• Fukuroi (袋井): The Legend of Sakura-ga-ike (<i>Sakura-ga-ike no yurai</i> - 桜か池の由来) from the series<i> Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road</i> (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui</i> - 東海道五十三対)
Fukuroi (袋井): The Legend of Sakura-ga-ike (<i>Sakura-ga-ike no yurai</i> - 桜か池の由来) from the series<i> Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road</i> (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui</i> - 東海道五十三対)
Fukuroi (袋井): The Legend of Sakura-ga-ike (<i>Sakura-ga-ike no yurai</i> - 桜か池の由来) from the series<i> Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road</i> (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui</i> - 東海道五十三対)
Fukuroi (袋井): The Legend of Sakura-ga-ike (<i>Sakura-ga-ike no yurai</i> - 桜か池の由来) from the series<i> Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road</i> (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui</i> - 東海道五十三対)

Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

Fukuroi (袋井): The Legend of Sakura-ga-ike (Sakura-ga-ike no yurai - 桜か池の由来) from the series Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui - 東海道五十三対)

Print


ca 1845
9.25 in x 13.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Kōchōrō Toyokuni ga
五渡亭豊国画
Artis's seal: toshidama (in red)
Publisher: Iseya Ichiemon
(Marks 143 - seal 24-068)
Carver: Horikō Fusajirō (彫工房次郎)
Censor's seal: Mura
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum
Waseda University
National Diet Library
Ritsumeikan University - a totally different variant edition by Sadahiro
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha
Walters Museum of Art
Google maps - Fukuroi
Honolulu Museum of Art
Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State University
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Museum of Oriental Art, Venice (via Ritsumeikan University)
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
The National Gallery, Prague
Harn Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - cartouche with solid blue ground There are nine prints from this series, Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui - 東海道五十三対), in the Lyon Collection. See also #s 815, 819, 861, 951, 1022, 1095 and 1269. While this particular print is from an unknown variant edition it is clearly from what is most likely the second one. It is not shown in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada on pages 97 or 173. The example in the links above to the one at the Hagi Uragmi Museum is the closest to the same edition as this one here.

A fantastical creature in the shape of a woman appearing before a sleeping or praying Hōnen shōnin and his assistant.

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Hōnen (法然: 1133-1212), the founder of the Pure Land school in Japan, had originally studied at Hieizan with the monks Genkō and Kōen. However, he left there to study elsewhere because he decided that the Tendai sect had become corrupted.

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The story of the Cherry Tree Pond (Sakura-ga-ike: 桜か池) is related in The Dragon in China and Japan by M.W. de Visser on pages 186-7.

"According to a modern work, the Nihon shukyō fūzoku shimentioned above, there is in Kasahara village, Tōtōmi province, a pond called 'Sakura ga ike', 'Cherry-Tree Pond'. It is the abode of a huge dragon, to whom those who have a special wish pray on the middle day of higan (彼岸, 'yonder shore', a period of seven days in either equinox; the middle of the day is equinoctial day), at the same time making an offering to him consisting of a bucket of hard boiled rice (kowameshi, 強飯, 'red rice', rice boiled with red beans), which they cause to float on the water. If they afterwards find the bucket empty, this is a sign that the dragon this is a sign that the dragon has eaten the rice, accepting the offering and hearing the prayer, but if the rice is still in the bucket, the prayer will not be fulfilled. This dragon is the reincarnation of the Buddhist priest Genkō, 源皇, a Tendai priest of Hieizan, a teacher of Hōnen shōnin, 法然, who lived 1132-1212. Genkō wished to become a dragon, because his life was too short to obtain a sufficient knowledge of Buddha's doctrine. One day he heard from one of his disciples that the above mentioned pond was an excellent place for a dragon to live in. Then he sat down in religious meditation (samādhi), put one drop of water in his hand, by means of which he made clouds and rain, and flew through the air to the pond. There he died in meditation, and when his disciple came and called him, an enormous dragon appeared above the water and wept. At the pupil's request he assumed his former human shape and talked with him for a long time."

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There is an unidentified Japanese collector's seal in left margin.

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The text reads:

桜か池の由来 ある夜法然上人の庵へ 女性来りて我ハ艮嶽(こんがく)の源皇阿闍梨より龍善三會の暁(さとり)をまたんため 桜か池ニ入宮して今ハ龍身となれり。然るニ忽身の鱗の合ニ 数万の虫わきて 日に三度 夜に二度身を苦(くる)むる事堪がたし。あハれ桜か池ニ来て 此苦ミをたすけてたへと涙を落して頼ける。上人夢覚て桜か池ニ至り給へハ 水中より化龍(けりゅう)顕れ 上人と答和す。上人龍ニ向給ひて称名念仏し給へハ ふしぎや忽身の鱗落てなめらかになり うれしけに永くみろくの世をまたんとて 又水中にいりしとなり

The translation as per Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada on page 96 says: "One night a woman came to the hermitage of Hōnen Shōnin and spoke in the name of Kongaku no Genkō Ajari, explaining that he had entered the pond called Sakura-ga-ike and taken the form of a dragon in order to wait for enlightenment with the return of Miroku. He had been tormented, however, by the tens of thousands of insects inside the scales of he dragon body, which tortured him thrice in the daytime and twice at night. He begged Hōnen with tears to come and relieve the pain. Hōnen awoke and went to the pond, where the dragon appeared from the waters and exchanged words with him. Hōnen faced the dragon and recited Buddha's sacred name. Miraculously, all of the scales of the dragon body came off, and his skin became smooth. With delight, the Ajari said that he would wait for eons for the world of Miroku, and sank back into the depths of the pond."

The commentary reads:

"Hōnen (1133-1212), the founder of the Pure Land (Jōdō) school of Buddhism, is commonly also called Shōnin, eminent priest." Hōnen's biography contains an account of Kōen Ajari's purchase of a pond called Sakura-ga-ike, for the purpose of being reborn as a serpent. This narrative lacks the vivid elaboration of the torment of the Ajari's dragon body, but the basic outline of the legend is similar. Kōen lamented that with each rebirth, one forgets the knowledge of the Law of Buddha accumulated in the former life, and for this reason he wished to be born as a being with a long life so he could meet Miroku, the Buddha of the Future. At the time of his death, Kōen requested water, in which he placed the palm of his hand and then passed away. Thereafter the volume of water in the pond increased, and the water became clean. It is said that one can still hear the sound of a bell ringing at the bottom of the pond. When Hōnen learned of this story, he lamented Kōen's choice to remain in this world in the form of a lowly creature, when the possibility of rebirth would have enabled him to meet any of the Buddhas he wished and offer his services.

Kōen (d. 1169) was a noted priest of the Tendai school, and Hōnen became his disciple at the age of fifteen. The print depicts Hōnen reciting Buddha's sacred name as the woman/dragon rises to the surface of the pond."

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Illustrated:

1) in color in Kunisada's Tōkaidō: Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks, Hotei Publishing, 2013, page 104, #T78-28.

2) 5 times in color in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada edited by Andreas Marks, University Press of Florida, 2015, on pages 26, 97 and 173.

3) in color in a small reproduction in an online publication, 'Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui – Uma Série Japonesa na Coleção do Museu Calouste Gulbenkian' by Beatriz Quintais Dantas, her master's thesis, #28, April, 2021.

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There are other copies of this print in the Harm Museum at the University of Florida, the National Gallery, Prague and in the Pushkin State Museum.

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The original Tōkaidō was established by the Kamakura bakufu (1192-1333) to run from Kamakura to the imperial capital of Kyoto.

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The Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui: A collaborative work

Andreas Marks wrote in 'When two Utagawa masters get together. The artistic relationship between Hiroshige and Kunisada' in Andon 84, November 2008, pp. 37 and 39:

"The artistic relationship between Hiroshige and Kunisada entered a new period in 1845, when both artists were commissioned to contribute to the series Fifty-Three Pairs of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui). The Fifty-Three Pairs of the Tōkaidō is an example of a series where a number of artists were commissioned to contribute complete and individual designs under a specific theme. A few years before, the Kisokaidō series by Hiroshige and Eisen had been published with the same concept. This concept became quite common in the second half of the 1840s until the early 1850s, and sometimes the artists were supported by their disciples who drew inset cartouches.

The main contributor to the Fifty-three Pairs of the Tōkaidō was actually Kuniyoshi with 30 designs, followed by Hiroshige (21 designs), and Kunisada (eight designs)." This series of 59 ōban falls in a period when designers, actors, writers, and publishers had been imprisoned or expelled from Edo in the aftermath of the so-called Tenpō reforms (Tenpō no kaikaku). Only the joint effort of six different publishers made this series possible."

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About the fan cartouches found at the top of each print in this series

Laura W. Allen wrote about these fan-shaped cartouches on page 9 in 'An Artistic Collaboration: Traveling the Tōkaidō with Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada' in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada: "At the outset someone decided that the publishers would promote their individual brands through the use of different-shaped cartouches... at the top of hte prints in the set: a bean shape (mame) for Ibaya Senzaburō (active 1810s to 1860s), a fan shape (ōgi) for Ibaya Kyūbei (active ca. 1804 to 1850s), two overlapped snowflake roundels (yukiwa) for Kojimaya Jūbei (active 1790s to 1860s), two overlapped round fans (uchiwa for Enshūya Matabei (active 1760s to early 1880s), a stylized shrimp (ebi for Ebiya Rinnosuke (active 1830s to 1890s), and a square (kaku for Iseya Ichiemon (active 1820s to 1860s). The six men were all former members of the fan makers' guild, and they worked in close proximity to each other, sharing or independently operating shops within the same Edo neighborhood, Nihonbashi Horiechō, all within the blocks designated as Itchōme and Nichōme. It was only the dissolution of the guild system during the Tenpō reforms that allowed other craftsmen, such as these former fan makers, to begin publishing single-sheet prints. The Tenpō reforms thus stimulated not only artistic change - in the development of new themes - but also social mobility, as the fan makers came to occupy new terrain with the publishing industry."
Iseya Ichiemon (伊勢屋市右衛門) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)