83 - Hokusai: E-goyomi

Hokusai: E-goyomi

Hokusai, one of the greatest ukiyo-e masters, made this e-goyomi in January 1792.

The printing of calendars was a government monopoly in Japan. By that forbidden to create calendars, the ukiyo-e artists developed the subgenre of e-goyomi. Literally it means "calendar print" - but, not to violate the monopoly, they had to conceal the calendar in the picture in some clever way.

53 - Hokusai: The Strong Oi Pouring Sake

Hokusai: The Strong Oi Pouring Sake

The Strong Oi Pouring Sake is a portrait Hokusai made of his daughter, Oi. She was also an artist and her art name was Sakae; the title of the portrait is likely to be a pun based on that.

Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage, sometimes called rice wine. While it is made of rice, it is not correct to call it wine. It is not, as wine, made by fermentation of sugar naturally present in grapes (or other fruit), but by a brewing-like process, where starch is first converted to sugar, which is then fermented to produce the alcohol. Thus, technically, sake is not wine.

 

48 - Hokusai: Kanagawa oki nami ura - The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Hokusai: Kanagawa oki nami ura

In a selection of ukiyo-e, it is impossible not to include this print. It might very well be the most famous Japanese artwork ever. It is The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, by Katsushika Hokusai. The Japanese title of the print is - Kanagawa oki nami ura 神奈川沖浪裏 - and an alternative title in English, one that better resembles the Japanese original, is Under the Wave off Kanagawa.

The picture was originally published between 1826 and 1833.

07 - Hokusai: Daruma and a Courtesan

Hokusai: Daruma and a Courtesan

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is one of the internationally most famous masters of ukiyo-e. Although he is best known for his woodblock prints, the picture I chose for this week is a painting. It is a mitate-e hanging scroll, depicting Daruma and a courtesan. Hokusai painted it in the beginning of the 1800s.

Mitate is usually translated as "parody" and a mitate-e is then a "parody picture". This translation is quite confusing, since mitate-e contains many forms of pictures. What they all have in common is, that they play with double meanings, symbols, analogies, and associations, often related to literature, legends, or history. One form of mitate-e contrasts impossible combinations or opposites. An historical person or environment and a contemporary one, a peasant and a nobleman, high and low, good and bad.

It is very difficult to understand mitate-e without profound knowledge of Chinese and Japanese classics, symbols, and history. It is even more difficult than that. It is hard to understand that a picture is a mitate-e. All those layers of hidden meanings might easily pass unnoticed.

In this painting Hokusai contrasts Daruma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, with a courtesan. The spiritual and the worldly. To me, this is an illustration of complementary opposites.