Examining an Arrow

On the wooden floor of a dark interior, an old man in a kimono sits with his feet stretched out in front of him, holding an arrow up at eye level and peering along it to see whether the shaft is bent. Another arrow lies on the floor, and a bow and arrows are propped against the wall at the left. The background sinks almost entirely into darkness, and the light gathers on the old man's face and hands, the white feathers, and the striped kimono. A vertical date and signature are inscribed at the lower right. At about 73 cm high and 105 cm wide, it is a fairly large canvas for a Meiji-era Western-style painting.

It was made in 1893 (Meiji 26), before Okada met Kuroda Seiki and learned the bright, plein-air expression of French training. The calm, brown-based palette and the realistic manner that carefully follows wrinkles and the lines of the hands show well the currents of Western-style painting in the first half of the Meiji era.

The interest of this picture lies in its depicting the old-fashioned subject of tending bow and arrows with the realism of oil painting. It is designated an Important Cultural Property of Saga Prefecture as a work that shows the sure descriptive skill of the young Okada, who would later become known for graceful portraits of women. It is shown, with rotations of the display, in places such as the Saga Prefectural Art Museum's gallery dedicated to Okada Saburosuke, "OKADA-ROOM."