Descrizione

Gutes Ex.; Einband stw. minimal berieben. - Japanisch u. englisch. - Text: Yoshikazu Hayashi: Willow Storm - Yanagi no Arashi. An unusual Shunga Album by Hokusai's Son-in Law, Yanagawa Shigenobu. - . In particular, it displays a boldness in its use of a Chinese man and a nanbanjin-"Southern Barbarian" (European), (see plate 11, 12). Although artistically this plate cannot be said to succeed completely, as part of a set of shunga, it works superbly (fig. 2). Shigenobu produced relatively few works in general, so here we will concern ourselves with a few of his most representative pieces. The time period spans from the mid Bunka seriod (circa 1810) to the early Tempo period (the 1830s). Most are in the e-hon print genre, but there are also a few hand-painted pieces (see figs. 3 and 4). Shigenobu was born in Edo, the child of Shiga Risai, in Tenmei 7 (1787). His true name was Suzuki, but he was commonly known as Jubei. He excelled at drawing in the Hokusai style, even before receiving instruction. Because he lived in Honjo Yanagawa-cho, he came to be called "Shigenobu of Yanagawa-cho," and later began signing his work Yanagawa Shigenobu. According to legend, he was brought to study under Hokusai by Hokusai's leading disciple, Totoya Hokkei, who is said to have been deeply impressed by Shigenobu's skillful illustration on the shoji of a Honjo Benten barber shop. This illustration depicted a beggar accosting a woman, who, beset by jealousy, is in the midst of paying a ritual midnight visit to a shrine in order to cast a deadly spell upon her lover. The relationship between Hokusai and Shigenobu did not proceed smoothly, and Shigenobu was eventually expelled as Hokusai's disciple. Afterwards, Shigenobu is said to have attempted to earn his living drawing designs for ukiyo-e prints, but was prevented by Hokusai, who moved to block the publication of his works. Eventually, popular writer Ryutei Tanehiko intervened and brought about some kind of truce between them (thus the orgin of the theory that the "Yana" in Yanagawa derives from the character for willow in Ryutei's name). Shigenobu later married Hokusai's eldest daughter, and was granted the nom d'artiste Raito by Hokusai. After drawing his first illustrations for Tanehiko in a novel of 1811 at the age of 25, Shigenobu worked vigorously, leaving behind him nearly fifty different works of knsazoshi, yomihon, and kyokabon. . (Yoshikazu Hayashi) ISBN 4309910149