Vintage Japanese Kakejiku: Oshidori | Mandarin Duck Hanging Scroll

Dimensions: 84-0”l x 21-0”w

Offered is an authentic work of art that stimulates the viewer and encourages cultural understanding.‘Tsuru kame’ is the quintessential auspicious Kakejiku displayable for almost all of the scenes of celebration such as the Spring and Summer in Japan. The Japanese respect them because they mate for life and it is said that they are so attached that if they become separated, one may perish from sadness representing the “full circle of life”. For centuries they even had religious significance, but not always for the reasons you would expect. They set a moral standard that rarely can be reached. 

As with this pair of Ducks, (Karugamo), they are often depicted in Japanese hanging scrolls, woodblock prints, and Nō and Kabuki theater, poetry, and prose, and are known to convey the beauty of Japan. They are meant to provide insight into the everyday life of its citizens and appeal to the Japanese tender, lyrical love of wildlife and landscapes. The use of color, or absence of color in this case was imperative to the development of the monochromatic rendering of this scroll. Here the two are beautifully rendered ducks in black, gray colorations with their characteristic bright yellow-orange beak, and white eyestripe, both meandering through the tall grasses in the moonlight.

The hanging scroll is complete with all of its parts, including the decorative fabric brocade fabric straps called tare-fuutai or sage-fuutai made as a decorative part of the top of the hanging scroll and at the top and bottom of the artwork. The flat wooden bar at the top is covered in silk (stave); and the bottom round bar, (jiku) is also covered in silk and capped with bone, and has the two original ceramic fish scroll weights (fuchin), with tassels in its Kirkwood box. The piece is signed in script and has the artist and owners' red impressed stamp in the lower right corner.

To demonstrate the feelings of Japanese citizens we offer this Haiko: 

My sweetheart and I,

Sleepy face side by side,

Look out at the pond

Covered with snow and watch

The Mandarin ducks floating...

Condition: Excellent meaning that the piece retains its original craft/workmanship showing a wonderful-developed patina commensurate which suggests a degree of wear that corresponds to its vintage and is void of damage, cracks, or repairs and meets all the standards of the collectible Kankijiku.