Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳)
(artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Iwasa Matabei (岩佐又兵衛)
(artist 1578 – 1650)
Ōtsu Pictures for the Times: A Rare Thing You've Been Waiting For (Tokini Ōtsu-e kitai no maremono - 流行逢都絵希代稀物)
ca 1847 – 1848
10 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Minatoya Kohei (Marks 332 - seal 24-075)
Carver: Hori Takichi
Censor seals: Mera and Murata (on left and center); Hama and Kinugasa (on the right)
British Museum
Lyon (similar diptych)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts
Waseda University - left panel
Waseda University - center panel
Waseda University - right panel
Tokyo Metropolitan Library - right panel
Tokyo Metropolitan Library - center panel
Tokyo Metropolitan Library - left panel
National Diet Library
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow - left panel only
Victoria and Albert Museum
University of Vienna
Google map - Ōtsu, near Lake Biwa
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg - right panel only
Art Institute of Chicago
Pushkin State Museum - center panel only
Edo-Tokyo Museum
National Gallery, Prague
Fitzwilliam Museum The Museum of Fine Arts translates the title of this triptych as Ryūkō Ōtsu-e kitai no maremono - 流行逢都絵希代稀物 - or 'The Amazing Phenomenon of Popular Ōtsu-e Paintings'. This is considerably different than the one given by the British Museum: Toki ni ōtsu-e kitai no maremono.
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"Colorful characters from the Ōtsu folk paintings have come to life and stand in a circle looking at their creator, the painter, who is seated in the centre. 'Ōtsu pictures' (Ōtsu-e) were a lively kind of folk painting made in and around the village of Ōtsu, in Ōmi province (modern Shiga prefecture) as souvenirs for travellers along the Tōkaidō road. The silhouetted figures on the fluttering sheets of paper in Kuniyoshi's print indicate that the characters have emerged from his paintings. Lest there be any doubt that the artist is Kuniyoshi, the fan at his side bears a large version of the Yoshikiri seal and a pet cat looks up to gain its master's attention (Kuniyoshi was a cat-lover). Tantalisingly, one of the Ōtsu paintings dances in the air right in front of the painter's face. Kuniyoshi included some half-dozen self-portraits in his prints and book illustrations, but without exception he either hides his face or avert it from the viewer. Such playful self-effacing modesty was expected of a true 'Edokko', an artisan or merchant of Edo.
Perhaps, then, the 'Rare Thing You've Been Waiting For' mentioned in the title is not Kuniyoshi's never-to-be-seen face, but the 'likeness' (nigao) of leading Kabuki actors 'hidden' in the Ōtsu characters. By 1848 the Tenpō reforms' publication regulations had been relaxed sufficiently for artists to be permitted once more to design recognisable images of actors, provided they were not named. The present print should therefore be regarded simply as one of Kuniyoshi's playfully inventive 'crazy pictures' (kyōga). The actors and their roles have been identified by Suzuki Jūzō. Anti-clockwise from the right, they are Ichikawa Kodanji IV as Thunder God (Kaminari), an unknown actor as Catfish with Gourd (Hyōtan namazu), Onoe Kikujorō (?) as Young Falconer (Takajō wakashu), Ichikawa Kuzō II as Samurai Footman (Yakko), Ōtani Hiroemon as Daikoku (Gehō), Iwai Kumesaburō III as Ushiwaka-maru, Nakamura Utaemon IV as Demon Reciting Buddhist Prayers (Oni nenbutsu), Nakayama Bungorō as Drunkard Samurai Footman (Sakanomi yakko), Onoe Baikō IV as Wisteria Maiden (Fuji musume), Seki Sanjūrō III as Blind Musician (Zatō and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII as Benkei Carrying the Bell (Tsurigane Benkei...).
Suzuki Jūzō reproduces an impression from the earliest printing of the design, which has the entire background printed blue and a wiped horizontal band of black across the top... There, as here, the orange lead (tan) pigment has tarnished black in many places."
Quoted from: Kuniyoshi From the Arthur Miller Collection, Timothy Clark, p. 278.
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Illustrated:
1) in black and white in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 24.
2) in black and white in The Male Journey in Japanese Prints by Roger Keyes, University of California Press, 1989, fig. 164, p. 116.
3) in black and white in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collection 5: Victoria and Albert Museum II, Kodansha, 1989, page 169, #33.
4) in color extended over two page in Undercurrents in the Floating World: Censorship and Japanese Prints by Sarah E. Thompson and H.D. Harootunian, Asia Society Galleries, 1991. The accompanying text reads: "The artist's face is coyly hidden by one of hte sheets of paper from which the images have escaped, but the round fan with Kuniyoshi's paulownia crest (also seen as a seal following his signature on each sheet) and the cat, one of the artist's beloved pets, make it clear that this is Kuniyoshi himself."
5) in color in Kuniyoshi 国芳 by Jūzō Suzuki (鈴木重三), Heibonsha Limited, Publishers, 1992, no. 442.
6) in color over two pages in Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection by Timothy Clark, Royal Academy of Arts, 2009, pages 278-279, no. 129.
7) in color in Worldly Pleasures, Earthly Delights: Japanese Prints from the Minneapolis Institute of Art, text by Matthew Welch, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2011, p. 183, #147. "For this composition, Kuniyoshi drew on a play written for the puppet theater by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724). Titled Keisei hangokō (The Beauty Whose Spirit Appears in the Incense Smoke), it was first performed at the Takemoto Theater in Osaka in 1708. One of the plays many subplots involves a certain Matahei (loosely based on the artist Iwasa Matabei), who is credited with having invented ukiyo-e. In one dramatic episode, the authorities are about to arrest Matahei on false charges, but the characters in his paintings magically spring to life and defend him. Kuniyoshi shows the artist seated before a red felt painting mat. As though lifted by a divine wind, the sheets of paper bearing Matahei's paintings rise into the air and transform into Ōtsu-e characters, rendered in the simplified Ōtsu-e manner.
The composition was slightly subversive. Titled Tokini Ōtsu-e kitai no maremono (Popular Ōtsu-e Phenomenon), it ostensibly illustrates the Matahei story. Kuniyoshi, however, evaded edicts forbidding the depiction of Kabuki actors by substituting the faces of famous performers for Ōtsu-e characters' faces. As if taunting government censors, he even pictured the warrior monk Benkei wearing kumadori, the distinctive Kabuki makeup. Furthermore, he boldly represented himself in the role of Matahei. Although Matahei's face is obscured by a piece of airborne paper, the nearby fan bearing Kuniyoshi's crest leaves little doubt as to his intention. He was also known to be fond of cats, and a spotted feline - perhaps intrigued by the fluttering paper - sits on its haunches beside the artist."
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There are other copies of this triptych in the University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts and in the National Gallery, Prague.
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The University of Vienna identifies all of the figures.
The following actors are displayed:
1. Ichikawa Kodanji IV: kaminari - thunder god
2. Bandō Hikosaburō IV: monkey with namazu (catfish) and gourd
3. Ichimura Uzaemon XII: takajō - falconer
4. Ichikawa Kuzō II: yarimochi - retainer carrying pike
5. Ōtani Hiroemon V: geihō daikokuten - Daikokuten
6. Iwai Kumesaburō III: Ushiwakamaru - name of Minamoto Yoshitsune
7. Kuniyoshi
8. Nakamura Utaemon IV: oni no nenbutsu - demon
9. Nakayama Bungorō II: sake nomi yakko - servant drinking sake
10. Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII: tsurigane benkei - Benkei with the bell of the Miidera Temple
11. Onoe Kikugorō IV: fujimusume - wisteria girl
12. Seki Sanjūrō III: zatō - blind
comic prints (giga - 戯画 / kyōga - 狂画) (genre)
Minatoya Kohei (湊屋小兵衛) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Ichikawa Kodanji IV (四代目市川小団次: spring 1844 to 5/1866) (actor)
Bandō Hikosaburō IV (四代目坂東彦三郎: 11/1816 to 2/1856) (actor)
Ichimura Uzaemon XII (十二代目市村羽左衛門: 11/1821 to 12/1850) (actor)
Ichikawa Kuzō II (二代目市川九蔵: from 11/1835 to 9/1852) (actor)
Ōtani Hiroemon V (五代目大谷広右衛門) (actor)
Iwai Kumesaburō III (三代目岩井粂三郎: from 11/1832 to 1/1864) (actor)
Nakamura Utaemon IV (四代目中村歌右衛門: 1/1836-2/1852) (actor)
Nakayama Bungorō II (二代目中山文五郎: from 11/1825 to 1862) (actor)
Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII (八代目市川団十郎: 3/1832 - 6/8/1854) (actor)
Seki Sanjūrō III (三代目関三十郎: 4/1840 to 12/1870) (actor)
Musashibō Benkei (武蔵坊弁慶) (role)
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (源義経) (role)
Ōtsu-e (大津絵) (genre)
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (近松門左衛門) (author)