Collection of Works about Food （for Educational or Commercial Use）

画題：十二月ノ内・卯月・初時鳥

<p>Feeding the ear means accepting the word of others at face value without bothering to confirm for yourself. Here, a man eating fish with his drink tries to taste it through his ear instead of his mouth. Using his own particular brand of humor, Baishi criticizes those who act like know-it-alls but in fact are ignorant. Suma Yakichirō praised this work as having “a Song-like flavor,” and even copied it himself. </p>

<p>The people of Edo (now Tokyo) loved skipjack tuna, which this mother and daughter are shown preparing. The daughter grates a radish to accompany the raw tuna.<br /></p>

<p>Colorful Realm of Living Beings:(Doshoku Sai-e) is a masterpiece of thirty hanging scrolls, painted to sublime the Shakyamuni triad by Jakuchu passed down in Sokoku-ji Temple, Kyoto, and famous as Jakuchu's representative work. Every depiction in these works sych as plants, birds, insects, fishes and shells, fascinate those who admire them. In 1890, it was presented to the Court from Shokoku-ji Temple.（「Passing Art works to the Future」2013）</p>

<p>Ito Jakuchu has depicted several flowering plants, vegetables and insects using black and white only. Jakuchu was active in Kyoto during the 18th century. He was renowned for his vivid paintings of flowers and birds, but his graphical sensibilities are also apparent in monochrome works like this one.<br /><br />Exquisite Flowers from the Realm of the Immortals is a collection of 48 drawings. Jakuchu produced it when he was 53 using a technique called taku-hanga, or woodblock ink rubbing. The white sections correspond to concave sections carved into the woodblock. Moistened paper would be pressed against the woodblock, with ink then applied to the surface in a manner that left the concave sections untouched. Jakuchu is said to have drawn the original sketches and carved them onto the woodblocks himself.<br /><br />The white motifs rise up dramatically against the black background to form a bold contrast between light and dark. The distinctive atmosphere of the work is enhanced by a meticulous attention to detail, with Jakuchu even punctuating the leaves with holes left by insects, for example. The realm mentioned in the title is where the Taoist immortals live, while the exquisite flowers refers to flowers as beautiful as jewels. As these words suggest, this is a work filled with a sense of unearthly beauty.</p>