JAPANESE PRINTS
A MILLION QUESTIONS
TWO MILLION
MYSTERIES
Ukiyo-e Prints
浮世絵版画
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formerly of Port Townsend, Washington
now Kansas
City, Missouri |
TSUKIOKA
YOSHITOSHI |
月岡芳年 |
1839-1892 |
Foreign Means of Conveyance
Gaikoku kuruma zukushi
no zu |
外国 車 盡 (?) 之 圖
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10th Month, 1871
Meiji 4
明治4 |
Print
Size: 13 3/4" x 9 1/8" |
Publisher: Yorozu-ya Magobei
萬屋孫兵衛
よろずや.まごべい |
Signed:
Oju Yoshitoshi (something) |
There is another
copy of this print in the collection
of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. |
$320.00
SOLD! |
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DOES
ANYONE KNOW WHY.....?
AND CAN
YOU CORROBORATE IT? |
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If anyone knows what
is used as a covering for the wheels of the cannon would you please write to
me and let me know. Is it fur or straw or what? Also, do you know why? Do
you know of any other illustrations or early photograph of this practice?
Please! please! please! let us hear from you.
PROPOSITIONS:
So far two [now three] people have
told me why they think the wheels are covered. Personally I wish someone
would give me some solid documentation, but until they do these two
suggestions sound absolutely reasonable to me.
The first was made by
a fellow I met who lives on a boat and is a musician. He said he was sure the wheels were covered to muffle
the sound of the approach of the cannon. That way one could surprise one's
enemies with a sneak attack.
The second suggestion comes
from Barbara Mason, an artist, who contacted me by e-mail and makes an
equally thoughtful argument. She said: "It seems pretty obvious that the
covering for the wheels in the Yoshitoshi print was to keep the wheels from
sliding in mud...the covering would give a lot more traction. It looks like
cloth with something inside, maybe straw. I am no historian...so this is a
guess."
What do you think?
I'm waiting. |
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AT LAST - A FULLER
RESPONSE
(This might just be
the one we have been waiting for.)
In September 2010 we received
the following e-mail from Stephanie G. -
From various books,
including books about the US Civil war and the Wellington campaigns, the
covering for the wagon wheels was whatever was available (straw, brush,
rags, small branches) when the need arose for the following purposes:
1 - Traction.
2 - Sound muffling on city streets. Just think of iron-bound wheels and
cobblestones. If you want to quietly move some wagons around you have
to muffle the wheels.
3 - Spark reduction on rocky surfaces because you didn't want to start a
brush fire or set off the powder wagon by throwing a spark from the
wheel to dry leaves.
I blundered into your page while looking for rickshaw origins. [See our
rickshaw section below.] One of my distant relatives reportedly designed the
first one so his pregnant wife didn't have to put up with the bouncing of
the kago. I am pleased to see that a Japanese artist of the era considered
it to to be a "foreign" means of travel.
The publication date of the print also pins down the date of invention to
before 1871, which ties in with when we know he was there as a missionary.
By the time of Enoch Mather Marvin's (Methodist bishop) trip in 1876 there
were rickshaws all over the place, and he specifically mentions that the
invention was six or seven years old. (Cite: E.M. Marvin, "To the East by
way of the West", pub 1878, p. 73) On that same page he mentions that horses
and oxen were shod with rice straw. Perhaps it helped keep their feet
healthy in the mud, or gave them better traction.
Above is a detail form a
Hiroshige print
showing the hooves of the
horses and
the feet of a man protected
by straw
coverings.
In a follow up message
Stephanie G.
added:
Here's one quote about the
wheels - Napoleon is sneaking his artillery wagons past an Italian fort
(Fort Bard). "Tow" is the waste fibers from flax or hemp, used at that time
for swabbing out cannons, filling mattresses - a general purpose fiber.
The campaign of Marengo: with comments by Herbert Howland Sargent A. C.
McClurg and company, 1897 , page 10
"Meanwhile a foot-path, leading along the mountain side around the fort, was
discovered by Lannes. By a few repairs the path was soon rendered passable
for the men and horses, but not for the artillery. How to get the cannon
past the fort was the question. Finally, the following method was adopted.
During a dark night the road in front of the fort was strewn with manure and
straw, and, to deaden the sound of the artillery wheels, they were wrapped
with tow and straw; then the soldiers themselves quietly hauled the guns
past the fort."
empailler, v. a., to wrap with straw (as, gun-carriage wheels, etc.). |
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Publisher: Yorozuya Magobei |
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Signature: Oju Yoshitoshi (something) |
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Date
Seal: 1871, 10th Month |
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THE RICKSHAW
WAS NOT A FOREIGN
VEHICLE |
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OR WAS IT? |
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人力車
JINRIKISHA
じんりきしゃ
(literally: a
man-powered vehicle) |
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There is much
confusion over the origin of the rickshaw. Was it invented by the Japanese
or by Westerners? Or both? The sources vary considerably. The
Dictionary of Japanese Culture states: "There are two theories as to its
invention: one, that it was an invention of Yōsuke Izumi, and the other that
it was invented by Jonathan Goble (died 1898), an American Baptist
missionary. They first appeared in Tokyo in 1870 as a public conveyance
replacing the kago (palanquin)." (1) The Kodansha Encyclopedia of
Japan tells a somewhat different story. "Said to be invented by three
Japanese, who claimed to have been inspired by the horse-drawn carriage
which had been newly introduced from abroad, the rickshaw was produced on a
large scale after the government permission was obtained in 1870." (2)
However, on the second point it did agree: "Because of its speed and
mobility, it quickly replaced the palanquin (kago)." (3)
Julia Meech-Pekarik
sides with the Japanese inventor Yōsuke Izumi and notes that with the help
of two friends and a government license had a three year monopoly and that
by 1872 there may have been 50,000 rickshaws on the streets of Tokyo. She
even emphasizes it significance by calling it "...perhaps the most momentous
transport innovation of the Meiji period." (4) |
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The detail on the left of an engraving by Huquier after a painting by
Claude Gillot ca. 1700 clearly shows a rickshaw like carriage drawn by a
donkey. In another painting by Gillot, "Les deux carrosses" in the Musée du
Louvre, two figures from the Commedia dell'Arte pull two similar vehicles
replacing the animal with man power.(5) |
1. The Dictionary
of Japanese Culture, by Setsuko Kojima and Gene A. Crane, Heian
International, Inc., 1991, p. 126.
2. Kodansha Encyclopedia of
Japan, entry by Tsuchida Mitsufumi, 1983, vol. 6, p. 311.
3. Ibid.
4. The World
of the Meiji Print, by Julia Meech-Pekarik, Weatherhill, 1986, p. 84.
5. Anyone
familiar with these web pages must realize by now that I am intrigued by
more than just one narrowly focused subject. While researching
Gillot's representations of these two wheeled vehicles I ran across a
surprising term for them: vinaigrette. I knew that a vinaigrette was
a mixture of oil and vinegar which I put on my salads, but I did not know
that it was also a type of carriage. The first known reference to that term
was made in 1660. Harrap's New and Standard French and English Dictionary,
vol. II, p. V:18 refers to it as a "two-wheeled sedan" with the notation
that it is categorized as an ancient usage. It also notes that faire
vinaigre means "to hurry." Perhaps there is a tenuous connection there,
but for the life of me I can't figure it out.
***Here is an
update: Yesterday, June 15, 2004, I ran across another French dictionary in
my library which I had overlooked earlier. According to the Dictionnaire
du Français non Conventionnel by Jacques Cellard and Alain Rey and
published by Hachette in 1981: "Début du 19e siècle. De 'vinaigre!',
injonction par laquelle les enfants invitent un(e) camrade à presser le
mouvement de la corde à sauter, dans le jeu. Sans doute convergence de
faire vite! et de l'idée d'acidité, de piquant, du vinaigre." (p.
830-1) |
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According to Meech-Pekarik the kago (篭 or かご), like the one to the
left shown here, was the most popular form of comfort transport prior to the
introduction of the rickshaw. This detail of a Kuniyoshi print shows a
simple kago. More elaborate earlier ones were called koshi
(輿 or こし). The difference would be somewhat comparable in modern terms
between riding in a Lexus or a Yugo. |
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There was a much
earlier form of luxury travel reserved for the highest members of the
Imperial court: the gissha (牛車 or ぎっしゃ) or ox carriage. These
traveled along at the lightning speed of about 2 mph under the best of
conditions. The detail of print by Hokusai to the right shows one of these
carriages and, although it is not readily visible, a reclining ox in the
lower right with its draped back to the viewer. |
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"AN EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD"
In A Dictionary of Japanese
Artists Laurance P. Roberts points out that Yoshitoshi changed his
family name to Taiso (大蘇)
after 1873. In the foreward to Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by
Yoshitoshi 1839-1892 the first reference is to Tsukioka Yoshitoshi while
on the next page is the memorial print by Kanaki Toshikage called "Portrait
of Taiso Yoshitoshi."
Koop and Inada in their Japanese Names and How to Read Them (p. 69) refer to art-names as gō.
"Although often quoted in company with the ordinary names in signatures, the
gō is regarded as independent of
them - belonging to another and higher life, as it were."
As if all of this weren't daunting enough Andrew
Nathaniel Nelson states in his The Modern Reader's
Japanese-English Character Dictionary: Second Revised Edition (p. 10)
"The readings of characters in personal and place names constitute quite a
separate problem from ordinary words, one that could never be adequately
treated within the scope of a portable dictionary, if indeed a fully
satisfactory solution can ever be found. Probably, the most thoro study made
to date is the Japanese work by Araki Ryozo, Nanori Jiten... As Mr.
Araki humorously puts it, this problem of Japanese names is indeed an
eighth wonder of the world." |
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THE NAME GAME
A friend recently expressed her confusion over Japanese artists' names. She
has enough interest to look at prints in books and on-line, but was puzzled
by the fact that many of the prints which were obviously signed Toyokuni
(III) were labeled as Kunisada. This must be an issue for all neophytes. It
was for me.
The problem lies in the scholarship and not in the viewer. Authors have
taken for granted that readers will know that Toyokuni III was originally
signing his work as Kunisada.
The history of an artist's name can be truly convoluted. Kunisada who was
born the son of Kadota Shobei was taught by Toyokuni I. Sebastian Izzard in
Kunisada's world (page 20) says: "Like other students, Kunisada was awarded
on his debut the last Chinese character of his master's name with which to
form his own."
When Toyokuni I died in 1825 Kunisada aspired to become his successor but
the name Toyokuni II was bestowed on one of Toyokuni I's other pupils and
his son-in-law. "Kunisada suffered his first public setback when, after
Toyokuni's death...he was passed over as the new leader of the Utagawa
school in favor of Toyoshige..." (Izzard, p. 26).
Toyokuni II, formerly called Toyoshige, died in 1835. In 1844 Kunisada began
calling himself Toyokuni II*** --- the true inheritor of his master's art.
Although there was some criticism of this action and even though we know him
today as Toyokuni III his family and friends referred to him as Toyokuni II
even after his death.
Sexton gives a range of dates for when Kunisada
dropped his former signature and took up his new one. According to Sexton
Kunisada quit using the Kunisada Kōchōrō "...signature on the 7th day
of the new year 1844."
The name issue is far more complex than what has been discussed here. In
time we will add more thoughts and information which we hope will clarify
the matter somewhat.
***(Name confusion is not unique to the Japanese. In the 15th century the
Papacy split and for a while there existed competing popes and anti-popes.
The first Pope John XXIII reigned from 1410 to 1415, but he was later
deligitimized. The "real" Pope John XXIII reigned from 1958 to 1963.) |
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