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Lot Essay
A small and fragile scroll, probably in its original state, without remounting, shows Thirteen Buddhas, arranged in three vertical columns. It is a very early type of Otsu-e, folk paintings sold to travelers in the shops of Otsu, a town on the Tokaido highway near the southern tip of Lake Biwa, in Shiga Prefecture. A few other examples of this subject are known, but they are rare. Secular subjects—falconers, courtesans, demons—were popular in later years.
A very similar example was published by Kiyoshi Yokoi, a partner and managing director at Mayuyama & Co., in his book, Early Otsu-e (Tokyo: Mayuyama & Co,, 1958), Pl. 2. Yokoi points out that most extant examples of Otsu-e are nineteenth century. One of the largest collections of Otsu-e is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a 1999 gift of Harriet and Edson Spencer, who acquired their first piece from Mr. Yokoi at the Mayuyama gallery in the arcade of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in 1960.
A very similar example was published by Kiyoshi Yokoi, a partner and managing director at Mayuyama & Co., in his book, Early Otsu-e (Tokyo: Mayuyama & Co,, 1958), Pl. 2. Yokoi points out that most extant examples of Otsu-e are nineteenth century. One of the largest collections of Otsu-e is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a 1999 gift of Harriet and Edson Spencer, who acquired their first piece from Mr. Yokoi at the Mayuyama gallery in the arcade of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in 1960.