Keigetsu Matsubayashi (1876–1963) was a Japanese-style painter born in Yamaguchi Prefecture who was active from the Meiji to the Shōwa periods. He studied under Yūkoku Noguchi and, whilst upholding the traditions of Nanga and literati painting, established his own distinctive artistic style centred on landscapes and flower-and-bird subjects. He skilfully employed variations in the intensity of ink and a light, fluid brushstroke, specialising in a free-flowing style that retained a classical charm whilst avoiding any sense of stiffness. In 1958, he was awarded the Order of Culture.

When viewing Keigetsu’s works, one finds that even in compositions rendered almost entirely in ink, a remarkably rich landscape unfolds. Mountains, trees, plum blossoms and bamboo are not rendered in excessive detail; rather, through the vigour of his brushwork and the use of negative space, he conveys a sense of the very atmosphere itself. To me, his works appear less as mere depictions of nature and more as expressions in which he has entrusted the mood and poetic sentiment he experienced in the moment to the ink. The great appeal of Matsubayashi Keigetsu lies in his ability to breathe new life into the classical world of literati painting in the modern era, evoking a sense of freedom within tranquillity.