Gutes Exemplar. - Japanisch und englisch. - . The Plates : Haru-no-usuyuki (The New Year's Gentle Snow Erotic Snows of Spring) dates from what is arguably Eisen's finest period: the preface is dated First Month of the year Bunsei V (1822). The predominant feature of the album is its unity of concept, the unflaggingly refined level of its artistic expression and, moreover, its integrated quality as a prime example of a literally hand-made work of book-art. But to turn to the charming plates themselves: (PL 1) Volume I of the two opens not with shunga but-in consonance with the total quality of the set -a charming plate after the major Japanese painter of more than a century earlier, Ogata Korin (1658-1716). The design-appropriate to the title and theme of the series-features a pert bush-warbler, harbinger of early Spring, depicted on an aged but blooming plum-tree stump. [The verse, however, is mildly ribald: in place of the usual "First cry (ha-tsune) of the bush-warbler in early Spring", the kanji is changed to imply "First love-making of early Spring."] (PI. 2) Following fast upon the same New Year's theme, the first, striking shunga plate is entitled "Bush-warbler on Plum-tree": but transports us to quite another world, indeed! Before a large, flowering plum-tree we view a rustic landscape, with a black-clad nobleman attempting to seduce a fair young plebeian maiden-who is not exactly responding favorably to his advances, however noble. Though relatively refined, the view of the girl is quite an "open" one, stimulating enough for the male viewer; but of her companion's private parts, unusually, we see nothing at all.m (PL 3) In the second shunga plate we view another tableau full of literary allusions. A young couple on travels is displayed before us in impassioned embrace in the snow: reclining on a straw cloak, with straw-hat at side. Only incidentally do we next take notice of the wooden piles and stone steps of a river-ferry at right, and-above a clump of snow-bent pampas-grasses-a flock of plovers flying blithely in the background. The lovers themselves are hardly evocative of classical themes, and were doubtless chosen purposely to contrast with the poetic setting: which is specified in the cartouche at right: "Snow at Sano." Doubtless, this makes reference to one of the most famous of Japanese classical verses, by the courtier Fujiwara no Teika: No place to stop my horse/to brush my cloak:/ snow everywhere-/dusk at Sano Ferry (PL 4) With the third shunga plate the scene changes most abruptly-to what must surely be termed the ne plus ultra of the Floating World! In a luxurious Yoshiwara bordello, a lucky playboy is viewed at stylish pleasure with a bevy of half-clad beauties, four in all. The girl at right is shown wiping off her privates; the older female at center watches enviously as the hero couples with a charming girl at left, while another, equally enticing girl passionately kisses him, while grasping his Jeweled Stalk. (PL 5) The fourth shunga plate again features a scene in the pleasure quarter, but here the tableau is more restrained: a ranking courtesan resists the importunate advances of a would-be lover. Perhaps, she is deeply involved with another intimate lover already; perhaps, she feels that this is just not the proper time and place. At right we view a screen-painting with early-Spring landscape, and the title, "Sodegaura"-referring to a noted pleasure-district to the south of Edo, on the bay between Takanawa and Shinagawa. (PL 6) With the fifth and final plate of Vol. I, we revert to a scene of young love, as boy and girl prepare to couple at a foothill site near Mt Fuji. The girl gazes shyly at her young lover, but with her right hand, she provides that most significant welcome of all. The print represents a masterful combination of figures and landscape, revealing that-as Eisen was to make evident in his later work-the artist possessed his own, creatively evocative manner in the landscape print, only marginally indebted to his mentor, Hokusai. (PL 7) Volume II of Haru-no-usuyuki again opens with a refined, non-shunga frontispiece; this time, signed by the artist himself ("Keisai," with the seal "[Ei]-sen"). � (Vorwort) ISBN 4309910157
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