Hanging scroll - Silk, Resin - Kondo Koichiro (1884-1962) - Very fine sumi-e painting "Return to the mountain village" - including signed tomobako - Japan - Taishō period (1912-1926)

Kondo Koichiro was born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1884. He studied at the Tokyo Fine Arts School and started his career as a Western-style painter. He studied under Wada Eisaku. Although his initial training was in Western-style oil painting, he pursued a successful career as a cartoonist and illustrator, also producing series of humorous woodblock prints. Gradually moving his work towards Japanese-style painting. After joining a group of Japanese-style painters around 1916, he began to create distinctive ink paintings which he entered in exhibitions of the Japan Art Institute. His travels in Japan, China, and Europe served as inspiration. His works started entering the exhibitions of the Japan Art Institute from 1919 until 1936, and later he became member of Nitten. He died in 1962 when he was 78 years old. Kondo Koichiro was an innovative ink painter and known for pushing the boundaries of the medium. However, although some of his ink landscape paintings are Western in style, he eventually abandoned purely Western-style painting in favor of ink painting that incorporated certain aspects of Western technique. Kondo Koichiro’s works are in the collections of the British Museum, The Metropoliten Museum in New York, the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Seattle Art Museum and Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, among others. With original signed and sealed tomobako. Roller ends: resin. Measurements: Scroll: 204,5 x 40 cm Picture: 123 x 27 cm Very good condition, there are signs of wear due to age and normal use, stains, marks; please, see pictures for actual condition. Registered shipping with tracking number, well packed for safe and fast delivering!