Mount Penglai- Horaisan-The Holy or mystocal mountains; Identified by the addition of a temple somewhere on the mountain.

Horaisan (Japanese: 蓬莱山), or horaijima (Japanese: 蓬莱島), are terms used to refer to an inaccessible island that generally is part of a Japanese garden, and are often translated as 'Treasure Mountain' or 'Treasure Island', respectively. The name comes from Horai, a Chinese island important in Japanese mythology.

Japanese gardens typically include a body of water, several islands, bridges, meditation spots, a few human structures and many types of plants. The horaisan remains unconnected to any other part of the garden: it has no bridges nor does it have any paths or structures. This combination of inaccessibility with the island's beauty symbolizes the realm of happiness not available to mortals

Mount Penglai ( 蓬莱山; /  蓬萊山;  Pénglái shān), or Penglai Island ( 蓬莱仙岛; /  蓬萊仙島; Pénglái xiāndǎo), is a mystical land found in Chinese mythology. The legend also passed into Japan, where it took shape as the legend of Hōrai (蓬莱 Hōrai)

According to Shan Hai Jing, the mountain is said to be on an island in the eastern end of Bohai Sea, along with four other islands where the immortals lived, called Fāngzhàng (方丈), Yíngzhōu (瀛州), Dàiyú (岱輿), and Yuánjiāo (員嬌).

Though a Penglai City exists in Shandong, China, whether or not the city was the actual spot as described in the legends is unknown. The city, however, prides itself for the legend, and claims that a certain scenic region in the city was the landing point of the Eight Immortals. Others claim that the mountain can be seen in form of the frequent mirages at sea that the city is famous for.

Another theory by Yichu (義楚) of Later Zhou Dynasty puts the fabled island as Japan, while Penglai Mountain is Mount Fuji.

However, in Japanese mythology the presentation of Mt. Hōrai in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, is somewhat different from the earlier idyllic Chinese myth. This version, which does not truly represent the Japanese views of Horai in the Meiji and preceding Tokugawa periods rejects much of the fantastic and magical properties of Hōrai. In this version of the myth, Hōrai is not free from sorrow or death, and the winters are bitterly cold. Hearn's conception of Hōrai holds that there are no magical fruits that cure disease, grant eternal youth or raise the dead, and no rice bowls or wine glasses that never become empty.

Hearn's incarnation of the myth of Hōrai focuses more on the atmosphere of the place, which is said to be made up not of air but of "quintillions of quintillions" of souls. Breathing in these souls is said to grant one all of the perceptions and knowledge of these ancient souls. The Japanese version also holds that the people of Hōrai are small fairies, and they have no knowledge of great evil, and so their hearts never grow old.

In the Kwaidan, there is some indication that the Japanese hold such a place to be merely a fantasy. It is pointed out that "Hōrai is also called Shinkiro, which signifies Mirage — the Vision of the Intangible".

Yet uses of Mount Hōrai in Japanese literature and art of the Tokugawa period (1615-1868) reveal a very different view than Hearn's Victorian-influenced interpretation

 

    

      

 

1: Mystic Mountain Pines Just restored, this late 19th century scroll with new silk
mounts using existing tapes and Scroll Ends, Jiku.
An antique Kimono Silk covered box has been made to hold this beautiful scroll.

£195

 
 

3: Kakuso 79x24. With Box £190

Recently restored with completely new mountings in silk.

  

 

 
 

 

4: The signature of  the very famous artist Hogetsu  is on this scroll -the original artist box also forms part of this
remarkable work off art

Subject -Horaisan Penglai 1950

Yokoo Hogetsu (1899-1990) Nihonbashi Signed and sealed Hogetsu Hanging scroll; ink, color on silk  Wood box signed, sealed and titled by the artist . Hogetsu was born in Hakata City, Fukuoka Prefecture. He studied Shijo- school painting first under Nishimura Sobun. In 1917 he moved to Tokyo to study beauty painting under Ikeda Terukata (1883-1921), a pupil of Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1972). Hogetsu participated in Teiten, Nitten and Shin-Nitten exhibitions. While mainly a painter of Japanese Ladies he also did other subjects occasionally.

23x78.6  £325. It comes in its original tomobako (signed storage box) which is signed & sealed by this artist.

The scroll has been restored with new top and bottom silk mounts

 

His work is in  the Hosokawa Rikizo Collection Meguro Gajoen Museum, Tokyo. He has  at the Exhibited 8th Roho Gajuku ten, 1938 Kyoto City Museum of Art, "Kaiso no jojobi: Meiji, Taisho, Showa Nihonga hizo meisakuten--Meguro gajoen korekushon" (Reminiscences of lyrical beauty: Exhibition of treasured masterpieces of Japanese-style paintings of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods--The Meguro Gajoen collection), 1983.11.30--12.10 Sogo Museum, Yokohama, "Meguro Gajoen korekushon: Showa shoki no Nihonga meihinten--bijin to kacho" (The Meguro Gajoen collection: Masterpieces of Japanese-style painting of the early Showa period--Beauties, birds and flowers), 1988.1.3-17 Sashima kyodokan Myuzu, Sashimacho, Ibaragi, "Tokubetsuten: Meguro Gajoen korekushon ni miru kindai Nihonga no meihin" (Special exhibition: Masterpieces of modern Japanese-style painting from the Meguro Gajoen collection), 2000.10.14--12.10 Karatsu City Modern Library Art Hall (Karatsu shi kindai toshokan bijutsu horu), "Meguro Gajoen bijutsukan korekushon ni yoru: Kindai Nihonga ni miru bijinga" (Modern Japanese-style beauty painting from the collection of the Meguro Gajoen Museum), 1999.11.14--12.13 PUBLISHED: Art One Co., Ltd., ed., Meguro Gaojen korekushon: Showa shoki no Nihonga meihin ten--Bijin to kacho (The Meguro Gajoen collection: Masterpieces of Japanese-style painting of the early Showa period--Beauties, birds and flowers) (Yokohama: Sogo Museum; Tokyo: Nihon keizai shinbunsha, 1988), pl. 47. _____, ed., Kaiso no jojobi: Meiji, Taisho, Showa Nihonga hizo meisakuten--Meguro Gajoen korekushon (Reminiscenses of lyrical beauty: Exhibition of treasured masterpieces of Japanese-style painting of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods--the Meguro Gajoen collection) (Tokyo: Art One Co., Ltd., 1983), pl. 58. Yokoo Hogetsu, Sotsuju kinen: Yokoo Hogetsu bijinga shu (77th-year anniversary: Beauty paintings of Yokoo Hogetsu) (Kyoto: Shikosha tosho hanbai, 1987), pl. 50. Sashima kyodokan Myuzu, ed., Tokubetsuten: Meguro Gajoen korekushon ni miru kindai Nihonga no meihin (Special exhibition: Masterpieces of modern Japanese-style painting from the Meguro Gajoen collection) (Sashimacho: Sashima kyodokan Myuzu, 2000), pl. 17. Hosono Masanobu et al., Kindai no Bijinga: Meguro Gajoen Korekushon/Paintings of Japanese Beauties at the Turn of the Century (Kyoto: Kyoto shoin, 1988), pl. 388. Karatsu City Modern Library, ed., Meguro Gajoen bijutsukan korekushon ni yoru: Kindai Nihonga ni miru bijinga (Modern Japanese-style beauty painting from the collection of the Meguro Gajoen Museum), exh. cat. (Karatsu: Karatsu City Modern Library, 1999), pl. 3.


5: Five Pines on Penglai 77x23 Ceramic Jiku-Scroll ends with Box £165

  

6: Penglai Overhanging with Pines 74x21 Including box £190

                                                                             Before restoration                        After Restoration

7: This is an amazing image. The scroll was damaged on the mountings so we took the painting off and rebacked and remounted the silks. The ends Jiku, were not very good so we turned some walnut and made new ends in this dense wood which gives the scroll more strength when hanging.

  Taki Sansui Ga. Waterfall landscape
by Scroll artist Kako. This is an old scroll with a wonderful romanticised landscape of  the Hannoki Falls at 497 metres making it the largest waterfall in Japan, including a special box made from antique Kimono silk-