JAPANESE PRINTS
A MILLION QUESTIONS
TWO MILLION
MYSTERIES
Ukiyo-e Prints
浮世絵版画
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formerly
Port Townsend, Washington
now Kansas City, Missouri |
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UTAGAWA TOYOKUNI III |
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三代目歌川豊国 |
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1786-1865 |
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Actor: Iwai Kumesaburō
III
岩井粂三郎
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Role:
The geisha Oshun
芸者おしゆん
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From
"Matches for the
Seven Komachi Plays"
Mitate Nana
Komachi no uchi
見立七小町ノ内 |
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Signed:
Toyokuni ga |
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署名: 豊国画 |
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Date: 7 th
Month, 1858 |
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Ansei 5 |
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安政5 |
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Size: 14 3/8"
x 10 1/8" |
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Publisher:
Shimizuya Naojirō
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版元: 清水屋直次郎 |
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Carver: As yet
unidentified |
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Illustrated on-line:
There are other copies of this print at the
Tsubouchi Memorial
Theatre Museum,
Waseda University,
the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston,
the National
Museums of Scotland,
the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe,
Hamburg, the
Hankyu Culture
Foundation
and the Art Gallery of
Greater Victoria in
British Columbia.
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Condition: Excellent
color, backed,
binding holes along
the right side. |
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$185.00
NO LONGER AVAILABLE! |
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There is something odd
I just noticed about the series which includes this print:
There are only two of
them which show representations of women.
I would have thought
that it would have been otherwise considering the title, but it isn't. How
odd.
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To the right
is a detail of the title cartouche. |
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View on the
right of the
backside of the print seen above. |
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OH SO SEXXXXY! |
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Different ages
and different places have remarkably varied concepts of what is sexy and
what is not. Our society's choices seems to change almost overnight. Tattoos
and piercings? These don't do it for everybody. Perhaps many of these
changes are due to our mass media and fashion industry, but that doesn't
explain earlier standards. To say that tastes in what is sexy and what is
not can be downright idiosyncratic. |
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"IN OLDEN DAYS
A GLIMPSE OF STOCKING
WAS
LOOKED ON AS SOMETHING SHOCKING"
Cole Porter
said that in 1934 and added "...But now, God knows, Anything goes." What
would he say about today in an age of free on-line pornography? There is an
early 20th century saying "Twenty-three Skidoo." No one seems absolutely
clear about its origin, but one story --- probably apocryphal --- is that
when the Flatiron Building was erected in New York City in 1902 on 23rd
Street the construction of it caused the winds to whip around the front of
it. The skirts of passing young ladies were said to have been ruffled by
this effect. Young men began to gather just to wait for "...a glimpse of
stocking." Talk about titillation! Policemen had to be posted before the
building just to tell the young men to "twenty-three skidoo!" |
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BUT WHAT DOES
THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE JAPANESE?
The Japanese
are no different in their flexibility toward sexual turn ons. The nape of
the neck may be the most famous example, but there are also many other
standards: blackened teeth, whitened faces, shaved eyebrows, replacement
eyebrows, plumpness, thinness and everything in between. If you read
enough about Japanese prints you will find that the portrayal of the female
mouth is a very potent sexual symbol --- especially if the figure is using
her lips or teeth to hold an object such as the string of the purse seen
above or the rolls of multi-purpose tissues. Any focus on the mouth could
easily lead the mind of the viewer to wander and dream. Like the young
American men who would stand around and wait for a glimpse of stocking
because it hinted at so much more the Japanese viewed the representations of
the female lips and teeth as just such a trigger. |
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Anyone who has
visited my other web pages will realize by now that I have a fascination
with the repetition of motifs. I have a vague memory from my studies of
European art that Bernard Berenson supposedly could identify an unsigned
painting by a Renaissance or pre-Renaissance artist merely by the shape of
an ear or the curve of a lobe. While this is not fool proof it is true that
every artist and craftsman has his own aesthetic vocabulary. That is why
this box will focus on the motif of hand wringing. |
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Above is a detail from
a print by Kunisada, aka Toyokuni III, from ca. 1820. |
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Above is another
example of a Kunisada bijin tying a sash. Click on the image to see the full
print. |
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