Is this chinese or japanese?

[kunstefan]

Hey there! I have here an vintage or old folding-screen/room-divider with a landscape painting on it.

Is the writing chinese or japanese? And can somebody read the name of the artist?

It will be a again a big help. Thank you!!!
 

 

[amytheorangutan]

I can’t read the name but it’s Japanese as I see some kana there 

[TheBigZaboon]

It's a painting of a waterfall in the ancient Japanese home of the ninja cult, Yosemite Valley...

 

Aw, shucks, just joshin' ya... There's no ninja, just a view of a waterfall somewhere in the Yosemite area. As Japanese uses katakana to express foreign words, the symbols in the middle of the mass of Sino-Japanese characters that look different (ヨセミテ) are, in fact, the katakana representation of the English word "Yosemite." 

 

I don't know anything about Japanese painting or painters, so I can't tell you anything else about your treasure. In fact, I'm just guessing that it's Japanese because the text is written in Japanese, and I can't imagine a Chinese painter using katakana. As to it's value, Japanese paintings sell among Japanese who know what they want with respect to Japanese painters without any correlation to what a Western or non-Japanese aficionado might think of the piece. I would consult an expert in Japanese art, rather than listening to amateurs that you may find here (like me). As a famous man once said, the problem is not what they don't know about the subject, it's what they know that isn't so. 

 

TBZ

[alantin]

My wife (Japanese) said it was Japanese, but she wasn't able to read half of it.

The first part seems to be a description of the piece. Don't know the first two characters. The second two are 林中 (in the forest, middle of the forest). The fifth one is probably 西 (west). Don't know what the next two characters are. The rest reads ヨシミテの滝 ("Yosemite Waterfall" or "a waterfall in Yosemite").

Not sure about the first character of the author's surname (or the second ?) but guessing 藤村山人 (Fujimura Yamato).

[TheBigZaboon]

Listen closer to what your wife told you. I'm sure she said "ヨセミテの滝" not "ヨシミテの滝"... I made the same guess on the author's name, but I have less confidence in my older eyes, so I didn't say anything. But I think we all agree, there's no ninjas...

 

TBZ

[Publius]

飛滕林中雨

加州ヨセミテの滝

廣樹山人

[alantin]

On 4/23/2022 at 2:13 AM, TheBigZaboon said:

I'm sure she said "ヨセミテの滝" not "ヨシミテの滝"

 

That's a typo by yours truly...

[alantin]

On 4/23/2022 at 4:54 AM, Publius said:

飛滕林中雨

加州ヨセミテの滝

廣樹山人

Awesome!
Photographs of the 加州ヨセミテの滝 look just like the depiction on that screen!

[Moshen]

It so happens that last week I read an article about Chiura Obata, a Japanese-American painter who was particularly enchanted with Yosemite.

 

https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/obata-yosemite

 

Could it be him?

[kunstefan]

Thank you for your big help!!! Amazing! Chiura Obata has a very different painting style; its not this style.

廣樹山人 would you translate it to Hiroki Yamato in english?

Thank you once more!!!?

[alantin]

On 4/23/2022 at 11:07 AM, kunstefan said:

廣樹山人 would you translate it to Hiroki Yamato in english?

Yeah.
Or "Yamato Hiroki", if you want to put the given name first and the surname last.