Scenes from the Tropics: Evening

In this work, nature, buildings, and people's lives that suggest the south unfold across a scroll of nearly 10 meters. It is color on paper, and the Evening scroll measures 45.7 x 954.5 cm. It is designated an Important Cultural Property. In part of the picture, slender palm trees stand on orange sand, and a green waterside can also be seen.

While following the traditional Japanese painting format, materials, and techniques, the work makes a strong impression with an exotic subject, bright and strong colors, light expressed with gold dust, and simplified motifs and a touch using dots.

The artist, Imamura Shiko, was a Japanese-style painter born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1880 and died in 1916. In 1914 he traveled to India, stopping at ports along the way, and arrived in Calcutta, where he stayed for 15 days. This work was composed from that material, and there are two scrolls, "Morning" and "Evening." The "Evening" scroll is also thought to be based on Gaya, which lies on a tributary of the Ganges in eastern India.