- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.317
- Description
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Painting, hanging scroll. Poem-diviner Watarai Ietsugu, from the No play 'Utaura', reflecting sadly on home while selling poems hanging from string of his bow. Ink and light colours on paper. Signed, dated and sealed.
- Production date
- 1827 (2nd day, 1st month)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 3 centimetres (Jiku)
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Height: 206 centimetres (Mount)
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Height: 124.20 centimetres
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Width: 72.50 centimetres (Mount)
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Width: 50.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Smith 1988
The poems are written on 'tanzaku' (poem-slips) and tied to a bow. Recent research has suggested that this is a portrait of the playwright Kanze Motomasa. However, the facial likeness is very close to Hokusai's portraits of himself. The signature is 'Respectfully painted by Hokusai Iitsu', and the date is Bunsei 10 (= 1827), first month.
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Clark 1992
The subject has been identified by Endo Takeshi ('NU', vol. 7 (1982), no. 32) as the character Watarai Ietsugu from the No play 'Utaura' written by Kanze Motomasa in the early fifteenth century. A similar, though not identical, figure appears in 'Hokusai manga', vol. 11 (1834), p. 3 verso. The affecting expression on the downcast face suggests that Watarai Ietsugu is reflecting sadly on the home at Ise he has left behind to roam the country selling the fortune-telling poems that are hanging from the string of his bow. Perhaps the hint of a self-portrait projected on to this depiction of a character from remote history can be detected. Hokusai notes that this was the first painting of the New Year of Bunsei 10 (1827), and it is signed 'respectfully painted' which, together with the generally abbreviated style using broad lines of different ink tonality, suggests that this may have been a 'sekiga', a 'painting done on the spot' at a New Year party for some illustrious patron with classical tastes. This technique of broad lines with rich, dark accents originated in the figure paintings of Hokusai's 'Sori' period (c. 1795-8) and always remained an alternative to his more meticulous style.
Literature:
Hillier, Jack, 'Hokusai: Paintings, Drawings and Woodcuts'. London, Phaidon, 1955, no. 80.
NCJ, vol. 7 (1982), no. 32.
Tokyo, Ueno no Mori Bijutsukan, 'Daiei Hakubutsukan shozo ukiyo-e meisaku ten' ('Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e from the British Museum'). Exh. cat., 29 March-12 Apr. 1985, no. 167.
Forrer, Matthi, and Goncourt, Edmond de, 'Hokusai'. New York, Rizzoli, 1988, no. 327.
Smith, Lawrence (ed.), 'Ukiyo-e: Images of Unknown Japan'. London, British Museum Publications, 1988, no. 167.
Clark, Timothy. "Paintings by Hokusai in the British Museum", 'Orientations'. Vol. 21, no. 8 (Aug. 1990), 37-44, fig. 7.
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Asahi 1996
本作品の主題は、遠藤武によって能「歌占」（観世元雅作、15世紀初頭）の登場人物渡会家次と確定されている（楢崎宗重監修『肉筆浮世絵』第7巻 1982年 集英社 32図）。同一ではないがよく似た人物が、「北斎漫画」第11巻（天保5年•1834刊）3丁裏に登場する。
うつむいた顔の痛ましげな表情から、弓の弦に結び付いた占い用の和歌短冊をひさぎつつ片田舎をさまよう渡会家次が、伊勢の我家に思い巡らすところと知られる。北斎は遠い歴史の登場人物に我身を投影し、自画像としたのかもしれない。
文政10年の正月の描き初めと年記にあり、落款に「敬って画す」と記し、作風も濃淡のある太い筆墨による略画風のものであることから、古典に造詣の深い誰か名のある客のため、新年の宴席で描いた「席画」であったかと考えられる。太い線を濃墨で強調するこの技法は、宗理落款時代（寛政7年•1795－同10年頃）の人物画に端を発し、その後もより精緻な様式と並立して存続したものである。
（竹内美砂子（名古屋市博物館））
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Clark 2017
A poem-diviner (uta-uranai-shi) told fortunes by interpreting a verse that a customer selected apparently at random from those attached to the diviner’s bow (an ancient tool of Shinto shamanism). An illustration of the subject in volume 11 of Hokusai’s Sketches (Hokusai manga, 1834) credits the soothsayer Watarai Ietsugu with initiating the practice. Watarai’s story is told in the medieval Noh drama Utaura (Divination by Poem, early 1400s), in which he is reunited with his son after a three-day sojourn in hell and a long period of travelling. Hokusai’s painting shows Watarai on the road, dressed in the white robes of a Shinto priest, and with a pensive expression, as though he is contemplating the vicissitudes of human fortune. Perhaps Hokusai blended something of his own worldview into his portrayal of the character. Both the abbreviated but expertly controlled brush technique, and the terms in the signature ‘respectfully drawn’ and ‘first use of the brush’ at the beginning of the year, suggest that Hokusai may have produced this work as an ‘impromptu painting’ (sekiga) for a patron of rank during a New Year gathering. New Year was a time for both social events and fortune-telling.(Alfred Haft)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2014 Oct- 2015 Jan, Reunion des musees nationaux Grand Palais, Hokusai
2017 25 May - 13 Aug, London, BM, G35, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
2017 6 Oct - 19 Nov, Osaka, Abeno Harukas Art Museum
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Utaura 歌占 (No play written by Kanze Motomasa in the early fifteenth century)
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings belonging to Arthur Morrison was purchased by Sir William Gwynne-Evans, who presented it to the British Museum in 1913.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1913,0501,0.317
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1450 (Japanese Painting Number)
