Geese and Autumn Grasses, Okuhara Seiko

Artwork Overview

Okuhara Seiko, Geese and Autumn Grasses
1883, Meiji period (1868–1912)
1837–1913
Geese and Autumn Grasses, 1883, Meiji period (1868–1912)
Where object was made: Japan
Material/technique: ink; color; paper
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 149.8 x 57.7 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 59 0.9764 x 22 11/16 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund
Accession number: 1996.0071
Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label: "Selections for the Summer," Jun-2006, Mary Dusenbury Okuhara Seiko scandalized and fascinated the world of her day. The daughter of a high-ranking samurai, she received a samurai boy’s education, with emphasis on painting, calligraphy, Chinese literature, and martial arts. She broke clan regulations for women by moving to Edo (Tokyo), adopting a male name, dressing as a man, cropping her hair and quickly establishing herself at the forefront of Tokyo’s artistic and literary circles. Her artistic career flourished and the school she established for painting and classical Chinese studies is said to have had hundreds of pupils. In 1891, when a new railroad displaced her Tokyo studio, she moved to a small village in Saitama prefecture. In her remote studio, her style kept evolving, almost to the moment of her death.

Exhibitions