122 - Keishu: Beauty with Lantern

 

Takeuchi Keishu: Beauty with lantern

This is a bijinga, Beauty with lantern by Takeuchi Keishu (1861-1942). The print is from 1900-1910. Keishu's teacher was the great Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

109 - Yoshitoshi: Komori no godanme

Yoshitoshi: Komori no godanme

Komori no godanme (Bats in the Fifth Act of Chūshingura [Treasury of Loyal Retainers]), from an untilted series known as Yoshitoshi ryakuga (Sketches by Yoshitoshi) 1880-1883.

In the past in Japan, as well as in China, bats were symbols of good luck. But the modern Japanese view is influenced by western tradition, where bats have a more ominous meaning - so the modern symbolic meaning of a bat is more complex. During the Edo period, however, the old view of the bat as an entirely good omen prevailed.

59 - Yoshitoshi: Uesugi Kenshin Nyudo Terutora Riding into Battle

Yoshitoshi: Uesugi Kenshin Nyudo Terutora Riding into Battle

This week we will look at another print by Yoshitoshi: Uesugi Kenshin Nyudo Terutora Riding into Battle. This print feels very modern, just look at the frontal perspective. However, it is from 1883.

Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578) was a powerful daimyō and warrior of his time.

A daimyō was a feudal lord of old Japan, who, in practice, ruled his own land, and were subordinate only to the Shōgun.

39 - Yoshitoshi: Adachigahara hitotsuya no zu - The lonely house on Adachi Moor

Yoshitoshi: The lonely house on Adachi Moor
1885

This is Adachigahara hitotsuya no zu - The lonely house on Adachi Moor, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. It illustrates a folk tale, where a woman on Adachi moor, the hag of Adachigahara, preys on children and pregnant women in order to eat them. The picture shows the moment before the hag kills her captive, a pregnant woman.

This is an example of a subgenre of ukiyo-e which is called muzan-e, or "bloody prints", and displays violence, often murder and torture. Yoshitoshi created the genre and it lived on far beyond ukiyo-e, and influences Japanese art and film still today. It also absorbed erotic motives and came to characterise some branches of Japanese pornography.

The lonely house on Adachi Moor was printed in 1885. The first genuine muzan-e, however, was the series Eimei nijūhasshūku - Twenty-eight famous murders - from 1866-1867, which Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku created together.

05 - Yoshitoshi: The Giant Carp

Yoshitoshi: The Great Carp

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) is often considered as the last ukiyo-e master, although there are many bids on that epithet. However, he is one of the last, and one of the great geniuses of late ukiyo-e. He feels unmistakably modern.

Here we see "The Giant Carp" from the 1880s. The red figure is Kintarō.

Kintarō, a fictitious character, is probably based on a real person: Sakata Kintoki, from the Heian period (794-1185 AD). In Japanese folklore, however, he has grown to a superhero, a boy with superhuman strength. According to legend, he was raised by Yamauba (or Yamanba), a mountain hag on Mount Ashigara (or Mount Kintoki). There are several versions of his further story, some of them contradictory.

Still a popular figure in Japanese popular culture, Kintarō had his heydays during the Edo period, frequently appearing in traditional theater (both kabuki and nō) as well as in ukiyo-e.

In this woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, Kintarō is fighting against a great carp.