80 - Kuniyoshi: Mongaku Shônin

Kuniyoshi: Mongaku Shônin

The title of this print by Kuniyoshi is not entirely right. Strictly, it should be: Not a very lucky day [Sembû - 先負], from the series Kuniyoshi’s Analogies for the Six Conditions of Nature. However, it is sometimes called just Mongaku Shônin. It shows Mongaku Shônin doing penance sitting 37 days under the freezing Nachi waterfall. Printed 1860, although the design might be from 1835.

The small picture shows Seitaka and Kongara, Fudo Myo-o’s two attendants.

The series, Kuniyoshi's Analogies for the Six Conditions of Nature, [Rokuyôsei Kuniyoshi jiman], pairs real and mythical persons with specific days in Japanese astrology.

79 - Hokkei: The Sumida River in Musashi Province

Hokkei: The Sumida River in Musashi Province

Totoya Hokkei (1780-1850) created this print, The Sumida River in Musashi Province. A fine design by a grossly underrated artist.

Sumida River flows through Tokyo. The river and its many bridges are popular motives in ukiyo-e.

78 - Hirokage: Head of a Tiger Eating a Rooster

Hirokage: Head of a Tiger Eating a Rooster

The somewhat confusing title of this print is Head of a Tiger Eating a Rooster. It is from 1860 and the artist is Utagawa Hirokage, who was active between 1855 and 1865. He was one of Hiroshige's students.

Quite clearly, this is not a tiger, but a leopard. There are other ukiyo-e prints as well, depicting leopards, where they are also called tigers in the title. In Japan of that time, they obviously believed that leopards were female tigers.

77 - Sadanobu: Kitano Tenmangû keidai

Sadanobu: Kitano Tenmangû keidai

Here we have a print by Hasegawa Sadanobu I (1809–1879), The Precincts of the Kitano Tenmangû Shrine (Kitano Tenmangû keidai), from the series Famous Places in the Capital (Miyako meisho no uchi), from 1870-1871.

Prints with views of famous places were a subgenre of late ukiyo-e and filled the same function as postcards did later.

Sadanobu I, who founded the Hasegawa school in Osaka, created mainly yakusha-e and views from famous places. He was a good artist, but not in parity with the greatest masters.

76 - Eishô: Motozue of the Daimonjiya

Eishô: Motozue of the Daimonjiya

This is an okubi-e by Chôkôsai Eishô (active approximately 1780-1800) - Motozue of the Daimonjiya, from the series Contest of Beauties of the Pleasure Quarters (Kakuchû bijin kurabe), from 1795-1797.

Eishô created several beautiful bijinga in the form of okubi-e. This picture, a portrait of a courtesan, is made extra interesting by the addition of a cat as a contrast to the face.

75 - Chōshun: Beauty in the Snow

Chōshun: Beauty in the Snow

Miyagawa Chōshun (1683-1753) founded the Miyagawa school. He and his students did not create woodblock prints; they exclusively painted.

This painting is Beauty in the Snow. The composition is typical for certain forms of East Asian art, where emptiness is used as an active element of the composition.

74 - Toshinobu II: Nitta no Shiro Tadatsune faces the Goddess of Mount Fuji and her dragon

Toshinobu II: Nitta no Shiro Tadatsune faces the Goddess of Mount Fuji and her dragon

This is a triptych by Toshinobu II, which shows Nitta no Shiro Tadatsune facing the Goddess of Mount Fuji and her dragon in a cave on Mt. Fuji. Tadatsune’s followers were afraid to enter the cave but Nitta no Shiro took a torch and entered. The Goddess congratulates him on his bravery.

Shirai Toshinobu (1866-1903) was a student of Yoshitoshi, who gave him the name Toshinobu.

This is a very beautiful print, although one can claim that the depicted animal is not a dragon but a serpent. In art, however, the borderline between the two is vague. Otherwise, strictly, a dragon has limbs, a serpent does not.

The name “Toshinobu” causes some confusion as to whom it really refers, because Yoshitoshi had three students using that name, and two of them signed with the same kanji characters [年信]. I believe, however, that here we have a triptych by Shirai Toshinobu, who is sometimes called Yamazaki Toshinobu II.