Shibata Ban'yo (1885-1942)


Taisho era (1912–1926), early 20th centuryKakejiku (vertical hanging scroll), ink and colours on silk in silk mounts, depicting dancers at the Obon midsummer festival in the precincts of a Shinto shrine, surrounded by giant sugi (cryptomeria) trees and lit by lanterns inscribed Odori (Dance) and Wakanaka (Young Men's Group), signed Ban'yo seisaku (Done from life by Ban'yo) and sealed Ban'yo; with a wood tomobako storage box inscribed Mori no odori Ban'yo jidai (Dance in the Grove, inscribed by Ban'yo) and sealed Ban'yo. Overall: 228cm x 110cm (89¾in x 43 3/8in); image: 155cm x 85cm (61in x 33½in). (2).
|Born to a samurai family in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, Shibata Ban'yo graduated in 1912 from the art school in nearby Kyoto and was apprenticed to Yamamoto Shunkyo. He received a Silver Medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, became an assistant instructor at Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, and showed his work at the Bunten and successive national exhibitions on six occasions from 1912 to 1931.