Mind of the Sky
I look across the lush mountains,
gaze at the pure water of a snow-dusted stream
How indescrible…
such freedom from distraction!

On a spring day, month of the snake,* year of the snake* at the house in Higashiyama*
—Poem and painting by Kodojin

* The month of the snake is May.
** Years of the snake in Kodojin’s later life were 1929.
*** Higashiyama, literally east + mountain, is a district in east and northeast Kyoto.

Signed and sealed by the artist, dated 1929.

Kodojin was born in the small town of Shingu in rural Wakayama Prefecture. Although he became so skilled in Chinese poetry that he published a collection of verse while in his twenties, Kodojin switched to making modern-style haiku after becoming a follower of Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) in 1889. Writing under his haijin name, Haritsu, Kodojin frequently published haiku in poetry magazines in the late Meiji period, and he became widely known as Shiki's diciple. In the last thirty years of his life, he again wrote Chinese verse and began to paint distinctive literati landscapes signed with his painting name, Kodojin. He also made simple paintings of plants and flowers that emphasized his dramatic brushwork and inscriptions of Chinese poetry. Kodojin was one of the earliest admirers of Tomita Keisen, who possessed a similar taste of unusual compositions and unconventional brushwork. Although the details of Kodojin's patronage remain unclear, a great many of his paintings are exquisitely mounted, suggesting that his works were acquired by wealthy collectors. - Cf. Morioka, Michiyo and Paul Berry: Modern Masters of Kyoto. The Transformation of Japanese Painting Traditions (Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection), 1999 Seattle Art Museum, pp. 216-217.

Mounting (Hyogu) 147.5 x 32 cm
Original box (Tomobako)

Stephen Addiss, Old Taoist: the Life, Art and Poetry of Fukuda Kodojin (1865–1944), Columbia University Press, 1999
Cf. Morioka, Michiyo and Paul Berry: Modern Masters of Kyoto. The Transformation of Japanese Painting Traditions (Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection), 1999 Seattle Art Museum, pp. 216-217.