Hanging Scroll with a Portrait of a Young Man in Kariginu and Eboshi

Ink and colour on silk. A young man sits cross-legged, facing the viewer, placed low in the composition against an otherwise empty silk ground. He wears a black lacquered eboshi cap tied with a white cord beneath the chin, and an ochre kariginu (hunting robe) with a rounded collar. White sodekukuri cords run along the edges of its wide sleeves and end in loose tassels, and the robe falls over pale blue sashinuki trousers. He holds a closed black folding fan. This dress, worn by the court nobility since the Heian period, was formally adopted as the ordinary attire of Shinto priests in the early Meiji period. The face is modelled in fine gradations with a strong sense of likeness, while the robe is built up in smooth, carefully shaded planes of colour. Red seal at lower left. The scroll is mounted in pale green silk with a grey-green brocade surround of lozenge pattern and pale ichimonji bands decorated with clouds in silver. The black lacquer roller ends carry a gold family crest of two ginger buds facing each other within a ring (maru ni dakimyoga). No box.

Condition: Good; scattered foxing to the silk, with a band of light tide staining across the upper half of the painting and an isolated brown spot. The figure itself is largely unaffected.

Measurements: Scroll 65 x 208 cm; painting 51 x 115 cm; 72 cm wide across the roller ends