Plum blossoms and Tang poem “The traveler’s heart” — Japanese calligraphy scroll, early Shōwa bunjin-ga

Elegant Japanese hanging scroll (kakejiku) painted in ink and color on paper, showing flowering plum branches (ume) with an inscription quoting the Tang-dynasty poet Li Bo (Li Bai).
The calligraphy reads 「客心自酸楚」— “The traveler’s heart is filled with melancholy.”
At the left appears a decorative pseudonymous signature 陳霜 (Chen Shuang), a literary allusion rather than an artist’s name.

Three red seals accompany the inscription, typical of bunjin-ga (literati-style) works executed in Japan in the early Shōwa period (ca. 1930s).
The poem’s refined melancholy contrasts beautifully with the vitality of the plum blossoms — a symbol of endurance and renewal in East Asian art.

Mounted on traditional scroll silk with wooden rollers, this work represents the karayō-ga tradition (“painting in the Chinese taste”), popular among Japanese scholar-painters of the 20th century.

Medium: ink and color on paper, mounted as hanging scroll (kakejiku)
Dimensions: 52 × 121 cm
Condition: good, light age toning consistent with period
Origin: Japan, early Shōwa era (c. 1930s)

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