Kakemono Scroll Pair: Samurai and Pagoda in the Rain

A samurai in full armor, mounted high on horseback with a drawn bow, in full gallop across wide open land – a depiction full of movement and martial tension.

With confident, energetic brushstrokes, the armor, the horse's body, and the characteristic arrows in the rider's quiver are rendered in detail, while the picture ground in restrained gray suggests the vastness of the landscape. The hanging scroll forms a companion pair with a second, calmer scene by the same painter, which shows a pagoda veiled in rain and a dated colophon – a contrast between martial dynamism and contemplative stillness, of the kind often sought in classical pictorial pairs. Both scrolls are included and bear the signature 江漢 with seals; the box lid names 司馬江漢筆, i.e. Shiba Kōkan.

The work is delivered including a signed wooden box and is an impressive motif for collectors of historical samurai depictions.