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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Kishi Bunsho Creator Nationality: Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese Creator Role: Artist Creator Dates/Places: Japanese; 1754-1796 Asia,East Asia,Japan Creator Active Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Creator Name-CRT: Kishi Bunsho Title: Monkey trainer with a monkey at the New Year Title Type: preferred View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1780 Creation End Date: 1780 Creation Date: Edo period, ca. 1780s Creation Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Object Type: Prints Classification Term: Woodblock Materials and Techniques: Woodblock print. Dimensions: Hosoban; 29.3 x 14.9 cm11 5/8" x 7 5/8" Inscriptions: SIGNATURE Kishi Bunsho ga AMICA Contributor: The Art Institute of Chicago Owner Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA ID Number: 1968.329 Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Henderson Rights: http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html Subject Description: Printed entirely in shades of red ink, this print would have been purchased as a household talisman against smallpox. The type was known as red picture (aka-e), or smallpox picture (hoso-e). It may well have been sold door-to-door at the New Year holiday by the very monkey trainer shown in the print. The monkey is dressed for the auspicious New Year Sambaso dance and carries a drum, and his trainer wears a similarly festive costume and carries a branch of bamboo to decorate a gateway. Hanging from the fan he waves is a long, narrow poem card (tanzaku) inscribed with a surprisingly lighthearted poem linking the dancing monkey, smallpox lesions, and red and white plum blossoms, which bloom about New Year:Ume no hanakazoete mirebayotsu itsutsuakaku shirokiwasaru no manzaiFlowers of the plum-Let's count them and see:Four, five [smallpox],Red and white likeThe costume of the dancing monkey!The short poem above the figures (probably by Bunsho) is more of a straightforward plea:Waga yado wahoso karushiume no hanaIn our homeMay the smallpox be light:Flower of the plum!It is followed by yet another popular incantation against sickness: 'Sasara sampachi!' A smallpox epidemic is known to have hit Edo in the year 1782, so the print may have been issued at the New Year of 1782 or 1783.1 The block cutting and printing are fairly crude, as befits a piece of ephemera. ('The Actor's Image', 1994) AMICA ID: AIC_.1968.329 AMICA Library Year: 1999 Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Art Institute of Chicago, 1999 AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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