SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891) An Urushi-e (Lacquer Painting) of a Farmer's House Meiji era (1868-1912), dated 1888 (2)SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891)An Urushi-e (Lacquer Painting) of a Farmer's House Meiji era (1868–1912), dated 1888Depicting a peaceful scene of a farmer's rustic dwelling, well maintained but showing its age, in early spring: to the right a straw hat and mino (raincoat) hanging on the wall of the house by a tree and a ragged sudare (roller blind) hung from the eaves, sheaves of rice straw leaning against the walls, and in front a rooster and hen pecking grains of rice from a rice-mortar standing on a straw mat, the inside of the house with details including smoke rising from the hearth with its jizai (adjustable pot hanger), cups in a basket, a pair of zori (straw sandals), a bunch of daikon radishes, a sickle, a stone grinding-mill, and an uchiwa (non-folding fan), to the left, two children, one barefoot and one wearing zori, feeding hay to the family ox, a spider's web above its head, in the foreground, a stream with a plank bridge and timber reinforcements; all executed in a range of urushi-e colours, the smaller child's kimono with fine shell decoration and the plum blossoms in silver foil; parts of the paper decorated with gold dust; signed at lower right Gyonen hachijuni-o Zeshin (Zeshin, aged 82) with a seal Tairyukyo; with a cloth-bound storage box. Overall: 61.1cm x 81.4cm (24in x 31⅞in); image: 47.5cm × 67.9cm (18¾in × 26¾in). (2).Provenance:Grace Tsumugi Fine Art London, 2015, cat. no.4.A Royal Collection.Exhibited:Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai (Japan Art Association), 1888.Published:Goke Tadaomi, 'Shibata Zeshin', Nihon no bijutsu (Arts of Japan), 93, Tokyo, Shibundo, 1974, pl.7.Goke Tadaomi, Shibata Zeshin eyo tebikae (Sketches and Notes by Shibata Zeshin), Kyoto, Dohosa Shuppan, 1981, pl.140.Goke Tadaomi, Shibata Zeshin meihinshu: Bakumatsu kaikaki no shikko kaiga (Lacquer and Painting in Late Edo and Early Meiji: A Collection of Masterworks by Shibata Zeshin), Tokyo, Gakushu Kenkyusha, 1981, cat. no.140.Exhibited and Published:Nezu Museum, Shibata Zeshin no shikko, urushi-e, kaiga (Shibata Zeshin: From Lacquer Arts to Painting), exh. cat., Tokyo, 2012, cat. no.122.