Landscape, Ema Saikō

Exhibition Label:
Asian Gallery, Fall 2003, Youmi Efurd
Widely recognized for her Chinese-style poetry and painting, Ema Saikō was one of the most distinguished female artists active in the 19th century. In this painting, Saikō demonstrates her mastery of classic Nanga (Chinese literati style) brushwork, subject matter, and spirit of an ideal Chinese landscape painting. This scroll is inscribed as painted at age seventy, when she achieved the sophisticated understanding of Chinese brush methods. Her poem reads:
How many places have I once traveled,
Where pure streams rushed between white rocks?
As I grow old, I can no longer freely roam,
So I pick up the brush to depict those hills and mountains.

Archive Label date unknown:
Extant landscapes by Saikō are rare. This scroll was inscribed as painted at age seventy and she is thought to have turned to this subject late in life. Saikō evoked the tranquil, mysterious forces of nature through the use of soft, gray washes and texture strokes to build up the mountain forms. Her manner of texturing is unusual and reveals a personal touch in the way she overlays wet areas of wash with dry, scumbled strokes. The complex interplay between her arid brushstrokes and moist washes enriches the surface texture, providing the subtle excitement that literati looked for in each other's work. The tranquil and subdued mood is further conveyed in Saikō's quatrain in the upper right, which reads:
How many places have I once traveled,
Where pure streams rushed between white rocks?
As I grow old, I can no longer freely roam,
So I pick up the brush to depict those hills and mountains.