COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
mediaCollectionId
AMICO~1~1
The AMICA Library
Collection
true
AMICA ID:
AIC_.1929.727
amicoid
AIC_.1929.727
AMICA ID
false
AMICA Library Year:
1998
aly
1998
AMICA Library Year
false
Object Type:
Prints
oty
Prints
Object Type
false
Creator Name:
Ippitsusai Buncho
crn
Ippitsusai Buncho
Creator Name
false
Creator Nationality:
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
crc
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
Creator Nationality
false
Creator Dates/Places:
Japanese; fl. c.1755-1790 Asia,East Asia,Japan
cdt
Japanese; fl. c.1755-1790 Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creator Dates/Places
false
Creator Name-CRT:
Ippitsusai Buncho
crt
Ippitsusai Buncho
Creator Name-CRT
false
Title:
Chizuka no Fumi no Bosetsu (The Evening Snow of a Thousand Bundles of Love-Letters)
otn
Chizuka no Fumi no Bosetsu (The Evening Snow of a Thousand Bundles of Love-Letters)
Title
false
Title Type:
preferred
ott
preferred
Title Type
false
View:
full view
rid
full view
View
false
Creation Date:
c. 1772
oct
c. 1772
Creation Date
false
Creation Start Date:
1767
ocs
1767
Creation Start Date
false
Creation End Date:
1777
oce
1777
Creation End Date
false
Materials and Techniques:
Woodblock print.
omd
Woodblock print.
Materials and Techniques
false
Classification Term:
Woodblock
clt
Woodblock
Classification Term
false
Creation Place:
Asia,East Asia,Japan
ocp
Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creation Place
false
Dimensions:
Chuban; 26.5 x 19.5 cm
met
Chuban; 26.5 x 19.5 cm
Dimensions
false
AMICA Contributor:
The Art Institute of Chicago
oon
The Art Institute of Chicago
AMICA Contributor
false
Owner Location:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
oop
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Owner Location
false
ID Number:
1929.727
ooa
1929.727
ID Number
false
Credit Line:
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection
ooc
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection
Credit Line
false
Inscriptions:
SIGNATURE: Ippitsusai Buncho gaARTIST'S SEAL: Mori uji
oin
SIGNATURE: Ippitsusai Buncho gaARTIST'S SEAL: Mori uji
Inscriptions
false
Rights:
orl
<a href="http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html"target="_new">http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html</a>
Rights
false
Context:
The doomed love affair between the courtesan Ohatsu and the shop clerk Tokubei is the subject of one of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's most famous love-suicide plays, Sonezaki Shinju (Double Suicide at Sonezaki). It was first performed at the Takemoto Puppet Theater in Osaka in 1703 and later adapted for the Kabuki stage. Their story was an obvious choice for inclusion by Buncho in a print series of eight celebrated stagelove affairs. These eight prints were a witty allusion (mitate-e) to the 'EightViews of LakeBiwa' (Omi Hakket), a subject often treated by classical landscape painters. On each of Buncho's prints a cartouche in the form of a folded love-letter contains the series title and the names of the pair of lovers depicted. The term hakkei ('eight views') in both series titles makes the allusion unmistakable.The plot of Sonezaki Shinju, based on an actual love-suicide that occurred in Osaka in 1703, shows the pure love of Ohatsu and Tokubei overwhelmed by the blindness and selfishness around them: a well-meaning, officious uncle who wants to arrange a rich but loveless marriage; an aunt who spends the dowry in advance; a perfidious friend who borrows money and then denies the loan. All these conspire to drive the lovers to their desperate but ultimately redeeming final act.Such dark themes, however, were antithetical to the lively nature of eighteenth-century ukiyo-e prints, and Bunco has chosen to depict a more cheerful scene early in the courtship, when Tokubei visits Ohatsu at the Temmaya house of pleasure to which she belongs, and receives a love-letter from her through the lattice of the brothel's 'display window' (harimise). In the entrance hall to the left is a large lantern bearing the orange-blossom (tachibana) crest of the establishment, and a spotted dog dozing under a bench; since sleeping dogs do not bark, this one will not give the lovers away. Tokubei wears a fashionable wraparound overcoat, black silk hood, and high black lacquer clogs, and carries a large, half-open umbrella. The fact that he is visiting on a snowy evening provides the link with 'Evening Snow on Mt. Hira' (Hira no Bosefsu), one of the 'Eight Views of Lake Biwa' to which the eight prints in the series allude. A classical poem quoted in the stylized cloudbank across the top of the picture makes the association explicit:Yuki haruru (The beauty of an evening)Hira no takane no(When the snow clears from)yugure wa (Mt. Hira's lofty peak)hana no sakari ni (Surpasses even)suguru koro kana (The cherry trees in bloom.)The colors of the print have faded considerably.
cxd
The doomed love affair between the courtesan Ohatsu and the shop clerk Tokubei is the subject of one of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's most famous love-suicide plays, Sonezaki Shinju (Double Suicide at Sonezaki). It was first performed at the Takemoto Puppet Theater in Osaka in 1703 and later adapted for the Kabuki stage. Their story was an obvious choice for inclusion by Buncho in a print series of eight celebrated stagelove affairs. These eight prints were a witty allusion (mitate-e) to the 'EightViews of LakeBiwa' (Omi Hakket), a subject often treated by classical landscape painters. On each of Buncho's prints a cartouche in the form of a folded love-letter contains the series title and the names of the pair of lovers depicted. The term hakkei ('eight views') in both series titles makes the allusion unmistakable.The plot of Sonezaki Shinju, based on an actual love-suicide that occurred in Osaka in 1703, shows the pure love of Ohatsu and Tokubei overwhelmed by the blindness and selfishness around them: a well-meaning, officious uncle who wants to arrange a rich but loveless marriage; an aunt who spends the dowry in advance; a perfidious friend who borrows money and then denies the loan. All these conspire to drive the lovers to their desperate but ultimately redeeming final act.Such dark themes, however, were antithetical to the lively nature of eighteenth-century ukiyo-e prints, and Bunco has chosen to depict a more cheerful scene early in the courtship, when Tokubei visits Ohatsu at the Temmaya house of pleasure to which she belongs, and receives a love-letter from her through the lattice of the brothel's 'display window' (harimise). In the entrance hall to the left is a large lantern bearing the orange-blossom (tachibana) crest of the establishment, and a spotted dog dozing under a bench; since sleeping dogs do not bark, this one will not give the lovers away. Tokubei wears a fashionable wraparound overcoat, black silk hood, and high black lacquer clogs, and carries a large, half-open umbrella. The fact that he is visiting on a snowy evening provides the link with 'Evening Snow on Mt. Hira' (Hira no Bosefsu), one of the 'Eight Views of Lake Biwa' to which the eight prints in the series allude. A classical poem quoted in the stylized cloudbank across the top of the picture makes the association explicit:Yuki haruru (The beauty of an evening)Hira no takane no(When the snow clears from)yugure wa (Mt. Hira's lofty peak)hana no sakari ni (Surpasses even)suguru koro kana (The cherry trees in bloom.)The colors of the print have faded considerably.
Context
false
Related Image Identifier Link:
AIC_.E19793.TIF
ril
AIC_.E19793.TIF
Related Image Identifier Link
false