Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Mori Ippou Silk Wallscroll Remount

This was the remount of an old silk sumi painting by Mori, Ippou 一鳳 森 (1798 - 1871)
It was sent to me by a bonsai artist that had purchased this scroll. He had hired quite a few people to reframe it...but when it was sent to me it only had a heat based back paper and the original Ichimonji attached to the cloth. I redid the scroll. Removing foxing is still a skill I need to learn. Hopefully, when I go back this summer, I can take the time to learn it besides some other things.

In designing the scroll, the only character's in the calligraphy my wife could decipher was, Okuyama (Far Mountains). I also could not find a Japanese tale involving a bear and a crab. There is a tale from Aesop about a hungry bear and crab....So I selected the wave pattern Chuumawashi to represent the beach where the crab resides. I used the mountain motif in the Ichimonji to represent the Okuyama from where the bear travelled. I used a sea green Ten and Chi to reinforce the ocean. The kakehimo is the Sandai Koiro, and the Jikusaki I used were a black lacquer wood in case the owner wanted to display with a formal evergreen bonsai, particularly if it is styled in a formal styling.

When removing the backing paper, there were two tears in the silk on the sides. I repaired the larger one with a bridge of backing paper, before I applied the first layer of paper called Hadaurauchi. Here is a little about Mori Ippou below:


Mori Ippō was born and lived in Osaka. He was trained in the Shijō style by Mori Tetsuzan, who later adopted him into the renowned Mori family. In the 1850’s the executed a commission for the Imperial palace.
Little information about his life is available, except what he noted down in the humorous book he wrote.
His work shows no great genius, but it is good enough to deserve more acclaim than it generally receives.
Recurring themes are animals, birds, landscapes, and scenes of Osaka life.


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