Katsukawa Shunsho / Lovers dressed as komuso monks in an autumn landscape / c. 1770Katsukawa Shunsho
Lovers dressed as komuso monks in an autumn landscape
c. 1770

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Creator Name: Katsukawa, Shunsho
Creator Nationality: Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
Creator Role: Artist
Creator Dates/Places: Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creator Active Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creator Name-CRT: Katsukawa Shunsho
Title: Lovers dressed as komuso monks in an autumn landscape
Title Type: preferred
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1765
Creation End Date: 1775
Creation Date: c. 1770
Creation Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan
Object Type: Prints
Classification Term: Woodblock
Materials and Techniques: Woodblock print.
Dimensions: Chu?ban; 26.2 x 19.3 cm
Inscriptions: SIGNATURE: Shunsho ga
AMICA Contributor: The Art Institute of Chicago
Owner Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
ID Number: 1938.481
Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection
Rights: http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html
Context: A pair of lovers - he in black and she in white - are shown walking together in an autumn landscape of bush clover, wild chrysanthemums, and tangled grasses. They are in the guise of wandering mendicant monks (komuso), with basket-shaped woven rush hats (tengai), monk's stoles (kesa), and bamboo curved flutes (shakuhachi). Hanging from the young man's waist and set off stylishly against the black of his kimono are a pair of rich brocade bags for the flutes. Very similar compositions of lovers as komuso were designed as oban and pillar prints by Suzuki Harunobu (ca. 1724-1770) during the last year or so of his career, and it seems likely that Shunsho took his inspiration from such Harunobu designs. Shunsho's faces are, however, proportionately smaller than Harunobu's, and show the particular delicate cast of features perfected by him and seen also in his Ise Monogatari series of about 1770 (see 'The Actor's Image' catalogue, No. 63, p.190). Early Western critics of ukiyo-e championed prints by Harunobu, the komuso designs above almost all others; Laurence Binyon's judgment that in this print 'Shunsho rivals Harunobu' was intended as the highest accolade.In the past the lovers have been identified as Shirai Gompachi and Komurasaki, but it has recently beensuggested that the vogue for komuso prints about 1770 relates to a dance sequence, 'Komuso,' incorporated in the play Sono Sugata Shichi-mai Kisho (Her Lovely Form: A Seven-Page Written Pledge), performed at the Ichimura Theater in the first month of 1770. In the dance Ichimura Uzaemon VII took the role of Karigane Bunshichi disguised as a komuso, while Onoe Tamizo I appeared as the courtesan Seigawa.Except for the indigo blue sky, which has faded to a pale buff, the colors of the print are pristine andunfaded. Its decorative richness is enhanced by elaborate blind-printing (karazuri), used for the diamond pattern on the woman's kimono and for the textured weave of the greenish rush hats. There appear to be no other recorded impressions of the design.
AMICA ID: AIC_.1938.481
AMICA Library Year: 1998
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998

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