Lot 3050: MT. FUJI AND POEM Attributed to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)

Attributed to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)
Ink on paper; signed Hideyoshi and with kakihan Shitsu (kotogotoku)

With exhibition catalogue from the 1918 exhibition of commemorative works associated with Hideyoshi

Exhibited: Osaka, Osaka Bijutsu Club "Hoko kinen tenrankai", 1918

Published: Osaka Bijutsu Club, ed., Hoko kinen tenrankai zuroku, exh cat.
(Osaka: Osaka Bijutsu Club, 1918)

Hideyoshi came from humble beginnings, his father a foot soldier in the service of warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582). Although he rose to the upper most rank of the warrior classes and ultimately the supreme leader of Japan, he lacked the refinement a privileged upbringing would have afforded him. His calligraphy skills were not befitting a warrior of his rank at the end of his life.

This could perhaps explain the unsophisticated, almost childish, hand seen in the painting here. The subject is Mt Fuji among drifting clouds behind a forest of pine, a subject often encountered in Japanese ink painting. The poem refers to mountains and clouds and the author has favored hiragana, the Japanese script, over Chinese characters. The kakihan appears to be consistent with extant examples found on documents signed by Hideyoshi