Visit Matsumoto

The Ikegami Hyakuchokutei Collection consists of 221 items, primarily modern literary materials collected by Kisaku Ikegami (pen name: Hyakuchokutei, 1890–1978), a literati from Matsumoto City. In this installment, we introduce the works of Hyakuhō Hirafuku.

Hyakuhō Hirafuku (1877–1933) was a Japanese-style painter from Akita Prefecture. He studied under Tamashō Kawabata and later joined the Musō-kai, an art group that advocated naturalism.His creative vision and technical skill were highly regarded, as evidenced by the numerous awards he received at the Bunten and Teiten exhibitions. He is also known for gaining popularity through his numerous illustrations for newspapers and magazines. He interacted with poets such as Itō Sachio and Nagatsuka Setsu, and later became active as a poet in the Araragi school.

Kisaku Ikegami began collecting paintings after encountering one of Hyakuho’s works.Ikegami acquired *Willows by the Water*, one of the works Hyakuhō created and distributed to raise funds for the tanka magazine *Araragi*. He took a great liking to the painting and came to desire other masterpieces by Hyakuhō. Ikegami deepened his friendship with Hyakuhō and commissioned a new work; in 1928 (Shōwa 3), the large-scale painting *The Sound of the Pine Wind and the Spring* was delivered to him.

Please take your time to enjoy these works, collected through the close bond that developed between the two artists.