Ryūsai Shigeharu (柳斎重春) (artist 1802 – 1852)

Nakamura Utaemon III (中村歌右衛門) as Shōki the Demon Queller [鍾馗] - from the series of seven quick-change roles performed by this actor (七変化之内)

Print

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Date:03/1829
Dimensions:10.25 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Ryūsai Shigeharu
柳斉重春
Artist's 'ryū' seal in a red circle below the signature
Publisher: Wataya Kihei (Marks 579 - seal 25-056)
Links Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts
Hankyu Culture Foundation - with additional text in the upper right
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan) Description:Shōki, the demon queller, is printed entirely in shades of red. Unlike most conventional ukiyo-e prints there are no black outlines here.

Shōki prints in red were often used as talismans against smallpox.

"The color red was used in prints and other smallpox illustrations because it was believed that Hoso-Kami, the god of smallpox, felt strongly about this color. When the skin rash was purple, the patient’s condition was considered serious. If the rash turned red, the patient would recover safely. Shoni-Hitsuyo-Yoikugusa, written by Gyuzan Kazuki in 1798 (the 10th year of Kansei), recommended that children with smallpox be clothed in red garments and that those caring for the sick also wear red.

'Hoso-e' color prints against smallpox were used in prayers to boost the morale of ill children. After the patients recovered, these pictures were burned or floated down the river. Therefore, few examples are left of prints in which the color red predominates. The pictures drawn as protection against smallpox depicted heroic figures to give people courage against smallpox." This information is quoted from the National Center for Biotechnology Information's 'Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases', July, 2002.

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The information quoted below is taken directly from the National Museum of Asian Art online site. It reiterates and reinforces what we have already said.

"Shoki (Chinese, Zhong Kui), a great exorcist, was a popular deity in China from the middle of the Tang dynasty (618-906), and was known in Japan from the Kamakura period. He is said to have appeared in a dream to the ailing Chinese emperor Xuanzong (713-756), to whom he explained that he was a scholar who had committed suicide a century earlier for failing the imperial examinations, but out of gratitude for an honorable burial granted by an earlier emperor, he had vowed to rid the world of mischievous demons. The emperor, who recovered immediately from his illness, ordered a court painter to paint Zhong Kui just as he appeared in the dream. In Edo period Japan, images of Shoki were hung in homes for the Boys' Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month; some were painted red as talismans against smallpox."

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The inscription along the right side is by Utaemon III using his poetry name Baigyoku. It reads: かけろふのうつるか如しはるの水　梅玉

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Illustrated:

1) in color in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata Yakusha-e Shusei, (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints) volume 2, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka, 1998, no. 118.

2) in color in Andon 72 and 73, 'Ryūsai Shigeharu: 'Quick change' dances in the Utaemon tradition' by John Fiorillo and Peter Ujlaki, p. 120, fig. 1g. The authors wrote on page 123: "A popular subject in ukiyo-e printmaking and painting was Shōki, a mythical hero based on the Chinese legend about Zhong Kui (also Chung K'wei or K'uei), a protector of the emperor Xuanzong (also Ming Huang). The emperor was suffering from a fever and nightmares filled with demons (oni) when Zhong Kui appeared in a dream and vanquished the demons. In gratitude, the emperor ordered one of his court painters to create a portrait of the 'demon queller', who then became celebrated throughout China. In japan, paintings of Shōki existed at least as early as the Kamakura period (1185-1392). Shōki was most often portrayed with a fierce mien, holding a mighty two-edged sword, his eyes bulging, his long hair and beard flowing. He typically wore Chinese-style garb with a scholar's cap atop his head. This cap alludes to this folk god's former life as a failed seventh-century imperial civil servant who took his own life in shame. Granted an official burial nevertheless, he became a demon queller to repay the honor. The Japanese often found in Shōki a subject suitable for humorous conflicts with demons, and Shōki was also an integral part of the iconography of the Boy's Day Festival (Tango no sekku; fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar year) by virtue of his widely popular heroic exploits. In addition, images of Shōki were made in large numbers as talismans against sickness, as in so-called aka-e ('red prints'), used to ward off smallpox.... Shōki is indeed printed in red, so the association with his legendary talismanic powers would be unmistakable. Utaemon lll's mie ('display' or climactic pose) takes the form of a formidable frontal stance that confronts the viewer and, by implication, any demon who might be nearby' The poem reads Kagero fu no / utsuruka gotoshi / haru no mizu ('The heat shimmers off the surface of the water in springtime')."

3) in color in Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, no. 130, page 139.

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There are clearly at least two editions of this print.

In both the Achenbach and Lyon Collection examples there is a clearly visible, light-colored, billowing crest behind the figure of Shoki. This enhances the swirling dramatic motif of the actor himself. However, the print listed in the Ikeda Bunko reference above this element is not as apparent. Also, that print has an additional, lengthy text in the upper right corner. This leads us to believe that the examples in the Lyon Collection and at the Achenbach Foundation are from a different edition.

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Red was the color most feared by spirits and devils

U.A. Casal wrote in an article, 'Japanese Cosmetics and Teeth-blackening', in volume 9 of 'The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan' in 1966, in footnote 16 on page 14: "Red is the most potent preventive, for it is the color of vitality and therefore feared by spirits and devils."
Related entities Wataya Kihei (綿屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Shōki (鍾馗), the Demon Queller (role)

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