Sakakibara Shiho (1887-1971), pouring his affection into flowers and birds, went on painting flower and bird paintings (kacho-ga) with all his heart, throughout his life. He was born in Kyoto, and studied at the Kyoto City Technical School of Painting (Kyoto City Kaiga Sen-mon Gakko) and other schools. After that, in 1918, he established the Association for the Creation of New Japanese-style Painting (Kokuten), as a place to freely work on painting. On the stage of Kokuten, he published innovative works, and imbued the art world with a new sensitivity. After the dissolution of Kokuten in 1928, he drew away from the art world, pursuing art in seclusion.
In the early period of his long art carrier, Shiho painted numerous works full of colors with brightness and strength. His painting style, however, gradually turned away from this colorful style to a pure, transparent one. The suiboku-ga world, whose unique calmness is seen in his later works, can be called the final ground Shiho reached. Shiho, taking his attitude toward painting consistently with a strict manner, always faced painting with sincerity, as if he had tried to capture everything from the whole nature.
This exhibition, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Shiho’s death, will display works from his early to later years. We hope you will fully enjoy the purity of his fine kacho-ga paintings.