Hokusai. Edmond de Goncourt

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      In 1802, a small series of three plates represents a Japanese gesture game, with a judge, a hunter, and a fox. On one of the plates, a woman makes a fox with her hands close to her face and bent back in front of her. A series of twelve plates simulates scenes of the ronin by women and children.

      A series was completed in honour of the moon, which is represented by women. A young woman is particularly graceful, her head turned backwards. With one hand, she holds a scarf of black crepe flying around her, a boshi, at her neck, and with the other hand, she holds a closed parasol against her. Another series is on Edo, showing industries and small landscapes. Yet another series bears the title ‘The twelve animals of the zodiac’, with the animals in the form of toys in the hands of elegant young women.

      The year 1803 is marked by a series of thirty-six plates, ‘The Thirty-Six Occupations of Life’. Among these compositions, is a charming print of a young Japanese boy learning to write while his mother guides the hand holding the brush.

      The artist also painted another series of five plates, ‘The Five Forces, Represented as Women’ and a series of ten plates, ‘The Five Elegant Knights’, also represented as women.

      A series of seven plates, ‘The Seven Komatis’, represents the seven periods of the life of the poet Komati. This female poet with a checkered life is very popular in Japan. She had, at one time, the ambition of becoming the emperor’s mistress, so even when she had feelings for an educated lord of the court named Fukakusa-no-Shunshō, it is said she made the following pact: he would come talk with her of love and poetry for ninety-nine nights, and on the one hundredth night she would be his. The lover fulfilled the conditions imposed by the poet, but upon leaving her house on the ninety-ninth night – it was a very cold winter – he froze. The poet acquired the reputation of having died a virgin.

      Among the large plates that Hokusai produced that year, one notes a young girl’s dance with a double parasol in a palace, with an orchestra behind a blind, and princesses behind another blind.

      In 1804, a series bore the title ‘The Twelve Months of the Year’, and like all the other similar titles by the artist, consisted of small drawings of women.

      One series has no title. It represented women of various classes: a noblewoman, a great courtesan, and a yotaka, a bird of the night, wandering among the construction sites and warehouses.

      One also notes a series of ten plates, ‘Contemplation of the Beautiful Scenes of Edo’, and a series of ten plates with the title ‘The Ten Elements’.

      Plates also appeared separately: a game for young girls, where one pronounces the names of animals and pinches the top of the hand of the girl who makes a mistake; flowering branches of shrubs on a paper resembling dimity; a curious still life that reminds one of the simplicity of the subjects treated by Chardin: on a bed of bamboo leaves rest a slice of salmon and a slice of katsuo, a fish highly prized by the Japanese. Some of the plates that appeared this particular year were done in large formats.

      1804 was a year during which Hokusai published so many surimonos that it is not possible to list the entire catalogue. Among the surimonos from the Manzi collection, there are many very beautiful works 50 cm wide by 18 cm tall:

      – A flight of seven cranes on a red background of the setting sun.

      – A flowering plum tree with two pheasants at its foot and whose branches spread over a river, showing under the flowering greenery, a perspective of two boats.

      – Three women are kneeling at the edge of a bay, their eyes looking out to sea, while a servant girl fans the fire of a stove heating some sake.

      – Above a flowering cherry tree, two red throated swallows fly. Nothing can give a better idea of the softness than this plate and the subdued charm of these flowers, in the cloud on the print where an almost imperceptible embossing separates the pistils.

      We can cite, among the surimonos from Mr. Gonse’s collection:

      – A copse of trees by a river and the façade of the interior of a house where two men work, making dolls. This is the home of Toyokuni, Hokusai’s neighbour in Katsushika, at the time when Toyokuni was not yet a painter but a doll maker.

      – A pink and white landscape that, with flowering fruit trees, is like the arrival of spring on a winter scene.

      Among the surimonos in Mr. Vever’s collection, we can cite:

      – A promenade in a temple by men and women examining paintings hung on the wall. A pair of Japanese men has stopped in front of a kakemono; one is looking at the painting, and the other is looking at the women.

      – A man, in a ‘house of ill repute’, is smoking. His mistress, next to him, is, for her lover’s pleasure, making her kamuro, her servant girl, try a dance step while the dance teacher kneeling in front of her guides her movements.

      We should also note, among the medium sized surimonos belonging to Mr. Havilland:

      – A god of thunder settling, amidst lightning bolts, into the bath of a half-dressed woman.

      – A wrestler or kami, for whom a woman is refilling a sake cup as large as a dish while two other women crouching at his feet are laughing at his fat, hairy belly.

      Three Women with a Telescope, excerpt from the series Album of Kyōka – Mountain upon Mountain (Ehon kyōka), 1804.

      Nishiki-e. Pulverer Collection, Cologne.

      Panoramic View of the Sumida Banks with the Shin Yanagibashi and Ryōgokubashi Bridges, excerpt from the Illustrated Book of the Two Banks of the Sumida in One View (Ehon Sumidagawa ryōgan ichiran), c. 1803.

      Illustrated book, nishiki-e, each sheet: 27.2 × 18.5 cm.

      Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.

      Panoramic View of the Sumida Banks with the Shin Yanagibashi and Ryōgokubashi Bridges, excerpt from the Illustrated Book of the Two Banks of the Sumida in One View (Ehon Sumidagawa ryōgan ichiran), c. 1803.

      Illustrated book, nishiki-e, each sheet: 27.2 × 18.5 cm.

      Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.

      Panoramic View of the Sumida Banks with the Shin Yanagibashi and Ryogokubashi Bridges, excerpt from the Illustrated Book of the Two Banks of the Sumida in One View (Ehon Sumidagawa ryogan ichiran), c. 1803.

      Illustrated book, nishiki-e, 27.2 × 18.5 cm.

      Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.

      Among the large format surimonos:

      – A view of the Sumida full of boats.

      – Silk weavers at work in the countryside, one of whom is drawing a bed for the loom across the threads.

      – Young СКАЧАТЬ