Takaya Kōho: An Artist Who Belonged to the Shijō School and Responded to Orders from the Manias at a Distance from the Painting World

Fūki Chōju Shūkinzu (Figure of Birds Wishing Rich, Honor, Wealth and Longevity)

Takaya Kōho was born in Kyoto in 1870. He was a painter who followed the tradition of the Shijō and the Maruyama schools and good at bird-and-flower painting. Although he lived in Kyoto through his life, he rarely worked on public activities in the painting world and produced his works in connection with the manias.

This piece of work, entitled “Fūki Chōju Shūkinzu (Figure of Birds Wishing Rich, Honor, Wealth and Longevity)” mainly depicted two white peacocks on a rock which is surrounded by splendid peonies. A shaft of the pine tree is drawn on the left side slightly and the branches overhang at the top. And small birds are also drawn around them, which represents extremely the decorative screen. Especially, it looks really effective to draw the white peacocks largely in the center and arrange the large-flowered peonies around them in the light of the coloration. It displays his modern coloring sense perfectly as well as follows the traditional painting style of the bird-and-flower paintings. This picture was produced in 1920.