Detail View: The AMICA Library: Lovers dressed as komuso monks in an autumn landscape
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AMICA ID:
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AIC_.1938.481
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AMICA Library Year:
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1998
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Object Type:
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Prints
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Creator Name:
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Katsukawa, Shunsho
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Creator Nationality:
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Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
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Creator Dates/Places:
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Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan
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Creator Name-CRT:
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Katsukawa Shunsho
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Title:
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Lovers dressed as komuso monks in an autumn landscape
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Title Type:
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preferred
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View:
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full view
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Creation Date:
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c. 1770
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Creation Start Date:
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1765
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Creation End Date:
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1775
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Materials and Techniques:
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Woodblock print.
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Classification Term:
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Woodblock
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Creation Place:
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Asia,East Asia,Japan
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Dimensions:
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Chu?ban; 26.2 x 19.3 cm
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AMICA Contributor:
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The Art Institute of Chicago
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Owner Location:
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Chicago, Illinois, USA
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ID Number:
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1938.481
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Credit Line:
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The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection
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Inscriptions:
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SIGNATURE: Shunsho ga
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Rights:
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Context:
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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.
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Related Image Identifier Link:
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AIC_.E19674.TIF
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