Flycatchers on a nandina in snow - Ide Gakusui (1899–1978) - Japan

Very rare print of Ide Gakusui.


Ide Gakusui was a traditional nihonga painter specializing in kachō-ga (bird and flower art). Starting in 1949, he designed fifteen prints for the Watanabe Publishing Company, all in this genre, and continued printmaking into the late 1950s—though later works bear no publisher’s mark.

Born in Yamanashi Prefecture as Ide Taizō, he studied under Yamanouchi Tamon and Arai Kanpō after graduating from Nippon University. From 1929 to 1946, he lived in China, traveled widely, and opened a Japanese-style painting school in Shanghai. After returning to Japan, he became director of the Fine Arts Education Association, with at least one work acquired by the Imperial Household Agency.