Vintage Japanese Hanging Scroll - Peony Garden "The Flower Queen's Proclamation" - Dated Shōwa 2 (1927) -Signed Kōyō - Hyakka-zu

This vintage Japanese kakemono is one of the most precisely documented 
works in this collection - carrying a colophon that records the exact date and 
season of its creation:

    時昭和二年丁卯冬日
    "Painted in winter, Shōwa Year 2, the year of the Rabbit (丁卯)"

Shōwa Year 2 = **1927**. The year of Hinoto-U (丁卯) -the Fire Rabbit in 
the sexagenary cycle - a year of creative energy and transformation in 
Japanese cultural history, falling squarely in the Taishō-Shōwa cultural 
renaissance when Japanese literati painting ( bunjinga) reached one 
of its last great flowering moments before the militarist period.

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𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗢𝗘𝗠: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗡𝗬 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦

The inscription at the upper right reads in bold xíng shū (行書):

    妖嬈 誰似我 富貴獨稱王
    "Yōjō - dare ka ware ni nitaru - fugui dokushō ō"
    "Bewitching and graceful - who rivals me?
     In wealth and splendour, I reign alone as Queen."

This is the peony speaking in its own voice - the classical East Asian 
poetic device of gijinka ( personification) applied to the most 
aristocratic of flowers. The peony (botan/mudan) has been called 
the 花王 (Kaō, "Flower King" or "Flower Queen") in Chinese and Japanese 
culture since the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), when Empress Wu Zetian 
(武則天) famously exiled all flowers from her garden except the peony 
for refusing to bloom on command - and the peony alone refused.

In Japan, the peony entered aristocratic culture through Buddhist temple 
gardens - the great peony garden at Hase-dera (長谷寺) in Nara remains 
one of Japan's most celebrated - and became a symbol of:
- 富貴 (fugui): wealth and rank - the flower of the nobility
- 繁栄 (han'ei): prosperity and flourishing
- 幸福 (kōfuku): happiness and good fortune

The poem on this scroll places all of that tradition in the mouth of the 
flower itself - a declaration of natural sovereignty that is both playful 
and entirely serious.

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𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗟𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗦: 𝗔 𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗟𝗬

The composition presents multiple species in what the Japanese tradition 
calls hyakka-zu ( "hundred flowers painting") - a gathering of 
blooms from different seasons assembled in one ideal garden:

- Peony ( botan): the dominant presence - large, multi-petalled, 
  rendered in overlapping grey washes that suggest the lavish complexity 
  of the bloom without colour - a technical choice that elevates the 
  flower above mere prettiness into something more austere and powerful

- Camellia (sazanka): white petals with a cluster of red-pink 
  stamens - the only warm colour in the painting - placed at the 
  compositional centre as a focal jewel

- Magnolia (mokuren): the distinctive bud forms appear at 
  upper right - Japan's spring herald, whose upward-pointing buds 
  (like candles before lighting) make it unmistakable

- Red plum ( kōbai): small branches with pink-red blossoms at 
  lower left - the winter flower, the season when this scroll was painted

This assembly of flowers from spring, summer, and winter in a single 
winter painting is a deliberate literary device - the painter gathering 
all beauty into one imagined moment, the way a poet might gather all 
seasons into one poem.

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𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛𝗡𝗜𝗤𝗨𝗘 & 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗦𝗧

The painting technique moves between the Nanga (南画) literati tradition 
and the Shijō school's direct observation of nature:

- Peony petals: gōhitsu - fine outline strokes combined with 
  wet wash infill - creating the layered, translucent quality of 
  overlapping petals in monochrome

- Leaves: enkaku - quick oval outlines suggesting leaf form 
  without detailed vein work - the Nanga shorthand for foliage that 
  prioritises rhythmic energy over botanical precision

- Rock: haboku - saturated ink in rapid diagonal strokes - 
  the bold anchor against which the flowers float

- Colour discipline: only two notes of warm colour (camellia stamens 
  and plum blossoms) against an entirely ink-based composition - 
  the classical ichi-ten kōshoku principle

The artist signed with the brush name 紅葉 (Kōyō - "Red Autumn Leaves") - 
a poetic gago of considerable beauty, chosen by a painter who understood 
the seasonal and emotional resonance of colour in nature. 

Two red seals authenticate the work: a rectangular kishōin above the 
inscription and a rare **oval (楕円印, daen-in)** name seal in the 
lower right of the painting - the oval seal being an unusual and 
distinctive choice that marks a confident artistic personality unwilling 
to follow convention even in this small detail.

Dated: **Shōwa Year 2 (昭和二年), Winter 1927.**

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𝗠𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 & 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

Mounted in hon-hyōgu with warm gold kincha (金茶) brocade 
featuring a fine wave-pattern (波紋, hamon) border - a Shōwa-period 
mounting in the classical style, its warm gold tones harmonizing 
beautifully with the aged paper ground of the painting.

Condition: Good for period. Paper shows appropriate warm toning 
consistent with nearly 100 years of age. Ink stable and vivid. 
Mounting shows age-consistent wear but remains intact and structurally sound.

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📋 Period confirmed by colophon inscription (昭和二年, 1927). 
Style and attribution based on material and visual analysis. 
No external certificate of authenticity. Sold as-is.