Today, I delivered the kakejiku (Japanese hanging scroll) of Akafuji (Red Mt. Fuji) painted by Katō Tomo (a Japanese-style painter) to my customer, who lives in Tanba city.

The red color of Katō Tomo’s painting is really beautiful. The color of this painting, made with “iwa-enogu” (mineral pigments), is typical of his art.

A characteristic of iwa-enogu is that many layers of paint can be applied, because they don’t dissolve like water-based paints do. Nihonga (Japanese-style) painters can express great depth and vividness of color by repeatedly painting iwa-enogu layers. While it is very difficult to create ideal colors using this technique, iwa-enogu can still be very beautiful.
Paintings made for framing are often different from ones made for kakejiku (hanging scrolls) in how the artist applies iwa-enogu. Iwa-enogu are often heavily applied to paintings for framing, so they can’t be mounted in kakejiku. This is because they may be damaged if you roll them up. Therefore, Iwa-enogu are usually lightly applied to kakejiku paintings.
However, the artist Katō Tomo knows a special method for iwa-enogu painting. He can apply iwa-enogu heavily on kakejiku paintings in order to create beautifully colored works that stay undamaged if rolled up.

Besides, he is known as an expert Mt. Fuji painter, and this painting shows his great sense and technique.

My customer was very impressed and glad about this work. Today was great for me, too. This artwork is my favorite, too.

 

Please refer to the following.