Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Ō Shō (王祥) and Mōsō (孟宗) from the series The Twenty-four Chinese Paragons of Filial Piety (Morokoshi nijūshi-kō - 唐土廾四孝)
1848
13.5 in x 9.5 in (Overall dimensions) Signed on left panel only: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Censor seals on left panel only: Mera and Murata
Inscription: Ryūkatei Tanekazu
Kuniyoshi Project
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - left panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - left panel
Tokyo Metropolitan Library - right panel
Tokyo Metropolitan Library - left panel
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art - right panel
Indianapolis Museum of Art - left panel
Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (via Ritsumeikan University) - left panel only - trimmed
Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (via Ritsumeikan University) - right panel only - trimmed
Art Institute of Chicago - left panel only
Art Institute of Chicago - right panel only
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University - left panel only
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna -righ panel
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, the University of Indiana - right panel only Below is R. Keller Kimbrough's translation of an early edition of the Nijūshikō. It does not specifically apply to these Kuniyoshi prints except in the most general terms.
[4] Mō Sō 孟宗 (Meng Zong), also known as Kyō Bu 恭武 (Gong Wu) or Shi Kyō 子恭 (Zi Gong)
His tears fall in drops, and the north wind is cold;Having lost his father when he was young, Mō Sō supported his single mother. She was old and constantly ill, and because the taste of food changed for her every time she ate, she would long for inappropriate things. Despite it being winter, she wished for bamboo shoots. Thus, Mō Sō immediately went to the bamboo grove to find some. However, because it was the season of deep snow, how could he have easily obtained them? Wretched with grief, he prayed, “I implore you, Heaven, please show your mercy.” As he pushed against some bamboo, the earth suddenly split apart and a profusion of bamboo shoots sprang up from the ground. Mō Sō was overjoyed. He immediately took them home and cooked them in a broth. When he gave them to his mother, she ate them, and at that moment her illness was cured and her life prolonged. The bamboo shoots were a gift from Heaven, which was profoundly moved by the depth of Mō Sō’s filial piety.
standing lonely, a few stalks of bamboo.
In a moment, the spring shoots emerge;
Heaven repays him with tranquility and peace.
[7] Ō Shō 王祥 (Wang Xiang)
There are stepmothers in the world,Ō Shō lost his mother when he was young, and his father took another wife. Her name was Shu Shi 朱氏. As is the way with stepmothers, Shu Shi told lies to create discord, estranging the father from his son. However, Ō Shō was not resentful, and he served her filially. Being the kind of person that he was, when his stepmother wanted fresh fish in the bitter cold of winter, he went to the river at a place called Jōfu in order to find some.11 Nevertheless, because it was winter, the river was frozen and there were no fish to be seen. Ō Shō therefore took off his robes, becoming naked. He lay down on the ice and bewailed the lack of fish, whereupon a portion of the ice melted and two fish leaped out of the water. Ō Shō immediately took them home, and he gave them to his stepmother. This happened entirely as a result of Ō Shō’s filial piety. It seems that every year in that place, there is a shape in the ice of a person lying down.
but there is no one in the land like Ō Shō.
Even now, on the surface of the river,
there is a shelf of ice that shows where he lay.
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Laura Allen wrote on page 153 in The Printer's Eye: Ukiyo-e from the Grabhorn Collection in reference to an Okamura Masanobu of the theme of Mōsō: "...this print comes from the series Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety. These Chinese tales had a long history in Japan, and more than one eighteenth-century artist took up the popular story of Meng Zong, called Mōsō in Japanese... Mōsō's poignant story describes his unswerving devotion to his widowed mother. One winter, his mother fell seriously ill and began to crave a broth of bamboo shoots, which normally sprout only in spring. Mōsō braved heavy snows and cold in search of the shoots without success. Finally, in tears, his prayers were answered as he stumbled upon a few miraculous plants. The broth made from the shoots cured his mother's illness and Mōsō's story was lauded far and wide as an example of courage and filial regard."
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The text below was composed by Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員: 1807-58).
The text on the right panel reads: 孟宗（もうそう） 幼稚（ようち）にして父におくれ母（はゝ）を敬（うやま）ふことたとふるにものなし母（はゝ）老（おい）て病（やまひ）篤（あつ）し冬月雪中（とうげつせつちう）に笋（たかんな）の羔（あつもの）を食（しょく）せんことをのぞむ其（その）季候（きこう）にあらねば人力（じんりき）のおよぶ所にあらざれども竹林（ちくりん）にいたり竹（たけ）をうごかし哀泣（あいきう）して求（もと[ママ］）んことをこひしに神明仏陀（しんめいぶつだ）孝（かう）を感（かん）ずるの余（あま）りにや須叟（たちまち）に地（ち）裂（さけ）て笋（たかんな）數（あまた）莖を生（しやう）ず喜（よろこ）びて家（いへ）に持（もち）かへり母（はゝ）に薦（すゝ）むれば日あらずして病（やま）ひ愈（いえ）じとなん 種員謹記
The book entitled The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety was written by the Chinese scholar Guo Jujing during the Yuan Dynasty. His pen name was Yizi, and he is known in Japan as Kaku Kyokei. The book recounts the self-sacrificing behavior of twenty-four sons and daughters who go to extreme lengths to honor their parents, stepparents, grandparents, and in-laws. Many of the images in this series appear Western in style, rather than Japanese, and were probably copied from Italian prints. The prints in this edition appear to have been printed two per ōban sheet (about 9.5 x 13.5 inches) and folded to chuban pages (about 9.5 x 6.75 inches). The were once bound together in an album.
Japanese name: Ōshō (Chinese name: Wang Hsiang)
When his stepmother wanted to eat fresh fish in mid-winter, Ōshō went to a frozen pond and lay naked on the ice until it melted in order to catch fish for her.
Robinson: S60.7
Japanese name: Mōsō (Chinese name: Mēng Tsung)
Mōsō fulfilled his sick mother’s wish to eat bamboo shoots in mid-winter by journeying to a snow covered bamboo grove, where after praying, he miraculously found a huge cache of delicious bamboo shoots beneath the snow. Here he is carrying a hoe and bamboo shoots through the snow.
Robinson: S60.2
[The above English-language information is all taken directly from the Kuniyoshi Project.]
The text on the left panel reads: 王祥（わうしやう） 母はやく世（よ）を去（さり）継母（まゝはゝ）朱子（しゆし）さらに慈心（じしん）なし父に讒（ざん）すること数度（すど）なれば是（これ）を信（しん）じて愛をうしなふされ共いさゝか恨色（うらむいろ）なく己（おのれ）を責（せめ）て孝心（かうしん）をはげむかくて極寒（ごくかん）の頃（ころ）母鮮魚（なまうを）を好（この）む氷（こほり）厚（あつ）くして捕（とら）えるに手段（しゆだん）なし祥（しやう）衣（ころも）を脱捨（ぬぎすて）氷の上に臥（ふし）魚（うを）を得ざることを歎（たん）するに忽（たちまち）
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Illustrated in black and white in Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Springfield Museum of Art, 1980, #169 (Mōsō).
Historical - Social - Ephemera (genre)
Fushimiya Zenroku (伏見屋善六) (publisher)
Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員) (author)
Nijūshikō (二十四孝: The twenty-four filial exemplars) (author)