Volcanic Landscape [right of a pair]

Across the 12 panels of this pair of folding screens, a wide channel cuts through wavelike emerald-green mountains brought to life through an abundance of expensive mineral and metallic pigments—malachite, azurite, and gold. In the lengthy inscription—written in Chinese and brushed in ancient script—Irie Shikai cites the enigmatic opening lines of Chapter 28 (“Returning to Simplicity”) of the Dao De Jing (also Tao Te Ching), the ancient Chinese text, as the inspiration for this magical composition: “Who knows how white attracts, Yet always keeps himself within black’s shade. Shikai first studied painting with local artists in his native Fukuoka before briefly joining an ultra-right-wing nationalist movement in midlife. During this time, he became familiar with that movement’s leader, Tōyama Mitsuru, and the coal barons from Fukuoka who funded Tōyama (the kind of wealthy patrons who might have commissioned a deluxe painting like this pair of screens). Shikai eventually drifted away from right-wing politics and devoted himself again to painting, finding inspiration in the works of the earlier Japanese literati painter Tanomura Chikuden (1777–1835).