Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Semimaru

  • Description

    This scene from the kabuki play ‘The Two Butterflies’ depicts the distinguished sumo wrestler, Chōgorō, sitting on a rice-bale. Chōgorō had deliberately lost a match against an amateur wrestler, Chōkichi, in order to procure a popular geisha, admired by both their patrons, for his master. Chōkichi is angry when he discovers what has happened, but eventually the two wrestlers are reconciled.

    The sumo bout took place in Osaka and the poem above the image concerns travellers passing through Osaka.

  • Details

    Series
    Take-offs Based on the Ogura Version of the ‘One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets’
    Associated place
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of creation)
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Date
    1845 - 1847
    Artist/maker
    Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 - 1861) (designer)
    Yokogawa Takejirō (active c. 1852) (block cutter)
    Semimaru (active 9th century AD) (author)
    Associated people
    Ibaya Senzaburō (active c. 1820s - c. 1870s) (publisher)
    Kinugasa Fusajirō (active c. 1843 - 1853) (censor)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, with bokashi (tonal gradation)
    Dimensions
    mount 55.5 x 40.1 cm (height x width)
    print 35.2 x 24.2 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by George Grigs, Miss Elizabeth Grigs, and Miss Susan Messer, in memory of Derick Grigs, 1971.
    Accession no.
    EA1971.123

Glossary

nishiki-e

  • nishiki-e

    Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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