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Lot Essay
published:
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, ed., Tokubetsu ten rakuchu rakugai no purima donna: Yuraku to fuzokuga, 17 seiki (Special exhibition of prima donnas in scenes in and around the capital: Pleasure and genre painting, the 17th century), exh. cat. (Kobe: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, 1993), pl. 13.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pls. 2, 2--1.
Tobacco and Salt Museum, Tokubetsu ten: Kinsei fuzokuga byobu/A Special Exhibition of Japanese Genre Screens, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Tobacco and Salt Museum, 1980), pl. 7.
Borrowing the vignette-like, segmented composition common to late medieval screens like Scenes In and Out of the Capital and the Tale of Genji, the designer of Springtime Amusements presents seven discrete episodes conveying the exuberance of the vernal mood. The scenes, quite disparate in scale, are separated by landscape elements, architecture, and lavish clouds created by gold leaf and gold paint.
This screen is a textbook example of the transition from Momoyama genre painting, which focuses on seasonal public pleasures and outdoor amusements, to ukiyo-e, which tends to celebrate activities more customarily conducted behind closed doors. The small vignettes in the upper register--a party of noblemen playing their ancient sport of kickball (kemari) under the cherries at left, and a group of aristocratic ladies dancing under the blossoms at right--represent the waning of more traditional subjects of genre painting, while the five scenes taking place in the foreground, within the confines of an elegantly-appointed mansion (probably a bordello), point towards a new emphasis on the more sensual aspects of pleasure. The right-most group consists of five stylish (and available) ladies playing cards in a room decorated with formal Kano-style monochrome landscapes on its sliding doors. On the other side of the doors a board game called sugoroku is in progress while a woman is having her hair dressed. Women's pleasures give way to masculine pursuits in the third group: a priest, attended by his pretty page boy, plays go with a handsome young man (wakashu); behind them a samurai and priest engage in strenuous arm-wrestling. The fourth group is a circle of young men dancing to the accompaniment of the fashionable shamisen. In front of the gate, palanquin bearers wile away the time watching an impromptu sumo match. This last motif appears in The Tale of Manly Love, illustrated by Hishikawa Moronobu (see lots 17, 19, and 20) only a short while later, and would seem to have the same erotic overtones that pervade the rest of the scenes in the lower register.
Influence from the style of Iwasa Matabei (lots 1, 2, and 3) can be detected in the treatment of the figures, particularly the faces, and it is not impossible that this screen is connected with Matabei's workshop.
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, ed., Tokubetsu ten rakuchu rakugai no purima donna: Yuraku to fuzokuga, 17 seiki (Special exhibition of prima donnas in scenes in and around the capital: Pleasure and genre painting, the 17th century), exh. cat. (Kobe: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, 1993), pl. 13.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pls. 2, 2--1.
Tobacco and Salt Museum, Tokubetsu ten: Kinsei fuzokuga byobu/A Special Exhibition of Japanese Genre Screens, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Tobacco and Salt Museum, 1980), pl. 7.
Borrowing the vignette-like, segmented composition common to late medieval screens like Scenes In and Out of the Capital and the Tale of Genji, the designer of Springtime Amusements presents seven discrete episodes conveying the exuberance of the vernal mood. The scenes, quite disparate in scale, are separated by landscape elements, architecture, and lavish clouds created by gold leaf and gold paint.
This screen is a textbook example of the transition from Momoyama genre painting, which focuses on seasonal public pleasures and outdoor amusements, to ukiyo-e, which tends to celebrate activities more customarily conducted behind closed doors. The small vignettes in the upper register--a party of noblemen playing their ancient sport of kickball (kemari) under the cherries at left, and a group of aristocratic ladies dancing under the blossoms at right--represent the waning of more traditional subjects of genre painting, while the five scenes taking place in the foreground, within the confines of an elegantly-appointed mansion (probably a bordello), point towards a new emphasis on the more sensual aspects of pleasure. The right-most group consists of five stylish (and available) ladies playing cards in a room decorated with formal Kano-style monochrome landscapes on its sliding doors. On the other side of the doors a board game called sugoroku is in progress while a woman is having her hair dressed. Women's pleasures give way to masculine pursuits in the third group: a priest, attended by his pretty page boy, plays go with a handsome young man (wakashu); behind them a samurai and priest engage in strenuous arm-wrestling. The fourth group is a circle of young men dancing to the accompaniment of the fashionable shamisen. In front of the gate, palanquin bearers wile away the time watching an impromptu sumo match. This last motif appears in The Tale of Manly Love, illustrated by Hishikawa Moronobu (see lots 17, 19, and 20) only a short while later, and would seem to have the same erotic overtones that pervade the rest of the scenes in the lower register.
Influence from the style of Iwasa Matabei (lots 1, 2, and 3) can be detected in the treatment of the figures, particularly the faces, and it is not impossible that this screen is connected with Matabei's workshop.