18th Century Edo Period Japanese Silk Scroll of Daruma Hanabusa Itcho

A Japanese hanging scroll attributed to Edo period painter Hanabusa Itcho (1652-1724). The artwork features a silk roundel nicely mounted in golden brocade background. The painting depicts a robed Daruma seated in meditation with his eyes widely open. The rendition of the famous monk, one of the most beloved subjects in Japanese art, was extremely minimalistic. With just a few effective ink strokes and patches of watercolor, it managed to successfully highlight the essence and spirit of Daruma. The roundel was possibly a center fragment of a larger painting by the artist and was remounted historically. Signed with one of his artist’s names. It comes with a wood scroll box with ink inscription of title and artist formal name.
For a painting with the same signature, see number 1881,1210,0.1719 in the collection of the British Musuem. Also a horizontal scroll item number Dongwon 3066 in the collection of National Musuem of Korea.
Hanabusa Itcho was a Japanese painter, calligrapher, and haiku poet of Edo period. He originally trained in the Kano style, under Kano Yasunobu, but ultimately rejected that style and became a literati (bunjin) and formed his own style, which would come to be known as the Hanabusa school. He was also known as Hishikawa Wao and by a number of other art-names.