"Woman with Morning Glories," Katsushika Ōi, c. 1820s.

Katsushika (c. 1800 - c. 1866) was the daughter of the great Hokusai, by his second wife, but also an accomplished artist in her own right.

Not a lot about her life is known for sure, except she was her father's apprentice and assistant, and married another artist...but divorced him three years later. She moved back in with her father and never remarried, the two of them always busy with their art.

This print is intriguing; at first glance the woman seems to be simpering at the bowl of morning glories (on a tray that absurdly resembles a bathroom scale to modern eyes), but a closer look shows what may be a sheet of paper hidden behind the fan. Is she reading a clandestine letter? A poem from a lover? A naughty print? Who knows?

Sadly, not much of her art is known to survive to this day, but it is known that she was highly regarded in her lifetime. It's possible that some of her work is misattributed to others, including her father. But she remains the object of study and admiration.

Happy Flower Friday!

From the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

#Art #KasushikaOi #JapaneseArt #AsianArt #ukiyo_e #MorningGlory #WomenArtists #WomenInArt #FlowerFriday

"Fukusa (Gift Cover)," Unknown artist, 1840-70.

An old Japanese tradition was that gifts would be presented on a tray or in a box, and would be draped with a fukusa, a showy cloth, usually embroidered, that would show off the giver's wealth and/or social position.

Here we have a fukusa of blue satin, embroidered with cranes in silk and metallic thread. Cranes are a symbol of longevity in Japan, as they were believed to live for 1,000 years.

I can imagine this being used to cover a gift from a younger person to an older relative or parent, perhaps, communicating a wish for a long life. The fukusa tradition has all but died out in Japan, which seems a pity, but at least we have examples like this to keep the memory alive.

From the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

#Art #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #Embroidery #FabricArts #Fukusa #Cranes #FancyGiftWrap

"Plum Blossoms," Jin Nong, 1757.

Jin Nong (1687-c.1763) was a noted calligrapher and painter of China's Qing Dynasty. Not much about his early life is known; he only came to prominence in his late 50s, when as a childless widower he produced a series of nonconformist works.

While a lot of his work was very traditional, he loaded it with symbolism, and he preferred to sell his work in the open market, rather than having a private patron, which was the usual course of action for painters of the era.

Also a writer, poet, art critic and art dealer, Jin was listed as one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, a group of painters who rejected orthodox ideas of art while producing highly individualistic and expressive works.

Happy Flower Friday!

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

#Art #ChineseArt #AsianArt #JinNong #EightEccentricsOfYangzhou #FlowerFriday

"Portrait of a Rabbit," Yabu Chosui, 1867.

I am unable to find any information about Yabu Chosui other than their dates (1814 to c.1870) and several other works, which annoys me.

This is a surimono print, a genre of Japanese printmaking that was generally in small runs and commissioned for a special occasion, like the New Year, which is believed to be the inspiration for this print, assumed to have been made in honor of the Year of the Rabbit.

Surimono prints were commissioned and collected by the educated literati, and as such could be more experimental and extravagant than the usual commercial prints. This is a bit surreal, in giving us a huge rabbit...but the body resembles the bag of Hotei, the god of prosperity, which often figured in New Year's art, and also possibly is meant to resemble the moon, where an immortal rabbit lives, according to Japanese mythology. It's also possibly meant to reflect a common New Year's symbol, the rising sun, as we have the rabbit against a pink field like a morning sky.

Surimono prints were also commissioned by poetry societies to honor a prizewinning poem, and by kabuki actors, to commemorate significant moments in their careers.

Happy Portrait Monday!

From the Art Institute of Chicago.

#Art #YabuChosui #Surimono #JapaneseArt #AsianArt #PortraitMonday

"Bathtime," Kitagawa Utamaro, c. 1801.

The life of Utamaro (c.1753-1806) is largely a mystery; we don't know where he was born or who his family was. Many believe he was married and had a child, as the same mother and child show up in a lot of his prints of domestic life.

His work first appeared in the 1770s, at the height of Japan's Edo period; at the time, he worked mostly designing prints for books, but later gave that up for making prints of individual women. His portraits of women, many of them geishas, made his fame. He later went on to do many works of insects, flowers, animals, erotica, and scenes of domestic life. He was arrested in 1804 for violating Imperial censorship laws, seemingly by depicting samurai with their crests accurately copied, which was forbidden, but it's unknown what his punishment was.

This is from his later period, perhaps a depiction of his wife and child. It's a sincerely portrayed work of an intimate moment between mother and child. Upon his death in 1806, he had no known heirs, and his tomb was left neglected and untended, until fans restored it in 1917.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

#Art #JapaneseArt #KitagawaUtamaro #ukiyo_e #WomenInArt #MothersInArt #AsianArt

"Blue Irises," Ohara Koson, 1900-30.

Up at Mom's for a couple of days. Happy Flower Friday!

#art #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #Shin_hanga #OharaKoson #FlowerFriday

"Temma Bridge at Settsu Province," Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1834.

Hokusai (c. 1760-1849) is THE great Japanese artist; I recall learning about him as a child, from a book that also taught about Leonardo da Vinci and Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

Temma Bridge (also called Tenman or Tenma) once stood over the Yodo River in Osaka, which was an important waterway at the time. Here it is depicted at the height of the Tenjin Festival, a huge affair that involves a river procession followed by fireworks.

This was part of Hokusai's series of prints, "Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces" and may have been based on an earlier print that emphasized its semicircular shape.

I may have to look up this series; there's something about the idea of a collection of views of bridges that I find enormously charming.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

#Art #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #Hokusai #ukiyo_e #Bridges #Prints