Description:

IKUNOSUKE SHIRATAKI (JAPANESE 1873-1960)
Listening (The First Phonograph), 1899
oil on canvas
104 x 137 cm (41 x 54 in.)
framed dimensions: 122 x 155 cm (48 x 61 in.)
signed and dated lower left

LOT NOTES
Ikunosuke Shirataki was born in 1873 in Hyōgo Prefecture. He studied painting under Hōsui Yamamoto and later Kuroda Seiki, and enrolled in the Tokyo Fine Arts School (graduating in 1898) as part of the early generation of Japanese artists embracing Western techniques (yōga).

Early in his career, Shirataki aligned with the Hakuba-kai (White Horse Society), a group dedicated to promoting Western-style art in Japan. Between 1904 and 1910 he traveled abroad - to Europe and the United States - absorbing international currents of naturalism, Impressionism, and academic realism, then returning to Japan to adapt them in his own manner.

Over the ensuing decades, Shirataki produced landscapes, still lifes, and genre scenes that combine precise drawing, rich light effects, and a quiet dignity of mood. In recognition of his contributions to Japanese art, he was awarded the Japan Art Academy Prize in 1952.

In Listening (The First Phonograph), Shirataki captures a moment of wonder and modern novelty: a first encounter with recorded sound. The intimate interior setting frames the subjects’ attentive poses as they lean in to hear the mechanical voice emerging from the device. The painting marries narrative subtlety with technical finesse - Shirataki blends softly modulated lighting, fine detail in costume and furnishings, and a controlled palette to evoke both realism and gentle nostalgia.

This work reflects Shirataki’s commitment to yōga traditions - adopting Western modes (interiors, portraiture, the play of light) while suffusing them with a Japanese sensibility of calm observation. The phonograph here is not merely a technological object, but a mediator between past and future, silence and sound, presence and memory. In placing it within a domestic tableau, Shirataki invites us to reflect on how modern inventions enter the private sphere, reshaping experience without entirely conquering the quiet dignity of ordinary life.

CONDITION
Observed in frame, the work is in good condition, relined, light varnish, UV light inspection showed several lines of restoration upper right.

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October 25, 2025 10:00 AM EDT
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