Tempest

This late-nineteenth-century work by Utagawa Kunitoshi, held by the Art Institute of Chicago (accession 117546), is unusual in his oeuvre: a former hanging scroll in ink and colour on silk, rather than a woodblock-printed sheet, measuring 33.1 by 99.7 cm. The format and medium place it within the painted production that even the most prolific Meiji print designers sometimes undertook for private patrons, and the dimensions are characteristic of a horizontal kakemono of the kind hung in a reception alcove for guests. The subject — a tempest — belongs to the long tradition of meteorological and atmospheric subjects in Japanese painting, in which sudden storms, gusts of wind, and rolling clouds provided opportunities for dramatic ink work and the controlled application of colour. The Art Institute's record dates the work to the late nineteenth century, within the mature phase of Kunitoshi's career when he was best known as a designer of Meiji kaika-e and ceremonial prints; the scroll demonstrates that he, like many of his Utagawa contemporaries, also worked in the traditional painted formats of nihonga even as the woodblock print industry that supported him began its long decline. The work is held in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection of Japanese paintings and prints and is in the public domain.