Larry Ellison’s Treasure Trove on Loan to Museum

choi

David Littlejohn, Best of the Billionaire's Bounty; An exhibition of over 60 examples of Larry Ellison's 500-work Japanese art collection on view at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco through Sept. 22. Wall Street Journal, Aug 20, 2013.
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323977304579000672902940100.html

Note:
(1) "He keeps 500 of his Japanese artworks at a 23-acre Japanese-style estate in Woodside, Calif., and recently lent 66 of them to the Asian Art Museum here [San Francisco]."
(a) Woodside, California
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodside,_California
(b) Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Art_Museum_of_San_Francisco
(opened in 1966)

is private.

(2) Before proceeding further, please open a separate window to view

In the Moment: Japanese Art from the Larry Ellison Collection will introduce 64 exceptional artworks spanning 1,100 years. Asian Art Museum, June 28-Sept 22, 2013.
www.asianart.org/exhibitions_index/in-the-moment

(3) "Dragon and Tiger" (MARUYAMA Ōkyo, c 1781-88)
(a) ryūkozu byōbu 竜虎図屏風 【りゅうこずびょうぶ】/ 円山 応挙 (1733-1795)
(b) Maybe because the paintings are outside Japan, or more probably Larry Ellison’s treasure trove is not the best of the respective painters, none of his paintings has official Japanese titles or are listed under each painter in Japanese Wiki pages. In this light, the title 竜虎図屏風 refers to works of other Japanese painters of the same theme.

(4) "Waves and Rocks" (attributed to Hasegawa Togaku, 17th century)
(a) There is a typo (“g” and “h” in the keyboard are next to each other). It should be: HASEGAWA Tōhaku 長谷川 等伯 (1539-1610).  
(The “tō” and “haku” are Chinese pronunciations of 等 and 伯, respectively.)
(b) 6/31 in the photo gallery.

(5) "’The Battles of Ichinotani and Yashima’ (early 17th century): This is one of five screens here painted by members of the Kano family network of art workshops, which dominated Japanese painting over three centuries. Kano Jinnojo and his team filled the busy, varied, often violent panels with at least 500 warriors and their victims, as well as hundreds of horses and about 30 boats.”
(a) Battle of Ichi-no-Tani  一ノ谷 の 戦い
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ichi-no-Tani
(Mar 20, 1184)

Japanese Wiki has a battle map, as well as attribution of the painting in English Wiki:
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%80%E3%81%AE%E8%B0%B7%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
(b) Battle of Yashima  屋島の戦い
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yashima
(Mar 22, 1185)
* 屋島 is not an island, but an mountain. See 屋島
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%8B%E5%B3%B6
([四国] 香川県高松市屋島 [地区] にある山; 名称は屋根のような平らな形状に由来し、その独特の景観は高松市のシンボルとなっている)

translation: a mountain; got its name because it shapes like a roof, which becomes symbol of the city)

The mountain looks also like an island; thus named.
* Battle maps in
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%8B%E5%B3%B6%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
* The war ended in Battle of Dan-no-ura 壇ノ浦の戦い (Apr 25, 1185; English Wiki said Mar 24, 1185, which was wrong) , where 平 was obliterated.
(iii) Both battles are part of 源平合戦 (1180-1185), in which two clans of 源 and 平 (surnames) fought like War of the Roses (1455-1485; clashes between “two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet [thus of the same surname Plantagenet]: the houses of Lancaster and York,” Wiki). In both aforesaid battles, 源 defeated 平.
(iv) 16/31 in gallery--with the following notation: "Early 17th C[entury], by Kano Jinnojo."
* KANŌ Jinnojō  狩野 甚之丞 (生没年不明)
* The “ka” is Japanese pronunciation for 狩 (as in karu 狩る 【かる】 (v): “to hunt”); Chinese pronunciation for the same kanji is “shu.”

(6) "Auspicious Pines, Bamboo, Plum, Cranes and Turtles" (KANŌ Sansetsu, 17th century)
(a) 狩野 山雪 (1589 - 1651)
(b) 14/31 in the gallery.

(7) "Tigers" (two hanging scrolls, Maruyama Okyo, 1779)

Possibly 7/31, which displays ONE tiger.

(8) "Spring and Autumn Plants" (SUZUKI Kiitsu, 1850s): * * * This pair of 60-inch-by-66-inch two-panel silk screens by an admired late Rinpa painter proves my intuition wrong. Over a calming background of cream-and-pale-colored rectangles, impeccably drawn and painted autumn plants and flowers—wild chrysanthemums, bellflowers, quince, grasses, a chinaberry tree—rise up on the right-hand screen cut; on the left, an even more calming spring arrangement of loquat leaves and wild grapevines floats below a branch of white cherry blossoms.”
(a)  鈴木 其一
(b) Rimpa school
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimpa_school
was named after (the last kanji of OGATA Kōrin 尾形 光琳 (1658–1716).
(c) bellflower
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellflower
(d) quince
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince
(“The tree grows 5 to 8 metres high and 4 to 6 metres wide. The fruit is 7 to 12 centimetres long and 6 to 9 centimetres across;” native to South-west Asia, Turkey and Iran; section 4 Production: in 2011 Turkey (No 1> China (No 2)

is not found in Taiwan.
(e) For chinaberry tree (lower case for “c” in China), see Melia azedarach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melia_azedarach
(native to Indomalaya and Australasia)

is found in China (known as 苦楝) and Taiwan (but I did not see it while there)
(f) Not found in the photo gallery.


(9) "’Standing Shotoku Taishi at Age Two’ (late 13th-early 14th century): This is a remarkably well-preserved wooden statue of a sweet-faced boy, standing in billowing pants, who supposedly praised the Buddha at the age of 2. Sacred legend has him later, as prince regent, importing Buddhism into Japan, about AD 600. For this, the boy became a kind of baby Jesus to devout Japanese Buddhists.”

Prince Shōtoku  聖徳 太子
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Sh%C5%8Dtoku
(572-622; served under Empress Suiko  推古 天皇 [554-628; reign 593-628]))

(10) "’Dragon’ (Katsushika Hokusai, 1839): The wonderful thing about this late, narrow (52 inches by 11 inches) ink-and-gold-on-paper dragon by Hokusai (famous for his woodblock color prints) is how well its spiny, pop-eyed head captures that of Okyo's 18th-century screen. The narrow sheet allows him to show only the dragon's head, scaly neck and upper claw, its coiled tail and lower claw, all against a cloud of black ink.”
(a) KATSUSHIKA Hokusai  葛飾 北斎
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsushika_Hokusai

is known by his given name.
(b) 12/31 in the gallery.

(11) "’Boy Attendant to Fudo Myo-o’ (13th-14th century): A wooden statue of the young man who attends on the fierce, scowling "Wisdom King" whose 11th-century statue stands alongside him. What makes the boy's image unique are his twisted, naturalistic head and smiling face, bare torso and the flowing, Bernini-like folds of his skirt.”
(a) Fudō Myō-ō 不動 明王 【みょうおう】 (n): “{Buddh} Wisdom King”
(b) Acala
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acala
(Sanskrit:  "immovable" one; primarily revered in Vajrayana 密宗 Buddhism in Japan, China and elsewhere)
(c) Not found in the gallery.

(12) "Mynah Bird in a Persimmon Tree" (Ito Jakuchu, 1763)
(a) myna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myna
(or mynah; "Myna" is derived from the Hindi language mainā which itself is derived from Sanskrit madanā)
(b) crested myna = 八哥
(c) ITŌ Jakuchū  伊藤 若冲
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%C5%8D_Jakuch%C5%AB
(1716-1800)
(d) Not found in the photo gallery.