Nightingale on Plum Blossoms 梅の鳥 | Moroboshi Seishō 諸星成章 | 1870-1943

Moroboshi Seishō is one of the many talented painters who, at the turn of the last century, created a rich art world based on the classic legacy of the aesthetically influential Shijō school. Moroboshi Seishō, a student of Kawabata Gyokushō in Tokyo, came from Chiba Prefecture. He became famous for his watercolors, which he created on extensive travels through Japan. Something of the freshness of his plein air painting can also be felt in this picture. Plum blossoms are usually white, but in the south of Japan there are also dark red plum blossoms, satsumakōbai薩摩紅梅It is not known whether Moroboshi Seishō traveled from Tokyo to southern Satsuma (now Kagoshima) to see these blossoms in real life. In his time, important politicians in Tokyo came from Kagoshima, and so it is quite possible that Moroboshi saw satsumakōbai in the gardens of the politicians' villas - this powerful floral splendor that was supposed to calm the homesickness of the Satsuma politicians...

The first line in the picture was probably the thick, S-shaped branch that crosses the picture. In order not to make it too dominant in terms of color, Moroboshi chose a watery ink, but then drew the line very quickly in order to achieve an expressive fiber, especially on the upper side. The thinner branches bearing flowers are rather dark, almost black, which increases the potency of the red color. In keeping with the classic tradition of the old Shijō school, the painter placed the flowers in the formally important places in the composition: they accentuate the end of a branch or the crossing of branches, and they form a brilliant flower court for the delicate, lively nightingale. The irresistible red of the flowers is not only to be achieved through formal aspects and the well-considered gradation of the ink intensities, but also through the original fresh blue of the mount.  be crossed out.