Show Us Your print

[Bugyotsuji]

Nice Toyokuni Kabuki print, BaZZa. See Kamahige

http://www.naritaya.jp/english/compendium/18_11.html

[Guest]

Hi Bazza,

 

It is signed Kouchourou Toyokuni Ga and sealed with the Toshidama seal in red which we discussed earlier.

 

Dang Piers. ya beat me to it!!!

 

[PietroParis]

Thanks for the info on my print. It is signed Hiroshige. I did some research some years ago about it as far as I remember it could be attributed to a later Hiroshige generation: 4th.

 

This page seems somewhat skeptical on the Hiroshige signature, but who knows.

[raaay]

Thanks to all,  

 

for the links and information on the woodblock print run 

[Bernard]

Kiyochika : "Braving the bitter cold, our troops set up camp at Yingkou" (1895)

 

http://www.myjapanesehanga.com/home/artists/kiyochika-kobayashi-1847-1915-/braving-the-bitter-cold-our-troops-set-up-camp-at-yingkou

 

Bernard D

[Guest]

I wonder if Kiyochika had seen images of Caravaggio paintings in books?

 

 

 

One can only muse, had he been born today, he would be making movies.

 

[Gunome]

I also have this one for those who love night scènes

 

 

[Bazza]

Nice Toyokuni Kabuki print, BaZZa. See Kamahige

http://www.naritaya.jp/english/compendium/18_11.html

Thank you Piers and Malcolm.  With a little more diligence over the years I might (might!) have been able to find this out for myself.   BUT...  there was always a sword to chase, a sword book to buy, and other collections to chase down and see.  I do have a number of books on prints, but this one wasn't in any of them.  I always thought the bloke with the kama at his throat was a sword polisher, so my question is "What is a 'blacksmith' doing with a mere tub of water and not a yakiire trough??"

 

BaZZa.

[Bernard]

Gototei Kunisada

 

Bernard D

 

 

[Guest]

Thank you Bernard.

 

Here's a question:

 

Does the hashi stuck in the Hibachi have the same  meaning as hashi in a rice bowl?

 

A certain chain of fast food restaurant here in the UK (who's choice of name can also be read as.... selfishness, egoism and self-indulgence) once had an ad campaign featuring the image of a rice bowl inverted with the hashi stuck in it like an umbrella for their autumn offers,

 

[Guest]

Thank you Sebastien,

 

This is one of my favourite night scenes by Chikanobu:

 

https://data.ukiyo-e.org/artofjapan/images/3d9120e147ac8162c44351e0a43da98f.jpg

 

For many years erroneously described as a scene of women firefighters.. with naginata?

 

I think not. the term Onna Bugeisha is more appropriate.

 

I came close to purchasing a pristine set in Tokyo, last November, but, a tsuba with an impeccable provenance intervened.

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Malcolm, standing Hibashi sticking out of a Hibachi seems quite normal, i.e. not having the funerary connotation as with the bowl full of rice.

 

PS Loving Chikanobu’s naginata-wielding ladies. Would not like to get on the wrong side of them.

[Tigerinbamboo]

Malcolm, that Chikanobu print is also one of my favorites. Some castles were known to use women from samurai families as guards. I think the women in the print, rather than fighting the fire, are guarding the evacuation from the castle.

[Guest]

Absolutely correct Kathleen.

 

It is surprising to note that the event depicted actually took place on the 30th of October 1890 (Meiji 23).

 

There was a fire in Edo Castle, allowing for artistic licence, it certainly must have captivated the public at the time.

 

Chikanobu published the print in 1892.

 

It's called "Otachinoki" - The Retreat.

 

How about we all search out woodblock images of Onna Bugeisha  女武芸者?

 

Here's one that is particularly pertinent at the moment:

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Same person?

[Guest]

Good morning Piers,

 

Leaving aside the historical character portrayed for a moment.

 

The artist has sealed in tensho script within the Hyotan cartouche it looks like :

 

半

古

 

Which I make as Hanko, which leads me to Kajita Hanko (1870-1917):

 

Which leads me to your print which is entitled "Taking a Rest":

 

https://ukiyo-e.org/image/artelino/36304g1

 

 

 

Now to track down the historical figure.

 

I'm going to make a split call:

 

 

The print above is by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi printed c.1887

 

Hangaku Gozen - 坂額御前

 

or

 

 

The print above is by Gekko printed c.1895

 

Tomoe Gozen - 巴 御前

 

 

I was told that Gozen 御前, being an honourific, not really Lady, but a bit more like a masculine attribute compliment (given the manners of the times)'

 

Does that make sense, or was I yet again the victim of "Make it up to shut the Gaijin up........".  

 

Here's a bit of sensationalist journalism:

 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2011/10/09/general/women-warriors-of-Japan/#.XqP3nGhKiM8

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Gol darn it, no spots on you Malcolm. 

 

In Japan she is generally known as Tomoe Gozen. 'Hangaku' Gozen is a new one for me, thank you.

[Guest]

Hi Piers, 

 

I've tracked down the original drawing from which the first print was taken, and it is Tomoe Gozen:

 

Drawn by Kikuchi Yousai 菊池 容斎 1781 -1878

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Chikanobu has widened the blade of the Naginata.

[Guest]

Hi Piers,

 

I can't make out the signature or the seal on War and Women, I'm not sure that it is Chikanobu?

 

Here's a depiction of Tomoe Gozen by Adachi Ginko c.1880

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Malcolm, sorry, can’t help.

It doesn’t say 成本 Narimoto does it?

[Guest]

Mea maxima culpa Piers,

 

I've spent all the afternoon, but I can't make any connection to an artist.

 

Here's a really powerful, almost Shin Hanga image of Onna Bugeisha with Naginata.:

 

C'MON FOLKS, TELL US WHO THE ARTIST WAS........

 

 

 

While we are at it, here is her legacy at the Nippon Budokan in 2019:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llaUCo2HETw

 

And to reiterate a previous comment of yours:

 

"Would not like to get on the wrong side of them."

 

But it might be amusing to try.......

 

 

 

 

[PietroParis]

This one?

 

[EDIT: Sorry, I thought you were asking about your last print, but now I guess you meant the "War and Women" print]

[Guest]

Hi Pietro,

 

I meant the Suzuki Kinsen, well done!

 

However, if you could identify War and Women, that would be a bonus.

 

Over to you.

[PietroParis]

Here is a lead, I'll try to follow it tomorrow.

PULP and PAPER MAGAZINE OF CANADA A Monthly Magazine devoted to the interests of Pulp and Paper Manufacturers and Merchants. (1904) 

The Tanuma Publishing Co., of Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan, are now issuing an illustrated monthly record of the war between Japan and Russia. No. 3 of the series, for which we are indebted to T. Okada, secretary of the Yokohama Chamber of Commerce, has a colored war map, which is not only well drawn and well lettered in English, but is printed on paper far superior to the majority of maps that issue from British or American presses. Besides about 60 pages of descriptive matter, with half-tone cuts and cartoons, there are a number of full-page plates on coated paper, showing that in photo-engraving the Japanese are as fully up-to-date as they are in the manufacture of paper and the conduct of war. Apart from these features and the clever cartoons, the most striking thing in the paper is the pictorial supplement, in characteristic Japanese colors, entitled "War and women — Amazons then, nurses now," showing in one panel a Japanese woman on horseback, sword in hand, as an emblem of the old regime, and in another panel the interior of a hospital tent, in which Japanese ladies are seen as nurses to the wounded soldiers. Though only an outline sketch, the figures are naturally placed, and show the skill of a true artist. The subscription to this interesting periodical is 50 sen per copy, or 5 yen and 30 sen per year, the foreign postage being 14 sen per copy extra. The sen is a Japanese cent, or looth part of a yen, or dollar. 

[PietroParis]

[Bugyotsuji]

Good finds, Pietro.

 

The type of illustration and the sympathetic tone of the description remind me strongly of the two-volume 'Japan's Fight for Freedom' - The Story of the War between Russia and Japan, by HW Wilson. I have Volume I here, mostly naval engagements, but I suspect that if it is in the book (and I will check) it would be Vol II. A long shot, perhaps.

 

Illustrated War News for WWI in Europe was also of this style.

[Guest]

Well done chaps!!!

[PietroParis]

Here it is on eBay in case somebody wants it...

 

[PietroParis]

Anyway, I've never paid attention to this kind of propaganda prints, but after browsing a few of them I understand why people say that the art of woodblock printing went through a spell of decadence in the Meiji era...