Crows on Willow, Yamada Kōun

Exhibition Label:
"Nature/Natural," Jul-2014, Kris Ercums
Yamada Kōun was a nihonga 日本画 (Japanese painting) artist who infused traditional formats and media with modern approaches appropriated via the West. This screen features crows, which are frequently illustrated in Japanese art, and carry auspicious connotations. Crows were believed to possess supernatal powers and to act as messengers of the gods. According to legend, the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu, a divine ancestor of the imperial family, sent a crow to Emperor Jimmu, thus establishing the imperial monarchy of Japan in deep antiquity.

Archive Label 2003:
Yamada Koun was one of a group of Kyoto artists who were committed to preserving inherited painting styles in an increasingly Westernized Japan. These nihonga (Japanese painting) artists used traditional media and, for the most part, subject matter, but they blended various styles and techniques to forge new interpretations of traditional themes.

According to legend, crows possessed supernatural powers and acted as messengers of the gods, particularly those associated with the Kumano shrines. The sun goddess Amaterasu had a crow with three claws. The mythic ability of crows to fly near the sun caused their scorched black color and associated them with fire.

This pair of screens depicts crows and willows rendered in ink and pale green against a ground of plain silk. On the right screen, the solitary crow’s body is formed of dark and light washes layered without outline. On the left, the trees are clearly defined in slightly darker layers of ink, with delicate leaves of layered light and dark green highlighted with pale green wash. Five crows, rendered in short, confident brushstrokes, cluster on a branch. Engaged with one another, cleaning a wing, intent on something we cannot see, or set apart and looking toward the lone crow to the right, they suggest a narrative, rather like a dream that we can almost remember.

Exhibition Label:
"Selections for the Summer," Jun-2006, Mary Dusenbury
Crows, scorched black by their mythic ability to fly near the sun, were both a common nuisance in Japan and the stuff of legends. Associated with the sun goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami, they were believed to be messengers of the gods and to possess supernatural powers.

Yamada Kōun was one of a group of Kyoto artists committed to preserving inherited painting styles in an increasingly Westernized Japan. These nihonga (“Japanese painting“) artists blended various traditional styles and techniques to forge new interpretations of traditional themes.

The solitary crow on the right screen is formed of dark and light washes layered without outline. On the left, five crows, rendered in short, confident brushstrokes, cluster on a branch. Engaged with one another, cleaning a wing, intent on something we cannot see, or set apart and looking toward the lone crow to the right, they suggest a narrative, rather like a dream that we can almost remember.