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Hello,

I am owning this painting of two wild geese for quite some time now.

I have already done some research a longer time ago and to my knowledge it looks like the inscription consists of writings by 2 different persons/artists.

Well at least this is what I was told.
Based on the information provided a part of the inscription is (possibly) from Bian Shoumin and the other half was added by Yamada Totsusai (1814-1873) who kind of authenticates the painting and confirms that it was made by Bian Shoumin.

So this is the information I have at the moment.

However I still have no idea if this painting was really done by Bian Shoumin.
Or can it at least be attributed to him? Or maybe it is rather after him or just in the style of?
(right now I do not have too much trust in this authentication - could have simply been a trick to sell the painting for a better price in the past).

It would be great if someone was able to help me out.

Can someone translate the inscription?

I have just noticed that a part of the pictures is rather blurry.
But maybe the quality is still good enough.
If not I can add a few more tomorrow.

Regards

I have tried several times but it looks like the pictures can not be uploaded in a straight way.

Both the picture and the inscriptions are from
Yamada Totsusai. Totsusai just imitated Shoumin -
as it is written in the colophon clearly.

蘆荻洲前月満空
傲々昂首喚羣鴻
江湖棲息何處穠
一夜風霜到眼中
In front of reed island on the river the moon fills the sky
A group of ducks haughtly raise their necks and gaggle
I wonder which river or lake thickets offer them place for perching
A night of frosty winds comes to my mind

Colophon;
邊壽民作蘆荻無一然囗氣形順之外極有
韻致偶仿其意併題於三口草廬時　文久三年
癸亥秋七月　　　訥齊田惟考
This is unlikely to differ greatly from the picture "Reeds and wild geese" painted by Bian Shoumin.
Imitating the meaning of picture with inscriptions including the literary composition made at the Three 囗　Thatched Hut in the Autumn July Month of the 3rd - Water-Pig - Year of Bunkyu (1862) by
Totsusai Den Koretaka
(Den 田　is for Yamada 山田, Koretaka 惟考　was his original given name)

I could not decipher two characters marked 囗 which doesn't intefere with understanding.

With regards,
I.Nagy

Hi,

thanks a lot for this detailed and very helpful reply.

This is really excellent.

So it looks like my information was just halfway accurate.

I guess this means that the painting was done after Bian Shoumin, right? (not in the style of as Yamada seems to have copied one of the existing works of Bian)

Oh well this is still alright as the painting is at least antique and I did not pay a lot for it (not even sure anymore how I picked it up but I would remember if I had sold my car for it lol).

But unfortunately Yamada seems to be rather less popular.
Not a lot of information to be found about him online (at least not on english sites).

Regards

Nor are the Japanese-language sources much more extensive.

Yamada Totsusai 1814-1873
Born in Kasamatsu, Mino Province (today's Gifu Prefecture) as a child of Yamada Kuniharu a medicine dealer. His original name was Koretaka, but commonly called as Kabei. First learned painting from Hirose Shunshō　in Kasamatsu. Later entered the gate of Yamamoto Baiitsu in Owari and became his first disciple. He was good at flowers and plants, birds and animals. In addition he was also good at poetry and seal carving.

With regards,
I.Nagy

Thanks a lot for the additional information about the artist.

Well maybe I will do some research and hopefully discover at least some other paintings of him to compare it with mine.

Regards

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