Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Chūjō-hime (中将姫) from the series Mirror of Women of Wisdom and Courage (Kenyū fujo kagami - 賢勇婦女鏡)
1843 – 1844
10 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Chōōrō Kuniyoshi ga
朝櫻楼国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri in red
Publisher: Takahashiya Takakichi
(Marks 512 - seal 01-127)
Censor: Tanaka
Text by: Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum - Chūjō-hime in a mitate of the 24 Paragons of Filial Piety by Kuniyoshi
National Museum of Japanese History (via Ritsumeikan University)
Seattle Asian Art Museum
Kunstpalast Düsseldorf Chūjō-hime was said to have woven the Taima Mandala (当麻曼荼羅) from lotus threads in one night. It is one of the greatest treasures of the the Tokuyuji. Born in 747 the daughter of Fujiwara no Toyonari (藤原豊成: 704-65). He was the Minister of the Right (udaijin: 右大臣) to two emperors and was sent into exile for a number of years after being on the losing side of a court dispute. Chūjō-hime's mother died when she was young - only 5 years old - and her father remarried. His new wife was so unkind the to girl that the princess had to flee for her life at the age of 14 or so and hide out in the mountains. At 17 Chūjō became a nun. Legend says she was greeted by 25 bodhisattvas and that she was given a glance at the Western Paradise of Amida when she was 29 and had received enlightenment. After that she walked to Taimadera (当麻寺). While there she is said to have woven the Taima mandala (曼荼羅) in one night.
Chūjō-hime features in several nō plays. One is Hibari-yama. The general nature of the setting is explained in Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitåabha by Richard Karl Payne and Kenneth Kazuo Tanaka from 2004 on page 143:
"After her father's remarriage, Chūjōhime went through childhood loathed by her stepmother. When she was invited to enter the service of the emperor, her stepmother created the appearance of sexual impropriety on the girl's part, and turned her own father against her. He ordered Chūjōhime to be executed on desolate Hibariyama, but his retainer did not have the heart to carry out the deed. Having disobeyed his master's direct order, the warrior could not return home, so he took Chūjōhime and his wife to live in the mountains. Here the girl copied a sūtra describing Amida Buddha's Pure Land a thousand times and dedicated the merit accrued thereby to her late mother's memory. the imperial palace, but she escaped to Taimadera. At this point the earlier legend of the mandara begins."
"The earliest known text relating the story of Chūjōhime the stepchild and orphan is Zeami's play Hibariyama from the end of the fourteenth century. Zeami's play does not even mention the mandara, and instead focuses completely on Chūjōhime's exile in the mountains and her reunion with her father. It adds elements not seen in any of the earlier versions, such as details of Chūjōhime's life before she became a nun and her mother's death. In Hibariyama, she lives in the mountains with her wet-nurse, not the retainer and his wife."
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The Musée Guimet says that Chūjō-hime wove the mandala in 765. That was the same year her father died.
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In this print, according to Robinson, Chūjō-hime is shown holding a string game or puzzle which, to me, looks awfully like a lotus root with lotus threads connecting them -- she is said to have dyed and woven the lotus thread into the Taima Mandala, a mandala depicting the cosmography of the Pure Land. It is said that she managed this miracle in a single night. Some versions of the story say that she was aided in the task by an apparition of Amida Butsu in response to her prayers.
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The text reads:
孝謙天皇の寵臣横佩右大臣豊成公の息女にて 仏道を帰依し 十六歳の時出家を遂 和州当麻寺に籠り 当寺の池中に生し蓮の糸を採て 蔓陀羅を織給ふ 糸懸桜五色井今猶彼所の古址となれり 略伝需に応じて 柳下亭種員筆記
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Illustrated:
1) in color in Samurai Stars of the Stage and Beautiful Women: Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, Masters of the Color Woodblock Print by Hatje Cantz, Museum Kunstpalast, p. 214, #199.
The puzzle may be solved. Cantz says:
"Chūjō-hime, the daughter of the courtier Fujiwara Toyonari (704-765), produces threads from lotus roots so as to weave a Buddhist mandala wall hanging. She plans to escape her malicious stepmother, which is why she sought refuge in Taimadera Temple as a nun by the name of Zen-shin. Chūjō-hime's mandala has been preserved in numerous later replicas, and she is revered as the patroness of female weavers."2) in a small black and white reproduction in Kuniyoshi: The Warrior Prints by B. W. Robinson, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1982, p. 120. S29.2. [Note the water wheel motif behind her.]
3) in black and white in Ukiyo-e: Japanische Farbholzschnitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Schenkung Dr. Hans Lühdorf. Bilder einer fließenden vergänglichen Welt., Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf im Ehrenhof, 1990, #208, page 123.
Takahashiya Takakichi (高橋屋高吉) (publisher)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)
Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員 - 1807-58) (author)