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Lot Essay
published:
Azabu Museum of Art, and Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, eds., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo/Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art, introduction by Kobayashi Tadashi, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art; Osaka: Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1988), pl. 43.
Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, and Japan Institute of Arts and Crafts, eds., Edo no fashon, kaikan kinen ten, Part 1: Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e ni miru onnatachi no yosooi/"Fashion of Edo": Women's dress in Ukiyo-e Paintings, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, 1989), pl. 51.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pls. 44--1, 44--2.
Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: zuroku (Catalogue of an exhibition of ukiyo-e painting), exh. cat. (Tokyo: Mitsukoshi Department Store, Ikebukuro, 1984), pl 14.
Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten (Exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting), edited by Niigata Nipposha et al., text by Yoshida Teruji, exh. cat. (Niigata City: Niigata Nipposha, 1967), no. 71.
Shibui Kiyoshi, ed., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e bijinga shusei/Ukiyo-e Paintings of Beauties in Japanese Collections, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1983), Bunka pl. 63.
Uchida Kinzo, "Kuwagata Keisai kenkyu: Okakae eshi jidai no katsudo o megutte; ge" (Research on Kuwagata Keisai: Concerning the activity of a period when artists worked for daimyo clients; Part 2), Kokka 1159 (1992), fig. p. 110.
Yamaguchi Keizaburo, Kiyonaga and Shigemasa, vol. 5 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e, edited by Narazaki Muneshige (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1983), pl. 62.
Yoshida Teruji, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e (Ukiyo-e painting), vol. 2 (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1963), pl. 36.
By ukiyo-e convention, a courtesan gazing at the moon was identified as Takao, a fabled 17th-century Yoshiwara tayu. The figure here is anachronistically clothed in bright-red robes with bold, oversize flower motifs and kanoko tie-dyed patterns. Perhaps to conjure up the halcyon days of yore, Keisai paints in a deliberately archaic style associated with Hishikawa Moronobu (lot 17). Keisai first worked as an ukiyo-e print artist using the name Kitao Masayoshi. In 1794, he returned to his samurai roots and accepted an appointment as official painter for the fiefdom of Tsuyama (Okayama prefecture).
The inscription is by the literatus and Rimpa painter Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828). Though of samurai extraction and raised in a family with close connections to the cultural elite, Hoitsu immersed himself in the Yoshiwara salon culture in Edo and was on close terms with many writers, actors, and artists. An illustration by Keisai in Ryori tsu (Connoisseurship of Fine Food; c. 1822) shows Hoitsu at a drinking party with the literati painter Kameda Bosai, the kyoka poet Shokusanjin (lot 81), and the poet-calligrapher Okubo Shibutsu (lots 72 and 113). Based on the seals and signature styles of both artist and calligrapher, this work dates to the early 1820s.
Hoitsu's inscription apparently derives from a sermon by the early Edo-period priest Takuan (1573-1645) who is said to have written it on a painting of a courtesan. Among his many achievements as a popularizer of Zen, Takuan founded the Tokaiji temple in the Shinagawa district of Edo, an area also known for its bordellos. Intriguingly, the same quotation (with slight variations) is found on a number of other ukiyo-e paintings, including one by Yukimaro (lot 62):
Buddha tried to sell the religious law;
the Patriarchs tried to sell the Buddha;
Priests of the Final Age of the Law try to sell the Patriarchs.
And you try to sell your five-foot-tall body
to allay the passions of mankind.
Form is none other than emptiness, emptiness is none other than form.
Willows are green, and flowers crimson.
Though the moon, night after night,
courses across the face of the pond
its essence remains undampened
nor does its shadow linger.
Azabu Museum of Art, and Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, eds., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo/Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art, introduction by Kobayashi Tadashi, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art; Osaka: Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1988), pl. 43.
Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, and Japan Institute of Arts and Crafts, eds., Edo no fashon, kaikan kinen ten, Part 1: Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e ni miru onnatachi no yosooi/"Fashion of Edo": Women's dress in Ukiyo-e Paintings, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, 1989), pl. 51.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pls. 44--1, 44--2.
Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: zuroku (Catalogue of an exhibition of ukiyo-e painting), exh. cat. (Tokyo: Mitsukoshi Department Store, Ikebukuro, 1984), pl 14.
Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten (Exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting), edited by Niigata Nipposha et al., text by Yoshida Teruji, exh. cat. (Niigata City: Niigata Nipposha, 1967), no. 71.
Shibui Kiyoshi, ed., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e bijinga shusei/Ukiyo-e Paintings of Beauties in Japanese Collections, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1983), Bunka pl. 63.
Uchida Kinzo, "Kuwagata Keisai kenkyu: Okakae eshi jidai no katsudo o megutte; ge" (Research on Kuwagata Keisai: Concerning the activity of a period when artists worked for daimyo clients; Part 2), Kokka 1159 (1992), fig. p. 110.
Yamaguchi Keizaburo, Kiyonaga and Shigemasa, vol. 5 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e, edited by Narazaki Muneshige (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1983), pl. 62.
Yoshida Teruji, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e (Ukiyo-e painting), vol. 2 (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1963), pl. 36.
By ukiyo-e convention, a courtesan gazing at the moon was identified as Takao, a fabled 17th-century Yoshiwara tayu. The figure here is anachronistically clothed in bright-red robes with bold, oversize flower motifs and kanoko tie-dyed patterns. Perhaps to conjure up the halcyon days of yore, Keisai paints in a deliberately archaic style associated with Hishikawa Moronobu (lot 17). Keisai first worked as an ukiyo-e print artist using the name Kitao Masayoshi. In 1794, he returned to his samurai roots and accepted an appointment as official painter for the fiefdom of Tsuyama (Okayama prefecture).
The inscription is by the literatus and Rimpa painter Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828). Though of samurai extraction and raised in a family with close connections to the cultural elite, Hoitsu immersed himself in the Yoshiwara salon culture in Edo and was on close terms with many writers, actors, and artists. An illustration by Keisai in Ryori tsu (Connoisseurship of Fine Food; c. 1822) shows Hoitsu at a drinking party with the literati painter Kameda Bosai, the kyoka poet Shokusanjin (lot 81), and the poet-calligrapher Okubo Shibutsu (lots 72 and 113). Based on the seals and signature styles of both artist and calligrapher, this work dates to the early 1820s.
Hoitsu's inscription apparently derives from a sermon by the early Edo-period priest Takuan (1573-1645) who is said to have written it on a painting of a courtesan. Among his many achievements as a popularizer of Zen, Takuan founded the Tokaiji temple in the Shinagawa district of Edo, an area also known for its bordellos. Intriguingly, the same quotation (with slight variations) is found on a number of other ukiyo-e paintings, including one by Yukimaro (lot 62):
Buddha tried to sell the religious law;
the Patriarchs tried to sell the Buddha;
Priests of the Final Age of the Law try to sell the Patriarchs.
And you try to sell your five-foot-tall body
to allay the passions of mankind.
Form is none other than emptiness, emptiness is none other than form.
Willows are green, and flowers crimson.
Though the moon, night after night,
courses across the face of the pond
its essence remains undampened
nor does its shadow linger.