21 - Kuniyasu: Parody of Shi Jin, the Nine Dragoned: Akomi of the Ôgiya

Kuniyasu: Parody of Shi Jin, the Nine Dragoned: Akomi of the Ôgiya

Here we have one of those hard-to-interpret mitate-e, with many layers of meaning in contrast with each other. At first sight this is nothing more than a bijinga. Indeed, it is a specified woman, Akomi of the Ôgiya. The print is made by Utagawa Kuniyasu (1794-1832), and it is called Parody of Shi Jin, the Nine Dragoned (Kyûmonryû Shishin no mitate): Akomi of the Ôgiya; from the series One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Shuihuzhuan (Tsûzoku Suikoden gôketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori)."

The Ôgiya was a great brothel in Yoshiwara, Edo's pleasure district. Many ukiyo-e artists created bijinga with portraits of courtesans from this "House". As so many aspects of life in old Japan, a brothel, or a "House", was organised according to a strict hierarchy. The reigning courtesan of the Ôgiya had the hereditary name Hana-o gi.

But who is Shi Jin, the nine-dragoned, with whom Kuniyasu contrasts the courtesan?

He is a character in a Chinese literary classic, Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn (Water Margin). The story is too long to be told here, but Shi Jin had nine dragon tattoos on his body. Compare that to the pattern of the courtesan's kimono.

It is customary to translate "mitate" to "parody", but it can be misleading. I have explained that in a previous article.

06 - Kuniyasu: Rakuda no zu - A Pair of Camels

Kuniyasu: Rakuda no zu - 1824

This woodblock print from 1824 by Utagawa Kuniyasu (1794-1832) is named “Rakuda no zu”, and shows a pair of camels. They are probably the first camels ever on Japanese soil - namely the pair of camels that were brought to Japan by Jan Cock Blomhoff, the head of the Dutch East India Company, in 1821, as a gift to his Japanese courtesan. The camels were moved to Edo over the Tōkaidō road, and did get enormous attention. The courtesan showed them for money and is said to have made a fortune.

At least one source claims that the camels were intended as a gift to the Shogun, who refused to take them. They were then given to Blomhoff's courtesan.

The calligraphy is made by Santô Kyôden. It is a description of the animals and their tour in 1821.

Pictures like this are called Nagasaki-e. That is pictures of goods and animals from abroad, which (1639-1854) always entered Japan through the port Deshima in Nagasaki.