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拍品專文
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. 101.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 83.
A courtesan with two child attendants wears an outer robe (uchikake) decorated with a frightening scene of the King of Hell presiding over the fate of sinners. The possibility of redemption, or paradise, is suggested by the design of lotus and clouds on her obi, which is tied in front, and by the painting of an apsara, or angel, on a screen behind her.
Legend has it that Jigoku (Hell) was the house name for a courtesan in Osaka who was befriended by the eccentric Zen priest and poet Ikkyu (1394-1481). Ikkyu, who found virtue in the midst of vice, claimed to have spent ten years in the brothels. The Hell Courtesan whom he loved was both daunting and enlightened in a worldly sense. The story was popularized in the 19th century in the kabuki theater and in ukiyo-e prints. Jigoku (hell) became a general term for unlicensed prostitutes in the Edo period and the grotesque possibilities appealed to ukiyo-e artists. It is said that Yoshiiku had a relationship with a popular courtesan named Gendayu, who dressed herself in the robes of the Hell Courtesan and kept a Buddhist altar in her room. Might this be her portrait?
Yoshiiku studied printmaking under Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), supported himself as an illustrator, specialized in portraits of courtesans, actors and warriors, but ended in poverty when the demand for traditional ukiyo-e prints dried up in the late Meiji period.
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. 101.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 83.
A courtesan with two child attendants wears an outer robe (uchikake) decorated with a frightening scene of the King of Hell presiding over the fate of sinners. The possibility of redemption, or paradise, is suggested by the design of lotus and clouds on her obi, which is tied in front, and by the painting of an apsara, or angel, on a screen behind her.
Legend has it that Jigoku (Hell) was the house name for a courtesan in Osaka who was befriended by the eccentric Zen priest and poet Ikkyu (1394-1481). Ikkyu, who found virtue in the midst of vice, claimed to have spent ten years in the brothels. The Hell Courtesan whom he loved was both daunting and enlightened in a worldly sense. The story was popularized in the 19th century in the kabuki theater and in ukiyo-e prints. Jigoku (hell) became a general term for unlicensed prostitutes in the Edo period and the grotesque possibilities appealed to ukiyo-e artists. It is said that Yoshiiku had a relationship with a popular courtesan named Gendayu, who dressed herself in the robes of the Hell Courtesan and kept a Buddhist altar in her room. Might this be her portrait?
Yoshiiku studied printmaking under Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), supported himself as an illustrator, specialized in portraits of courtesans, actors and warriors, but ended in poverty when the demand for traditional ukiyo-e prints dried up in the late Meiji period.