painting;
handscroll
- Museum number
- 1982,0701,0.7
- Title
- Object: Chushingura emaki 忠臣蔵畫巻 (Chushingura Picture Scroll)
- Description
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Painting, handscroll. Pictures depicting scenes from 'Chushingura' (Treasury of Forty-Seven Loyal Retainers) in humorous manner ('kyoga'); human figures striking symbolic poses against almost total absence of background in light, eccentric manner. Ink and light colour on paper. Signed and inscribed.
- Production date
- 18thC(late)-19thC(early)
- Dimensions
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Height: 32 centimetres (mount)
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Height: 28.10 centimetres
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Width: 781.60 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
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- Curator's comments
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See Jack Hillier, 'The Harari Collection of Japanese Paintings and Drawings', vol. 3 (Lund Humphries, 1973), no. 216.
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Hizo Nihon bijutsu taikan Vol 2
The title affixed to the outside of the scroll reads 'Jichosai-hitsu Chushingura emaki' (Chushingura Picture Scroll by Jichosai), and though the scroll is unsigned, the style displays the humorous manner typical of the artist. Jichosai studied, on his own, the brush techniques of Toba Sojo and Kokan, among others, developing a unique style of his own and painting large numbers of light, humorous paintings ('kyoga').
The present picture scroll selects a number of scenes from the celebrated play 'Chushingura' (The Treasury of the Forty-Seven Loyal Retainers), working them into an enjoyable whole in the light, eccentric manner typical of the artist. The scene in the "Pine" corridor of Edo Castle in which Asano Naganori draws his sword and wounds Kira Kozunosuke is depicted, symbolically, by a single samurai in the act of drawing his sword beside a single pine tree. Throughout, the work eschews all detailed explanation and scene-setting, the human figures striking symbolic poses against an almost total absence of background.
Thus the scene in which the hero, Oishi Kuranosuke, in order to fool his enemies, pretends to lead a dissipated life at the Ichiriki teahouse in the Gion quarter of Kyoto suggests the gay atmosphere of the teahouse simply by arranging three geisha in the space, without any background. The powerful final scene, in which the loyal retainers discover Kira hiding in a charcoal shed and finally wreak their vengeance on him, is likewise depicted simply and without fussy detail. The contrast between Kira as he flees shrieking and Oishi, seated quite still with his lips firmly compressed, brings the 'Chushingura' story to a fittingly symbolic close.
The viewer must rely on his memory of the 'Chushingura' story to fill out for himself the scenes symbolized by the pictures and the development of the plot; the work is enjoyable but somewhat recondite insofar as it presumes a shared knowledge between artist and viewer.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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2022 23 Mar - 8 May, Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, The Pictorial Arts and the Salon Culture of Kyoto and Osaka
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Chushingura 忠臣蔵
- Acquisition date
- 1982
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1982,0701,0.7
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.Add.692 (Japanese Painting Additional Number)