JAPANESE ART > PAINTINGS ON SHIKISHI > LUCK

Lot 00448
N.1 painting on shikishi

Keisen

LUCK

Year: 2018
Condition: very good
Size: 24 x 27 cm

SOLD

The etymology of the ideogram 幸 depicting luck and happiness, two meanings that are easily overlapping, is not easy to reconstruct. Although this seems far-fetched, given its positive meaning, it seems that originally this kanji depicted the handcuffs of a prisoner and that then it ended up indicating, in a reverse sense, the fortune of a rediscovered joy following a liberation.

Others believe that it derives from the two ideograms 屰 (opposite) and 夭 (death) and therefore underlines the good fortune of being alive. There are also those who claim that it is the simplification of kanji 倖, indicating an imperial inspection and therefore, in a broader sense, the good fortune of being honored by the visit of a high-ranking person.

The work, made on a thick shikishi (色紙) cardboard with golden edges by the female calligrapher Keisen (恵泉), is in very good condition.

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