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The Art of Jakuchu

By Bobby /Jul 24, 2006
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Jakuchu (1716-1800) was a prolific artist who lived in Kyoto during the mid-Edo Period (1603-1867).  He studied at the Kano school and was heavily influenced by classical Chinese Yuan and Ming paintings.  But the devout Buddhist found his greatest inspiration from nature and spent his time observing flowers, plants, birds and insects in his own garden.

Jakuchu worked in a variety of mediums and themes.  Whether it was a monochromatic ink brush piece or a vivid Rimpa style screen painting, his painstaking eye for detail is mesmerizing.  What makes Jakuchu a true master is the incredible sense of modernity in his work—time has not diminished his style, it’s catching up with it. 

Jakuchu was not a celebrated artist during his lifetime.  It was not until some two hundred years later when a young American engineer from Oklahoma discovered a Jakuchu painting in a New York antique shop that the Japanese artist would begin to receive recognition for his work.  Joe Price began to collect Jakuchu and other unknown Edo period artists in 1953 when he was 24.  His passion would grow to become one of the best private collections of Japanese art in the world.

101 works by Jakuchu and others are currently on display a the Tokyo National Museum in an exhibition entitled The Price Collection-Jakuchu and the Age of Imagination.  The exhibit runs until August 27, 2006.

Another exhibit of Jakuchu art is on display at the The Museum of the Imperial Collections (Sannomaru Shozokan) through Sept. 10, 2006.