Totoya Hokkei (1780–1850)
Willow Island (Yanagishima), from A Series of Willows (Yanagi ban tsuzuki), circa 1828
Woodblock print, surimono, embellished with metallic pigments and blind printing
Signed: 'Go Hokkei'
Privately published, circa 1828
Poems by Ryukokutei Sennen and Sennentei
Signed: 'Go Hokkei'
Privately published, circa 1828
Poems by Ryukokutei Sennen and Sennentei
Shikishiban:
20.3 x 17.8 cm. (8 x 7 in.)
20.3 x 17.8 cm. (8 x 7 in.)
Very good impression, slight fading, a few minor surface marks, slight oxidisation, the reverse with remnants of mounting tape at top corners.
£ 2,500.00
A lady-in-waiting in a samurai household stands beside an offering to the deity of the unmoving North Star - the Bodhisattva Myoken. In an area of Edo called Yanagishima (Willow...
A lady-in-waiting in a samurai household stands beside an offering to the deity of the unmoving North Star - the Bodhisattva Myoken. In an area of Edo called Yanagishima (Willow Island), east of the Sumida River, stood a small temple which housed the Myoken Hall; one of Edo's most popular pilgrimage destinations which was dedicated to this deity. The woman's robes are decorated with stylised hollyhock (aoi) leaves and Genji carriage-wheels (Genji-garuma), as well as cursive kanji characters sen (thousand) and ryu (willow), which wittily form part of the name of one of the poets featured on the print, Senryutei.
The circular cartouche contains a turtle walking towards the seven-star constellation known as the 'Plough' or 'Big Dipper', which in East Asia is associated with worship of the North Star. Each print in this series features a long rectangular cartouche with poems inscribed over dangling willow branches.
The poems read:
The warbler
always alights
on the Myoken pine,
as if to deliver a hymn
to the unmoving star
-- by Ryukokutei Chitoshi
Especially today,
under a glorious sky,
the year's first mist
trails like the green branches
of Yanagishima's willows.
-- by Senryutei
For further reading on this print and the series, see John T. Carpenter, Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints, (Hotei, 2008), cat. 107 and 108, pp. 232-233.
For another design from the same set in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession no. 11.25458, go to:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/216729
The circular cartouche contains a turtle walking towards the seven-star constellation known as the 'Plough' or 'Big Dipper', which in East Asia is associated with worship of the North Star. Each print in this series features a long rectangular cartouche with poems inscribed over dangling willow branches.
The poems read:
The warbler
always alights
on the Myoken pine,
as if to deliver a hymn
to the unmoving star
-- by Ryukokutei Chitoshi
Especially today,
under a glorious sky,
the year's first mist
trails like the green branches
of Yanagishima's willows.
-- by Senryutei
For further reading on this print and the series, see John T. Carpenter, Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints, (Hotei, 2008), cat. 107 and 108, pp. 232-233.
For another design from the same set in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession no. 11.25458, go to:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/216729