Okuhara Seiko
Ink Peonies
1912
Physical Qualities
Ink on paper; mounted as a hanging scroll, 58 1/4 × 22 1/2 in. (148 × 57.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Julius Levy Memorial Fund
Object Number
2021.65
The Baltimore Museum of Art, by purchase, 2021; Kaikodo, Honolulu, Hawaii, by purchase, June 1988; [unidentified source] Tokyo
Inscribed: FACE: inscribed, ink, UL: “During this Spring in Luoyang, how are the colors (of the peonies)? After one night in the east wind blossoms fill the branches; Naturally the palace ladies and famous concubines wear (Imperial) purple, Concerned with neither rouge nor powder they are jealous of seductive beauty. During Autumn of the year 1912, Seiko.”
Markings: Artist’s seals: Seiko Azana iwaku Seiko (“Seiko’s azana is called Seiko-written with different kanji”); Heizei suichiku yu shinen (“In my lifetime toward green bamboo I have had a deep affinity”)
