SHIBATA ZESHIN 柴田是真 (1807–1891) KAKEJIKU (HANGING SCROLL) DEPICTING SHOKI AND ONI, WITH FITTED WOOD TOMOBAKO PAINTED BY SHŌJI CHIKUSHIN 庄司竹真 (1854–1936) AND JIKUSAKI (ROLLER ENDS) LACQUERED BY SHŌJI HŌSHIN 庄司芳真 (1898–1993) 朱円窓鍾馗図掛軸Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1883, and Showa era (1926–1989), 1929A hanging scroll painted in ink, colours, and gold on silk depicting Shōki the Demon-queller in a circular cartouche, dressed in the robes and cap of a Chinese scholar-official with a formal baton in his left hand, glowering downwards and to his right at an oni (demon) dressed in a loincloth, depicted against a red background imitating a conventional silk mount with scattered flakes of gold, the oni placed entirely outside the cartouche except for a small part of the green ribbons trailing behind it, running with a terrified expression toward the bottom left of the scroll, the scroll completely painted in red apart from the cartouche, a further shower of gold flakes toward the top; the jikusaki (roller-ends) decorated with seaweed motifs in gold lacquer on a roiro ground; signed Hoshin 芳真; the painting signed Gyōnen nanajūnana-ō Zeshin 行年七十七翁　是真 (Zeshin, aged 77) with a red seal Tairyūkyo 對柳居Overall: 164cm × 50cm (64½in × 19⅝in)Image: 164cm × 41.7cm (64½in × 16⅜in) With fitted wood tomobako painted on the exterior in mineral colours with a vertical composition of flowering irises surrounding a red cartouche inscribed in gold characters Zeshin-ō hitsu shuensō Shōki zu 是真翁筆朱圓窓鍾馗図 (Picture of Shōki in a circular opening on a red background); inscribed inside Shōwa yon banshun nanajūroku-ō Chikushin kan narabi ni hako-e Hōshin jiku tsukuru 昭和四晩春　七十六翁竹真鑒并筥繪　芳真軸造 (Certified in March 1929 by Chikushin aged 76 who also painted the box; the roller-ends made by Hōshin), with three seals; and containing several documents, including a certificate by Shōji Chikushin inscribed Zeshin-ō hitsu Shuensō Shōki no zu Shinseki mugi mono nari Chikushin kan 是真翁筆　朱円窓鍾馗之図　真蹟無疑者也　竹真鍳 (A painting of Shōki in a cirular opening on a red background; this is without doubt a genuine work by the venerable Zeshin, certified by Chikushin), twice sealed Chikushin yūkei 竹真有敬 (Respectfully, Chikushin); a postcard addressed to a Mr Ibata Hiroo 伊端弘雄, sealed Shōji Hōshin 庄司芳真; an exhibition label giving the work's title and the name of the owner, Kimura Yasushi 木村靖, sealed twice: Toki ni Shōwa jūgonen shichigatsu jūsannichi 于時昭和十五年七月十三日 (13 July, 1940) and Zeshin Gojūnen Tsuizen Kinenten kan in 是真五十年追善記念展観印 (Seal of the Zeshin Fiftieth Anniversary Memorial Exhibition); and photocopies from the catalogues for the 1929 auction and 2015 exhibition referred to below; fitted outer wood storage box (8)Provenance:Nakamura Collection, Hamamatsu City, until 1929中村家（濱松市）旧蔵Tokyo Art Club, March 25, 1929, lot 28Kimura Yasushi Collection, by 1940木村靖旧蔵Exhibited:Zeshin Fiftieth Anniversary Memorial Exhibition, Yaozen, Tsukiji, Tokyo, 1940Izumi-shi Kubosō Kinen Bijutsukan (Kubosō Memorial Museum of Arts, Izumi) 2015, cat. no. 38注脚For similar paintings by Zeshin, compare Grace Tsumugi Fine Art 2014, cat. no. 1 and Gōke 1981b, cat. no. 264, in Tōyama Memorial Museum, Saitama Prefecture; cat. no. 267 from the previous publication is a more benign image of Okame or Ofuku, a goddess of good fortune, also shown in a roundel on a red background with the oni fleeing toward the bottom left of the scroll. As Gōke notes in his commentary to the latter piece, a great earlier painter Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) made use of the roundel device in a scroll depicting Okame, but Zeshin introduced many changes in both composition and treatment, while the application of the same device to Shōki the Demon-queller, as well as to other imaginary personalities such as Fukurokuju (one of the Shichifukujin or Seven Gods of Good Fortune) seems to have been his own innovation.Zeshin's leading pupil Shōji Chikushin (see also lots 9 and 16) not only inscribed (as he often did) an authentication inside the storage box for this piece but also decorated the box's exterior with an exquisitely brushed painting of irises, as well as having his son and pupil Shōji Hōshin finish the roller ends with a seaweed design in gold lacquer.