handscroll;
painting
- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.371
- Description
-
Painting, handscroll. Amusements in spring and autumn: In first section: Party of three samurai women accompanied by two servants and small child entering from right to view cherry blossom; two elderly gentlemen entertained by blind masseur and two young men across river. In second section: Boat moored under willow to allow party including two trainee Kabuki actors to toast full moon; circle dance in progress. Ink and slight colours on silk. Scroll cut in middle. Signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1681-1688
- Dimensions
-
Height: 29 centimetres
-
Width: 213.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
-
-
- Curator's comments
-
Clark 1992
Popular amusements of each season are a common theme in Moronobu's books and paintings, and here scenes of pleasure in spring are paired with those of autumn. The scroll does appear to have been cut in the middle, however, and is rather shorter than one would normally expect, so a section devoted to summer may be missing. In the first section a party of three samurai women accompanied by two servants and a small child enter from the right to view the cherry blossom, while across the river two elderly gentlemen are being entertained by a blind masseur and two young men. In the second section a boat has been moored under a willow to allow a party including two trainee Kabuki actors to toast the full moon, and a circle dance is in progress as part of O-Bon, held each year in the seventh month to pay respect to dead ancestors.
Many of these motifs - the three samurai women viewing cherry blossom, for instance - are repeated frequently in identical configurations in the works of Moronobu and his pupils and followers, but here they are distributed along the scroll with particular confidence. Also, the contrasts of washes and accents of dark ink, reminiscent of the techniques used by Edo-Kano artists, are handled with considerable skill, suggesting that this may well be a work from the hand of the master himself (see discussion of Moronobu's studio on p. 56). Another work by Moronobu in this deft, abbreviated figure style is known - a 'Fuwa-Nagoya Vendetta' handscroll (ink and slight colours on paper) in the Ota Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo (see Ota 1985, no. 1).
Literature:
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, nos 23-5.
-
Asahi 1996
四季折々の日常的な娯楽は師宣の絵本や肉筆画でよく描かれる主題であり、ここでは春と秋の場面が対にされている。この巻は途中で切断されていると見られるのだが、それにしても通常よりも短いため、夏とおぼしき部分が失われていると考えられる。初めの部分では、二人の従者と子供を連れた3人の武家の奥方が桜を観るために歩いてくるところで、もう一方の川の対面では二人の男があんまと二人の少年を連れて楽しんでいる。次の場面では柳の下に繋がれた小舟の中で、二人の色子を囲んだ一団が満月に杯を上げているところであり、一方では盆踊りの輪が描かれる。
3人の武家の奥方の花見といった多くのモティーフは、しばしば師宣や弟子、また追従する絵師の作品に同一の構図で繰り返されているが、この絵巻においては構成に非常な自信が感じられる。また江戸狩野の作風を思わせる墨の明度対比も実に鮮やかであり、作者が師宣自信であることを示している（師宣工房の作家解説参照）。同様の巧妙で簡潔な師宣様式は、「不和名護屋敵討絵巻」（紙本墨画淡彩、太田記念美術館蔵）にも認められる（太田記念美術館『太田記念美術館所蔵 肉筆浮世絵名品展』図録 1985年）。
（増渕鏡子（福島県立美術館））
- Location
- Not on display
- 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
- 1913,0501,0.371
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1370 (Japanese Painting Number)
