| Method | Woodblock (nishiki-e) |
| Artist | Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) |
| Published | after Tenpo 8 (1837) |
| Dimensions | Two Hanshibon sheets [each sheet ~222 x 155 mm] |
| Notes |
Series Title: Gyokueki chiwa hannah ikada: Clusters of Flowers by a Stream Author: Kōshoku Gaishi pseudonym of Hanagasa Bunkyō in collaboration with Adano Sanjin A print from Volume I of Kunyoshi's Gyokueki chiwa hannah ikada: Clusters of Flowers by a Stream. Two lovers peer around a screen, through an open sliding door, at the back of a woman walking in the opposite direction. The man holds his lover's right leg, exposing her. Folded tissues lie in front of them. A blue and white bowl on a red lacquer tray, sake in box, a pipe, and a tobacco pouch lie on the other side of the screen. Two comic figures can be seen through the open widow gathering lotus, the man on the right is seated in the boat and the other, left, is in the water holding a lotus leaf. The inclusion of the scene in the background is multifaceted. Sex and the floating world are ubiquitously associated with water in shunga prints. In Japanese culture water is considered a yin or feminine element because it is moist, dark, and recessive. The commercial sex trade was and still is referred to as the 'water trade' (mizu-shobai). Additionally, the Yoshiwara district in Edo was best and most commonly reached by boat. In this print the association would have been immediately apparent to the contemporaneous Japanese observer as the scene in the print depicts a man and a geisha in a brothel. The background also serves as a comic element. Shunga prints were also called warai-e (laughing pictures) which is a double entendre for masturbation, but in early shunga it was embraced literally and comic elements were included in many of the images. In this print the presence of two lower class genre figures gathering lotus presumably just outside of the brothel where a man of a high class is engaging the services of a geisha is meant to be funny and cause laughter. Yet there is still another layer to the joke. In Japan the lotus is a symbol of life and death and purity, as is it is able to rise above its muddy water. The lotus also represents transient beauty. In this print the lotus is equated with the commercial sex trade in the Yoshiwara. The bliss of lovemaking is a beautiful transient moment, like the lotus, and indeed the beauty of the geisha herself. Yet, at the same time this association likens the floating world and sex trade to muddy/impure waters and that joke is emphasised by the inclusion of this genre scene. Shunga is the term used for the body of erotic imagery produced in Japan from 1600 to 1900. The term shunga means spring pictures, a euphemism for sex, and is one of several names for erotic material produced in Japan. Shunga took different formats: painted hand scrolls, painted books, printed books and albums, and sets of prints which were sometimes sold in wrappers. As prints they are one of the genres of ukiyo-e, or Floating World prints, which also include fukeiga (landscape prints), and bijin-ga (prints of beautiful women). Most of the major ukiyo-e artists produced shunga material at some point during their careers, including Utamaro (who produced more erotic books than non-erotic books), Hokusai, and Hiroshige. Produced at the same time as the introduction of full colour woodblock printing, shunga prints and books were made using the most lavish and complicated printing techniques, including gauffrage, metallic inks, mica, complicated printed patterns, and multicolour printing using a high number of different colours. Although prolific in its number and variety, shunga should be seen as more representative of the ideals of the ukiyo, with its emphasis on mutual pleasure, rather than as an accurate representation of Japanese attitudes and practices of sexuality. Shunga present an invitation to pleasure through the bliss of lovemaking and though largely heteronormative, they portray the full gamut of couplings, married or otherwise, often surrounded by lavish settings and objects of pleasure. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) joined the famous Utagawa School, then headed by the great master Toyokuni Utagawa I (1769 - 1825) at the age of fourteen. In 1814 he took the name Kuniyoshi and became and independent artist. According to other sources, he had been trained by Katsukawa Shuntei before this. Kuniyoshi achieved his commercial and artistic breakthrough in 1827 with the first six designs of the series The Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Suikoden. The series was about one hundred and eight rebels and honorary bandits, based on an old Chinese novel from the fourteenth century. The story was very popular in Japan. The artist continued with this pattern of success and concentrated on print subjects of warriors and heroes. He was even nicknamed Warrior Print Kuniyoshi. After being financially settled, he turned to other subjects - ghost stories, comic prints, landscapes, beautiful women and actor prints. The artist also tried his luck with another subject, natural life prints, showing animals like birds, fish and cats. These kinds of new subjects, like the landscape print, had first been made popular by Ando Hiroshige. Since the early 1840s, Kuniyoshi prints show some influence of western style painting and printmaking. The artist possessed a collection of western engraving prints. He admired them as much as the European Impressionist artists would admire Japanese woodblock prints later. Western influence can be found in Kuniyoshi prints in several ways: the use of the Western perspective, the way he designed clouds and the way he tried to show the effects of light and shadow. In terms of his shunga output he produced at least 43 known titles during his career with titles recorded 1829-1857 and he depicted the full range of Edo couplings in this work. Kuniyoshi used the following pseudonyms: Nekoyoshi (cats are good), Hakubyôkai Hodoyoshi (happy keeper of white cats), Gobyôtei Hodoyoshi (five cat home–just right), and Sanbentei Nekoyoshi (the Sanbentei cat lover). Hanagasa Bunkyō (1785-1860) was an Edo playwright ands author. After studying under Tsuruya Nanboku IV he became a kabkui playwright but after failing to find success he became a writer of popular fiction. He went on to write erotic texts for Kunisada, Kunyoshi, and Eisen. Koshoku Gaishi, a pen name for. Hanagasa Bunkyo Ex. Col.: Peter Darach Reference: International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Ehon (Ukiyo-e Shunga) Database, Kyoto, KC/172/Ka, 001271113. The Gerhard Pulverer Collection, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Washington D.C, FSC-GR-780.26.1-3 Condition: Some rubbing and light soiling lower right and left corners. |
| Framing | framed |
| Price | £500.00 |
| Stock ID | 53186 |