URAGAMI SHUNKIN: A 14-METER HANDSCROLL WITH BIRDS AND FLOWERS, DATED 1836 BY INSCRIPTION By Uragami Shunkin (1779-1846), signed Uragami Shunkin Japan, dated 3 August 1836 Finely painted with ink on paper, depicting various birds and flowers, including sparrows below willow trees, paradise flycatchers, cherry blossoms, magnolias, magpies, starlings, a cuckoo on a pine branch, water chestnut trees and kingfisher, as well as wagtails and asters. Inscribed with a title, Kacho ga, dated 3 August 1836, sealed Kisennoin and Shunkin Koji, and signed URAGAMI SHUNKIN. LENGTH 14.1 m, WIDTH 27.4 cm Condition: Very good condition with minor wear, soiling, and creasing. Provenance: The collection of Teddy Hahn (1933-2012), thence by descent. Theodor “Teddy” Hahn was a well-known and respected collector of netsuke and other Asian works of art. After spending time in museums to study the early cultures of the world, finding particular interest in their sculptures, he began collecting, remarking, “I somehow knew it would have a profound influence on my life. How right I was. And how happy I have been.” With a wood storage box inscribed Kacho Shunkin hitsu, Uragami Shunkin Kacho zu maki, Tenpo Heiko hitsu. Uragami Shunkin (1779-1846) was a Japanese nanga (literati) painter who lived during the late Edo period. He was born in Bizen Province (present-day Okayama Prefecture) as the first son of Uragami Gyokudo, who was a samurai for the Ikeda daimyo at the time. He learned painting and calligraphy from his father when he was a child. Around 1792, the art dealer Nyoi Dojin began buying Gyokudo`s as well as Shunkin`s works. Uragami Shunkin later settled in Kyoto, establishing himself as a Literati painter conversant in the related arts of poetry, calligraphy, and playing the koto, the musical instrument that had been one of his father`s fortes. Shunkin, who was active in the intellectual and literary circle of Rai Sanyo (1780–1832) and others in Kyoto, also achieved a reputation as a connoisseur of antique paintings, calligraphies, inkstones, and metalwork, all of which he collected himself. Auction comparison: Compare a smaller handscroll attributed to Uragami Shunkin depicting scholar`s rocks, 24.6 x 492.5 cm, at Bonhams, 25 June 2019, San Francisco, lot 311 ( sold for 5,075 USD ).