Detail View: The AMICA Library: Operating on Guanyu's Arm

AMICA ID: 
CMA_.1998.178
AMICA Library Year: 
2001
Object Type: 
Paintings
Creator Name: 
Katsushika Oi
Creator Nationality: 
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
Creator Role: 
artist
Creator Dates/Places: 
1480 - 1556
Gender: 
M
Creator Name-CRT: 
Katsushika Oi
Title: 
Operating on Guanyu's Arm
Title Type: 
Primary
View: 
Full View
Creation Date: 
1818-1854
Creation Start Date: 
1818
Creation End Date: 
1854
Materials and Techniques: 
hanging scroll; ink, color and gold leaf on silk
Classification Term: 
Painting
Dimensions: 
Overall: 140.2cm x 68.2cm
AMICA Contributor: 
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: 
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 
1998.178
Credit Line: 
Kelvin Smith Fund
Rights: 
Context: 

This imposing image bears the signature and seal of Oi, daughter of Katsushika Hokusai, the best known Japanese artist in the Western world. Oi served in her father's studio as an assistant and then collaborator during the early 1800s, when Hokusai's popularity in Japan was at its zenith. The dazzling composition, design sense, and palette of colorful mineral pigments in this hanging scroll record her artistic powers at their finest.

The event pictured here comes from a 16th-century Chinese novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which enjoyed great popularity during the 18th and 19th centuries among educated Japanese society. Here Oi portrayed the passage in which the legendary 3rd-century military leader Guanyu undergoes a bloodletting to remove poisons received from an arrow wound. During the operation, with his attendants cowering at the sight of his bloody arm, Guanyu remains focused on a game of go (similar to the Western game of chess) and--judging from the sumptuous food and drink in the background still life--looks forward to a satisfying meal.

Related Image Identifier Link: 
CMA_.AM20020921.tif