Water landscape

In these oversized screens Okochi Yako captures the overwhelming power of a swift current: the blue-green water crashes against rocks, then picks up speed and flows restlessly. Yako is said to have produced large-scale paintings for prestigious exhibitions sponsored by the Japanese government. This pair of screens could have been among those works.

In his formative years as a painter Yako was interested in literati painting, a type that had been practiced in Japan since the 1700s. He was particularly interested in such master painters as Uragami Gyokudo (1745–1820) and Aoki Mokubei (1767–1833), and his own bright colors and robust brushwork were inspired by Tomioka Tessai (1836–1924). The pair of screens shown here exemplifies the bold literati painting of the twentieth century.