Yamamoto Shoun
(1870-1965)
Yamamoto Shoun was born in today's Nankoku City, Kochi Prefecture. At the age of 17 he moved to Tokyo to study Nanga painting with Taki Watei. At 20, Shoun worked as an illustrator for Fugoku gaho, a pictorial journal dealing with "popular places in Tokyo". His artistic career spans the Meiji (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-1926) and Showa (1926-1989) periods, his greatest activity being between 1890 and 1920. He is mainly known as an illustrator of magazines, but also as a woodblock artist of Moku-hanga, of traditional subjects including bijin-ga, portraits of beautiful women, kacho-ga, of children and of landscapes published by Matsuki. In the latter part of his career he was mainly active as a painter.
Kodomo Asobi Nure-tsubame (Children's Amusement: Drenched Swallow), 1906
The print is entitled "Kodomo Asobi Nure-tsubame" (Children's Amusement: Drenched Swallow). It depicts ladies and children with umbrellas in a rain shower. They stand on the shore of a pond with irises and look up at the drenched swallows.