CHINESE SCROLL PAINTING OF LANTERN AND FLOWER SIGNED BY QI BAISHI. Image only size 109 by 35cm LOT 2 TO LOT 132 FROM COLLECTION OF OWNER OF PLUM BLOSSOM STUDIO. The owner of Plum Blossom Studio is Yakichiro Suma, a native of Akita, Japan. Suma is known as "Sheng Long Shan Ren" and "Plum Blossom Studio"(called directly according to his study), a famous Japanese diplomat and spy in the Showa era. From 1927 to 1937, he worked in China for nearly eleven years, serving successively as the second class secretary of the Japanese embassy in Beijing, the Japanese cansul in Guangdong, and the first class secretary of the Japanese embassy in Nanking (consul-general of Naning), etc. In 1939, he moved to puppet Manchukuo and was promoted to Minister of Intelligence of Foreign Affairs Ministry. As a diplomat in China for many years, he found himself in the period when China was undergoing the Xinhai Revolution and the Qing Dynasty was plunged into chaos and disintegration. As a result, the Qing government, pricely families and high-ranking officials sold their famous paintings and calligraphy, antiques and precious artifacts in the market. Suma purchased a raft of renowned works including those from Luo Zhenyu, Duanfang, Wang Guowei, Qi Baishi, Pu Mo, Wu Hufan, Zhang Daqian, Liang Qichao, Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Binglin, Wu changshuo and Yu Jinhe. On top of that, thanks to his special status, he quickly established a very complete system of Chinese art collection. It covered Chinese porcelain, paintign and calligraphy, Buddhist statues, and many other categories, with the collection of paintings and calligraphy by Qi Baishi representing a significant portion of the collection. His collection is widely acclaimed in East Asia.