30 - Chōki: Cat's Cradle

Chōki: Cat's Cradle, about 1804

Eishōsai Chōki (active about 1786-1808) was a student of Toriyama Sekien, who was also the teacher of Utamaro. It is possible that Chōki was the adopted son of Sekien.

The couple on the picture are Okiku and Yosuke. They are supposed to be lovers, but I don't know anything more about them. Here they are playing Cat's Cradle, a game with cords that, in one form or another, exists almost everywhere in the world.

Prints by Chōki are relatively rare and expensive.

29 - Kuniyoshi: Yôkyô (Yang Xiang)

 

Kuniyoshi: Yôkyô (Yang Xiang), 1848

The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety is a book by Chinese scholar Guo Jujing, who wrote under the pseudonym Yizi. In Japan, they call him Kaku Kyokei. He lived during the Yuan dynasty in China (1260–1368).

It describes 24 cases of extreme filial loyalty, a subject that was a part of Confucian moral values.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi made several series of prints of “paragons of filial piety”. In 1848 came Morokoshi nijûshi-kô, [唐土廾四孝] - “The Twenty-four Chinese Paragons of Filial Piety, Part I”, from which this week's print is taken. It is called Yôkyô (in Chinese Yang Xiang). Yôkyô was a boy who jumped in front of his father to protect him from an attacking tiger. The tiger was scared by Yôkyô's unhesitating action and turned away. The print shows Yôkyô, his father, and the approaching tiger.

28 - Moronobu: Beauty Looking Back

Moronobu: Beauty Looking Back

The picture this week is “mikaeri-bijin” [beauty looking back] a painting by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), who was the first true ukiyo-e artist. He set the norm for bijinga, a norm to a large extent still defining bijinga as a genre. But his “beauty looking back” is not only artistically interesting, it has also influenced the Japanese language.

見返り美人 – mikaeri-bijin - became a Japanese term for a beautiful woman looking back. But in modern Japanese it has a more special meaning. It is a girl or woman looking beautiful from behind, but, when she turns around, proves to be ugly from the front. The concept contains a degree of disappointment. I don't know of any other language having a special word for this.

There is no reason to believe that the name connoted ugliness or disappointment for Moronobu. That came later.

27 - Yoshikazu: The Angry Ghost of Nitta Yoshioki Takes His Revenge

Yoshikazu: The Angry Ghost of Nitta Yoshioki Takes His Revenge

This is The Angry Ghost of Nitta Yoshioki Takes His Revenge (Nitta Yoshioki no rei okotte ada o mukuu zu), from 1852 - a triptych by Utagawa Yoshikazu, who was active about 1850-1870.

Nitta Yoshioki (1331-1358) was a samurai who, in 1358, was executed by drowning in Tama River. He fought the Ashikaga clan, who held the Shogunate 1336-1573.

There is still a shrine dedicated to Yoshioki as Nitta Daimyōjin, the so-called Nitta Shrine at Yaguchi no Watashi. There is a railway station in Japan, Musashi-Nitta Station, which was named after the Shrine.

26 - Eisen: Summer

Eisen: Summer

This is a kachô-e by Keisai Eisen (1790-1848). It is called "Summer" and is from a series named "The Four Seasons", which Eisen created in 1820.

The print is mainly blue. That makes it an "aizuri-e". The little added orange doesn't change that. The term denotes prints being entirely in blue or where blue is dominating.
 

25 - Toyonobu: Courtesan Standing in Front of a Building

Toyonobu: Courtesan Standing in Front of a Building

I like this bijinga. The geometric background might be a little overbearing, but the figure is graceful with a beautiful posture, and the geometric background provides an interesting contrast to the girl. This is a benizuri-e, a print in pink tones, a technique which was used before the invention of nishiki-e (full colour prints). The creator is Ishikawa Toyonobu (1711-1785), about whom we know very little. The print is named Courtesan Standing in Front of a Building.

24 - Hirosada: Kataoka Gadô II as Matsugae Tetsunosuke and Arashi Rikan III as Saibara Kageyu

Hirosada: Kataoka Gadô II as Matsugae Tetsunosuke and Arashi Rikan III as Saibara Kageyu, 1848

Very little is known about Konishi Hirosada (active ca. 1810-1864 or 1865). However, he was the chief representative of the so-called Osaka school, although he had studied under Utagawa Kunimasu and Utagawa Kunisada in Edo. He used several different names, including Utagawa Hirosada.

As the Osaka school in its entirety, Hirosada devoted himself mainly to kabuki motives, yakusha-e. The Osaka school also distinguished itself by quality of material and extraordinary craftsmanship. Their prints have not aged much. Colours are still almost intact.

Hirosada is sometimes regarded as a genius, and perhaps he was. In any case he was an extraordinarily skilful portraitist, with a style that was expressive without being too garish. A tasteful expressionism. In the kabuki motives he shows a fine sense of drama without exaggerating.

This print is Actors Kataoka Gadô II as Matsugae Tetsunosuke (right) and Arashi Rikan III as Saibara Kageyu (left), in the play Meiboku Sendaihagi, performed at the Chikugo Theatre in Osaka in 1948. The print is a part of the series Tales of Renowned Heroes (Kômei buyû den).