Priest Saigyo (Sato Yoshikiyo)
SKAZmr 357
Why this is a masterpiece
Hokusai was not only one of the most important ukiyo-e print designers, illustrators, painters and draftsmen, but he was also a most prolific artist of the late Edo period. He inspired many Edo and Osaka artist of his time as well as many European artists. This object is one of a the few paintings by Hokusai in Polish collections.
History of the Object
In March 1939 the National Museum in Warsaw received a valuable gift from Henryk Grohman (1862-1939), an industrialist from Lodz, owner of textile factories and initiator of various commercial ventures. He was an expert collector and connoisseur of art, as well as a music lover. His circle of friends included Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who stayed at his house whenever he came to Lodz. Grohman collected Polish and foreign prints, musical instruments, European ceramics and Oriental handicrafts, mostly Japanese. Just before the war, under a bequest to the State of Poland, his collection was given to the Prints Cabinet at the Library of the University of Warsaw and to the National Museum in Warsaw. Unfortunately, a considerable part of the collection was subsequently either destroyed or taken out of Poland. It is impossible to determine the number of items that were lost this way because they had not been inventoried when the war broke out. With regards to the Oriental collections, the loss was extensive, which can be concluded from the photographs of the interior of Grohman’s house in Lodz, showing glazed cabinets filled with many Japanese artifacts. Today, the Museum holds 76 valuable Japanese swords guards (tsuba) and 20 other minor sword elements from this collection, along with ten kozuka knife handles and three decorative netsuke toggles, in addition to several sculptures, bronzes, paintings and ceramics.
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