KOKEI AND HIS ART

It took at least 40 days to produce a print from start to finish. Like other sosaku artists he drew, carved and printed each of his works entirely by himself. After the editions were printed he destroyed the blocks. In time this would give him better control over his market and guaranteed the rising value of individual prints due to rarity. Every time one of his images entered a public collection such as the British Museum (大英博物館 or   だいえいはくぶつかん)there would be fewer copies in the open marketplace and the competition for the remaining examples would be fiercer.

His works are printed on ganpi which is a remarkable thin translucent paper and they are enhanced by the use of mica. Each of these traits speaks volumes about his remarkably skillful mastery of his craft and his art.

Kokei is said to cancel his woodblocks when he has finished an edition by carving his name prominently across them.

This particular image represents Seno Juro from the kabuki play Genpei Nunobiki no Taki. It is also commonly known as the Sanemori Monogatari (実盛物語 or  さねもりものがたり). Like so many other kabuki plays this one is complex and convoluted: there are mistaken identities, role reversals, self-decapitation, abandoned children, attempted infanticide, supernatural body parts and much, much more. The crux of the story is very loosely based on an aspect of the Heike-Genji conflict of the twelfth century. The first theatrical production took place in 1749 in a puppet play.

This print is accompanied by a Japanese certificate of authenticity.

THE WOOD USED

MAGNOLIA OBOVATA (THUN.)

朴の木

HŌNOKI

ほおのき

Above is an example showing the grain of the Magnolia obovata tree.

First off, let me tell you, I am not a wood worker. I am not even good at identifying different kinds of woods by their grains. But I am a wood lover and appreciate their beauties and their wonderful qualities brought out by  great craftsmen. When I was very young my parents took me to Chicago where we visited the Museum of Science and Industry. I remember all kinds of things about that visit: The Colleen Moore dollhouse; the coal mine; the submarine; the crystals and how they grow; but most especially I remember the examples showing the richness of all kinds of wood grains from all over the world.(1) My favorite at the time was Brazilian rosewood. So, I don't have to know the different woods to appreciate them. (You don't have to be a gourmet chef to enjoy an incredible meal, do you?)

Now I work with Japanese woodblock prints and naturally the topic of the various woods being used comes up frequently. Here my knowledge is more academic than real. Credible sources tell us that the most commonly used wood came from the wild cherry tree or yamazakura (山桜 or やまざくら). Rebecca Salter in her Japanese Woodblock Printing states that "Japan was particularly fortunate in having plentiful supplies of yamazakura (wild mountain cherry, Prunus serrulata) which was perfect for the technique. The yamazakura has few flowers or fruit and the pith on the inside lining of each annual growth ring is the same density as the ring itself. The best planks come from trees grown on mountains near the sea, particularly on the Izu peninsula near Tōkyō."(2)

I always thought that the standard oban woodblock size might possibly be governed by the more diminutive size of the wild cherry wood trees, but I was wrong. One authoritative botanical site states clearly that some of these trees would grow up to 60' in height with 12' diameters. More than large enough even with wastage for prints oban or larger. Once felled the logs of this tree are left to dry for two years before being cut into planks. Then those planks are left to age in the shade for several more years. "During this time, planks which warped or split were discarded."(3)

Salter notes that the cherry wood was "fine and even" and relatively easy to carve without splintering. However, "Cherry from too far north in Japan was considered tougher to carve and did not take the color well."(4) On page 17 she discusses other types of wood used for carving woodblocks. One of these of course is hō, a shortened form of the word hōnoki. "Hō is quite lightweight  and good for small prints, having an easily carved, soft and uniform texture."(5) However, Toshi Yoshida and Rei Yuki in their book Japanese Print Making: A Handbook of Traditional & Modern Techniques do make one clarifying point: "Although Japan has a rich variety of trees and although many kinds of wood have been tried through the centuries, it is only yamazakura...that has proved to [have all of the] requirements  for ukiyo-e printing. Other woods such as hō and katsura...are good for making modern prints, but do not fill the requirements  for making the traditional type of prints."(6)

Above is an example showing the grain of the wild cherry tree or  yamazakura.

1. Don't be too quick to judge me for mentioning Colleen Moore's dollhouse. Miss Moore was a silent screen film star who devoted a lot of time and money into the creation of this masterpiece. When we visited there was an extra charge just to see it. According to museum authorities approximately 1,500,000 people view it every year on an average. I can remember many different things about it like its kitchen, lighting, fountains, but most of all I remember its library filled with miniature books. If my memory doesn't escape me that was the same room that contained a reliquary holding a splinter from the 'True Cross' given to Ms. Moore by Clare Booth Luce. Mrs. Luce had received it from the Pope Pius XII when she was the American Ambassador to Italy.

2. Japanese Woodblock Printing, by Rebecca Salter, University of Hawai'i Press, 2001, p. 15.

3. Ibid., p. 16.

4. Ibid., p. 15.

5. Ibid., p. 17.

6. Japanese Print Making: A Handbook of Traditional & Modern Techniques, by Toshi Yoshida and Rei Yuki, published by Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1966, p. 30. (Katsura - 桂 or かつら)

Above is an example showing the grain of the  Katsura.

WHAT DOES THE THUN. OF

MAGNOLIA OBOVATA (THUN.) MEAN?

As you can probably tell from my previous comments I am no botanist. However, I am always inquisitive and eager to learn. That is why once I had begun to research Magnolia obovata and found the 'Thun.' after it I wasn't going to rest until I figured it out what it meant. I had a general idea, but had trouble discovering the specifics. I looked it up on the Internet. Nada. I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and found several references, but they were all listed as 'Thun.' and that was no help. So, I went back to the Internet and the funny thing is that if you keep trying and it is out there you will find it and I did.

A student of Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) was a Swedish physician and botanist who visited Japan for a year in 1775. As an employee of the Dutch East India company he lived in Nagasaki which was the only port allowed to foreigners at the time. During his sojourn he catalogued more than 800 plants and lectured to Japanese scholars on European medicine, astronomy, botany and zoology. What a remarkable man. After Thunberg returned to Sweden he taught at the University of Uppsala and published books about his research including the Flora Japonica (1784) and the Icones plantarum Japonicarum (1794-1805).

Thunberg was permitted a visit to Edo to the shogun's court where he met one of his most significant Japanese contacts Katsuraga Hoshū (桂川甫周 or かつらがわほしゅう / 1751-1809). In 1777 Hoshū was the sixth member of his family to be named as private physician to a shogun. During his career he collaborated on a translation of the first European volume on anatomy to appear in Japan.

カール.ペーター.トゥーンベリ