Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) (artist 04/30/1839 – 06/09/1892)
Full Moon on Tatami Mats - Shadows of Pine Branches (Meigetsu ya tatami no ue ni matsu no kage - 名月や畳の上に松の影 其角): from the series 100 Aspects of the Moon (Tsuki hyaku sugata - 月百姿)
1885
9.375 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Yoshitoshi (芳年)
Date: Meiji 18, 10th month
明治十八年十月
Carver: horikō Noguchi Enkatsu
彫工埜口圓活
British Museum
Edo-Tokyo Museum
Waseda University
National Diet Library
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Centre Céramique de Maastricht
Keio University Library
Dayton Art Institute
Yale University Art Gallery
National Library of Romania (via Europeana)
Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe
Japan Museum SieboldHuis, Leiden The text in the large white cartouche reads: 名月や畳の上に松の影 其角.
meigetsu yaKikaku
tatami no ue ni
matsu no kage
"A lady looks at the shadow of pine branches thrown by a bright moon onto the straw mats of her room. That the setting is a teahouse is indicated by the furo, three-legged brazier to the left of the design, and by the rough wood pillar of the tokonoma, ceremonial alcove, to the right. But it is an unusually opulent teahouse. The screen to the left, painted in the brightly colored Rimpa style, is rather gaudy for a teahouse, and the area is large, with tatami mats extending into the foreground. It is a teahouse of the pleasure quarters, either a house where assignations are arranged, or a teahouse in a large and luxurious brothel.
The lady is probably a courtesan, though neither her robes nor hairstyle confirm this. She wears two half-open undergarments, with her under-sash (not obi) untied and falling in front of her. Her simple hairstyle - a courtesan on duty would have many more ornaments in her hair - might be explained if she has just come from a bath. There are no suggestions that she is entertaining a customer (conventions might include smoking utensils left on the floor, or used tissues), and she is probably relaxing alone late at night.
There are more than a few hints that this design pays homage to Utamaro (1754-1806), the most celebrated designer of prints of the pleasure quarters. The lady's hairstyle is in the fashion of the 1790s, when the dominant ukiyo-e artist was Utamaro, not in the fashion of a hundred years earlier, when the poem in the title cartouche was written. The screen is painted int he style of Utamaro's contemporary Sakai Hōitsu, who revived the decorative style of Ogata Kōrin at the end of the eighteenth century. Lamplight is thrown a bamboo screen, the printing techniques for which were perfected in Utamaro's prints. The lady holds an uchiwa, round fan (round like the moon?), which was a favorite motif of Utamaro's. The lady is very sensual, like a figure by Utamaro, who is best known for his prints of women of the Yoshiwara caught at informal moments in their daily lives."
Quoted from: Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects fo the Moon by John Stevenson, #5, p. 25. This is accompanied by a full-page illustration in color.
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There is another copy of this print in the Canterbury Museum, Christ Church, New Zealand.
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Roger Keyes in his doctoral thesis, 'Courage and Silence: A Study of the Life and Color Woodblock Prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi: 1839-1892', wrote on page 229: "Yoshitoshi began his series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon in October 1885; the last plate was published in April 1892, two months before the artist's death. The prints were very popular, and editions were often sold out the morning they appeared. The publisher Akiyama Buemon, is said to have paid Yoshitoshi ten yen for each design. Because the prints were popular, Akiyama carefully preserved the blocks; when the set was finished, he reprinted subjects that had sold out and offered bound albums with a title page, a preface, a double-page decorative table of contents, a memorial portrait of the artist by his pupil Toshikage, and a complete set of one hundred prints."
Later Keyes wrote: "The Moon prints were landscapes of emotion. The prints were not literary; there was no text, no explanation; they were objects of reflection, thought, of contemplation. This was the truth of the heart, to speak without words, to convey the depths of feeling in eloquent silence. Color itself spoke, the choice of brush and line; like feelings themselves, without a word, without a mistake, without a doubt, the many meanings penetrated the mind. No one could fail to mistake them."
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Illustrated in a full-page color reproduction in Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects fo the Moon by John Stevenson, San Francisco Graphic Society, n.d., #5, p. 25
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)