Lunchtime, Windy Day Memories ...

Detail from Ito Jakuchu's ten-meter long painted handscroll 'Compendium of Vegetables and Insects', Edo Period, Yoshizawa Memorial Museum of Art.

Detail from Soga Shohaku's 'Lion-Dog', Choden-ji Temple, Mie Prefecture [Important Cultural Property].

'The artist Jakuchu was born as the first son of a prosperous vegetable wholesaler in the Nishikikoji district of Kyoto and lived comfortably for most of his life without having to worry about his livelihood. He painted as he liked and did not have to sell his works. Soga Shohaku, on the other hand, was born to a wealthy merchant family in Kyoto, which also had a branch store in Edo (now Tokyo), however, by age seventeen, he was without family--he lost his older brother at age eleven, his father at age fourteen, and his mother at seventeen, and appears to have had a younger sister, who remains largely unknown. Such circumstances most likely influenced the artist's works and worldview.'

Photo credits and caption source: (c) Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan, 2007. All rights reserved. With thanks.