painting;
hanging scroll
- Museum number
- 1902,0617,0.33
- Description
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Painting, hanging scroll. Fukurokuju, smiling old gentleman short in stature with high forehead and bushy whiskers and carrying flat fan, having his mammoth pate shaved by tiny attendant perched at top of ladder; her companion holding flat basin of water at ready. Ink and colour on silk. Signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1795-1818
- Dimensions
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Height: 71.70 centimetres
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Width: 30.30 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Clark 1992
Fukurokuju, a smiling old gentleman short in stature with a high forehead and bushy whiskers and carrying a handscroll tied to a staff or flat fan, was one of the Seven Lucky Gods ('Shichifukujin'), originally a Chinese popular deity thought to be an embodiment of the South Pole stars. Paintings of the Seven Lucky Gods became a popular theme for Kano artists in the eighteenth century as Kano painting became increasingly 'domesticated' and lost much of its earlier lofty seriousness. A hanging scroll of Fukurokuju would often be flanked in a triptych by scrolls of a crane and a long-tailed tortoise, emblems of long life, and hung in the 'tokonoma' at the New Year holiday.
In this work Eishi cleverly mixes the two styles at his disposal - Kano and Ukiyo-e: Fukurokuju, rendered, of course, in the ink wash and highly inflected outline of Kano painting, is having his mammoth pate shaved by a tiny 'kamuro' perched at the top of a ladder, she, by contrast, painted in the delicate outline and brilliant polychrome of Ukiyo-e figure work. Her companion holds a flat basin of water at the ready. The rope hung with New Year decorations above suggests that the Lucky God is having a spruce up in preparation for the holiday festivities in the Yoshiwara quarter. The handscroll 'Three Gods of Good Luck Visiting Yoshiwara', frequently painted by Eishi, ends with scenes of Ebisu, Daikoku and Fukurokuju revelling with courtesans in the houses of pleasure. The theme seems to derive from a comic essay, 'Kakurezato no ki' ('Record of the Hidden Village'), written by Ota Nampo in 1781.
Literature:
Brandt, Klaus J. 'Hosoda Eishi 1756-1829'. Stuttgart, K. J. Brandt, 1977, painting no. 445.
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, BW no. 20.
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Asahi 1996
額が長く髭をたくわえ、団扇と巻物を携えた短軀の好々爺福禄寿は、七福神の一人で、もともとは南極星の化身とされる中国の有名な仙人である。18世紀、狩野派が初期の高尚•厳格な性格を失い「所帯じみた」ものになるにつれ、七福神はその一般的な画題になった。福禄寿は長寿を表す鶴や亀とともに3幅対として描かれ、しばしば正月の床の間に飾られた。
この作品で栄之は、対局的な二様式である狩野派と浮世絵を自在に使い分けている。福禄寿はもちろん狩野派式の屈折の多い筆墨によって描かれている。梯子に登って福禄寿の長い頭を剃る禿は、対照的に、浮世絵式の細い線で描かれ多彩な色が施されている。彼女の同僚は水の入った盆を捧げている。画面上部の正月飾りのついた〆縄によって、福禄寿が吉原の正月遊びのためにめかしこんでいると知られる。
栄之がしばしば描いた「三福神吉原通い図巻」の巻末は、恵美須•大黒•福禄寿の3神が吉原の妓楼で遊女とどんちゃん騒ぎをする場面である。この主題は、大田南畝の『かくれ里の記』（天明元年•1781刊）によるものと考えられる。
（竹内美砂子（名古屋市博物館））
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1902
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1902,0617,0.33
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1430 (Japanese Painting Number)
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Other BM number: Anderson No. 2045 (annotation in Anderson 1886)
