Twelve Pictures of the Months: 10. The October Picture | Yoshimura Kokei 吉村孝敬 | 1769-1836

The October painting most closely resembles typical autumn motifs, although the specific treatment is again refined. The painting depicts a mountain landscape with red foliage on the trees. It thus maintains the established balance with the March painting featuring blossoming cherry trees in the hills of Yoshino. Here again, the subtle coloring is striking – the maple leaves are painted in reddish-brown tones at best; they do not blaze with color as in typical momiji paintings.

Yoshimura Kokei cleverly utilizes the wild goose motif here. Traditional depictions of wild geese are minimal, limited to just two or three birds – at least one is approaching, and one or two geese are desperately calling from the shore. This has long been a symbol of the longing for togetherness. But how does the painter handle this motif? In the upper border, two geese are flying downwards, yet in the lower border, only a single reed is painted. Everyone knows that the abandoned, yearning geese should be standing at the bottom of the bank – but is it really necessary to paint them? A rush is enough to mark a shoreline. The melancholy inherent in this topos is expressed here: the single reed is broken, the panicle of grass peers into the strip from the upper right like a sad face. The painter uses the unavoidable requirement of the narrow horizontal format of the bottom strip - namely, not being able to paint an upright standing rush - by using the horizontal broken pose of the stalk to represent what is normally expressed by a wild goose calling in pain.

(only available as a series)