Japanese Screen Pair. Red and White Plum Blossoms on Silver Leaf

Okada Yosai (1785–1864)

Red and White Plum Blossoms

Pair of six-panel Japanese screens. Ink and silver leaf on paper.

Dimensions (Each Screen): H. 105.5 cm x W. 270 cm (41.5” x 106”)

Price: USD 32,500

This elegant pair of Japanese screens was painted by the samurai-artist Okada Yosai (1785–1864), an accomplished literati painter active in the late Edo period. The composition is read from right to left, with the right screen depicting white plum blossoms in bloom and the left screen showing red plum blossoms, creating a subtle dialogue across the pair.

Yosai renders the red plum blossoms with solid, confident ink washes, giving them visual weight and presence, while the white blossoms are outlined delicately in ink, allowing the silver-leaf ground to serve as their color. Color is absent; instead, the drama emerges through brushwork, ink density, and the orchestration of empty space. The branches are executed with bold, calligraphic strokes that shift effortlessly between dry and saturated ink. The ancient trunks are heavy, weathered, and forceful. From this powerful core emerge slender, vertical shoots and fine branches. The blossoms, by contrast, are light and intimate in feeling. Whether washed in ink or left luminous against the silver ground, they appear to hover rather than sit heavily on the branches. Yosai’s ink control is especially evident here: a restrained economy of means allows each blossom to feel alive.

Despite the strength of the brushwork, the overall tone remains soft and intimate. There is a quietness to the pair — a sense of late winter stillness just before the turning of the season. The plum blooms before the snow has fully melted, signaling the rebirth of spring. Having weathered the hardships of winter, it blossoms with renewed vitality, leading one’s thoughts toward hope, endurance, and the promise of the coming year. The silver-leaf background plays a crucial role in the atmosphere of the screens. Softly aged and richly patinated, it reflects light differently throughout the day, shifting from cool and subdued to warm and luminous depending on the conditions.

Paintings of plum trees originated in Song and Yuan dynasty China, later arriving in Japan during the Muromachi period through traveling Zen monks. By the Edo period, the subject had spread beyond monastic circles to literati painters, samurai, and cultured townspeople, where it became a favored vehicle for personal expression and philosophical reflection.

Okada Yosai was a Kaga-domain samurai (modern-day Kanazawa) who went by the pen names Seiken and Yosai. Renowned for his specialization in ink plum paintings, he was also deeply grounded in Confucian learning. Initially appointed to the Shinbanpogumi (New Guard Division), he later became a reader at the Meirindō, one of the prominent Confucian academies of the Edo period. His career advanced through positions as teacher, assistant professor, and eventually heir to the Heikō Samurai Reading Department. Awarded a stipend of 100 koku, he also served as magistrate of the southern storehouses and magistrate of books.