Autumn among Trees
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Mineral Pigment |
| Current Location: | The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo |
| Location History: | Painted by Shimomura Kanzan in 1907 and exhibited at the First Bunten Exhibition, "Autumn among Trees" later came into the custody of Japan's Ministry of Education. The Ministry formally transferred the work to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, on 31 March 1954, where it remains today. |
The painting was painted in 1907 as a pair of folding screens .Auttumn has always carried a particular weight in Japanese art .It is the season that symbolizes time passing in real time -with the leaves going from green to brown and finalling shedding down which is a buddhist idea of mujio.But what is interesting is that the painter has not treated it as sadness but a chance to welcome new beginings. There is stillness in in the composition -nature is not the background for a human story ,it a the whole story .This was painted at a time when Japan was rapidly modernising and absorbing western oil paintings Kazan choosed to paint with mineral pigment and ink .It became a cultural symbolism and resistance by the painter .