Rocks and Flowers

This work showing two rock formations along with the branches of a tree with bright red-orange blossoms was created as a collaboration between Okada Hankō and his father, a notable amateur painter and successful rice merchant (his artist name, Beisanjin, literally means “Rice Mountain Man”). The inscription at far right is by the son, Hankō, who signed the work and provided a date. A smaller inscription in the middle of the work, however, indicates that the more forcefully rendered rock in the middle of the composition was painted by the father. Although this painting takes the distinctive shape of a folding fan, it is missing the telltale accordion-fold creases of a fan previously mounted on bamboo, indicating that it was never actually used as a fan.