Ink Plum and Bamboo

In a scholar’s garden, an unusually shaped rock with multiple bulbous protrusions, covered in places with moss, stands prominently, resembling a miniature mountain peak. To the left, a stand of bamboo is rendered in a range of ink tones to suggest depth. Behind the rock a gnarled plum tree has burst into bloom, signaling that spring has arrived. The poetic inscription in the upper left corner resonates with the painting by evoking the age-old metaphors of bamboo and plum blossom as symbols of longevity, perseverance, and elegance even in the midst of winter’s cold (or a harsh political climate). The colophon to the poem reveals that the painting was created on the theme of “two friends of winter,” in this case bamboo and flowering plum; the poem was composed in the seventh month of the year 1856, on the occasion of the shared birthday of a friend’s parents.

Hayashi Kyōu, born in rural Oita prefecture, studied Nanga under Tanomura Chikuden (1777–1835) in Kyoto, and established his own modern style of ink painting, mostly landscapes, but also other traditional literati themes, as shown here. He was active at the end of the Edo period in the intellectual and literary networks of his day, and skilled in Chinese style verse, which he could write in an admirable hand to add panache to his pictorial compositions.