259 - YAMAGUCHI TSUBAKI: A TWO-PANEL ‘GHOSTLY VISION’ BYOBU (FOLDING SCREEN)

YAMAGUCHI TSUBAKI: A TWO-PANEL ‘GHOSTLY VISION’ BYOBU (FOLDING SCREEN) By Yamaguchi Tsubaki (b. 1931), signed Yamaguchi Tsubaki with seal Tsubaki Japan, c. 2005 Exhibited: Saete Menso (冴えて面相), Vanilla Gallery, Tokyo, 9-21 January 2006. Ink on paper. Finely painted in expressive black ink, combining precise linear drawing with freely brushed and splashed passages, and mounted on two black-lacquered wood panels. The left panel depicts a gaunt elderly figure seated with his head lowered, facing the inverted nude figure of a woman on the right, her long black hair cascading below her head. Above them, a turbulent, cloud-like mass of intertwined human bodies and grotesque forms extends across both panels, gradually dissolving into freely splashed ink. Inscriptions: Signed to the lower left YAMAGUCHI TSUBAKI (山口椿), with seal Tsubaki (椿). SIZE 158 x 159 cm Condition: Excellent condition with minor expected wear. Yamaguchi Tsubaki (born 1931) is an extraordinarily versatile Japanese painter, writer, and cellist. Born in Tokyo, he studied cello at the Paris Conservatoire under Maurice Marechal and with Andre Navarra in Siena, subsequently studying painting under Marino Marini in Italy. During his years in Europe, he also worked as a portraitist at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad, depicting celebrated ballet dancers including Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova. After returning to Japan, he pursued painting alongside an extensive literary career devoted to erotic, surreal, and supernatural subjects, publishing numerous illustrated works, including Eros no Yakata and a reinterpretation of Ugetsu Monogatari. His remarkable creative vitality has endured well into old age, as demonstrated by his participation as a cellist in a multidisciplinary performance at Kamigamo Shrine, Kyoto, in 2021. In his boundless artistic curiosity, extraordinary versatility, and enduring creative energy, Yamaguchi Tsubaki recalls the spirit of Katsushika Hokusai. Moving effortlessly between painting, literature, music, and performance, he draws deeply on the traditions of Edo-period visual culture while developing a distinctly modern language of eroticism, fantasy, and the grotesque. The present monumental screen is a striking expression of this singular imagination. Combining the meticulous outlines of traditional menso painting with dramatic, freely splashed ink (hatsuboku), Yamaguchi creates a haunting vision of intertwined bodies and supernatural forms. Exhibited at Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo in 2006, the screen was described in a contemporary account as a ghostly folding screen, with particular attention drawn to the inverted woman with flowing black hair, inspired by kabuki imagery. The composition brilliantly unites the theatrical, erotic, and macabre elements that characterize his oeuvre.