and color on paper, 18¾ x 13¼ in. (47.6 x 33.7 cm), mounting: 50½ x 18¾ in. (128.5 x 47.5 cm)

Our Gallery Spotlight shines this week on BachmannEckenstein Japanese Art based in Basel, Switzerland. Among their fine collection of Japanese painting, calligraphy, and ceramics from the 16th to the early 20th century is this hanging scroll by the multifaceted scholar-artist Fukuda Kodōjin (1865–1944). As the artist’s earliest documented work, inscribed with the date “January 1899: Moon over Azure Mountains,” the painting comprises of an expressive mountain landscape accompanied by a poem, for which he is well known.  Devoid of any human activity, the lofty view depicts an evening scene with a gnarled plum tree in the center foreground and a moon in the distance. His poem, composed specifically for this painting, conveys the sentiment evoked by the image and is translated below. It was later included in his 1912 anthology Seisho’s Mountain Studio Collection.

Here at dusk, where cranes return,
The sheer cliffs show plum blossoms.
Beneath them the azure of a cold pond,
Where a mountain monk draws water, moon-adorned.

This painting was exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Fukuda Kodōjin: Japan’s Great Poet and Landscape Artist exhibition (April 22, 2023–July 23, 2023) and published in the catalogue Kat. No 1. p. 27.

To learn more about this remarkable work, click here.