Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信) (artist 1724 – 1770)
The Kōya Jewel River, a Famous Place in Kii Province (Kōya no Tamagawa, Kiinokuni no meisho), from the series The Six Jewel Rivers in Popular Customs (Fūzoku Mu Tamagawa - 風俗六玉川)
ca 1769 – 1770
Japanese woodblock prints
Signed: Suzuki Harunobu ga (鈴木春信画)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art - entitled 'A young komuso'
Chazen Museum of Art "A young man attired as a date kommusō is walking along a raised path beside which kikyō (bell-flowers) are in bloom. It is therefore autumn: the valley behind is filled with mist; and on hills in the distance beyond is the finial of a pagoda on Mt. Kōya. The young man carries a shakuhachi and a deep basket hat (tengai), and wears a friar's robes of pongee silk (tsumugi), together with a black kesa (Zen stole). The shakuhachi bag hanging from his sash has a gaudy design of a carp in surging water. In the square cartouche... is the title of the poem, together with a portrait identified as the monk and poet Kūkai; in the tanzaku cartouche beside it is the series title, and a poem by him as follows:
wasurete mo
kumu ya shitsuran
tabibito no
Takano no oku no
Tamagawa no mizu
However much theQuoted from: The Harunobu Decade by David Waterhouse, vol. 1, text, p. 313, #565.
traveller forgets, he will
surely scoop water
from the Crystal River in
the depth of Mount Takano.
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Illustrated in Pins on page 107 with the title Gompachi disguised as a komuso on the bank of a river. The curatorial notes at the British Museum refer to this as: "Gompachi dressed as komuso walking near river, with portrait of poet Kukai, inscription."
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Waterhouse describes this figure as a young man. Margaret Gentles, on the other hand, described it as 'a young lady in kamusō attire. Binyon thought it was 'the youth Gonpachi'. Waterhouse goes on to say: "Unlike other members of the Buddhist clergy, kamusō did not shave their heads; and the effeminate appearance of the young man is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that he is a date kamusō - what cowboys would call a dude. In his facetious way, Harunobu illustrates Kūkai's poem with a portrait of one of these creatures, in an oblique reference to the popular association of Kūkai and homosexuality; it is incorrect to see the figure as depicting the famous lover Shirai Gonpachi."
pillar prints (hashira-e - 柱絵) (genre)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)
Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) (role)