Hokusai. Edmond de Goncourt
tea merchant in front of the Uyeno temple in Edo with a group of women and children; men and women disguised as the gods and goddesses of the Japanese Olympus; a horse race; a large landscape of the banks of the Sumida with very small people represented. Other surimonos show women: the Tchanoyu tea ceremony for women; two women reading while lying on the ground, one with her head resting on the paper, the other reading with a pretty tilt of her head to the side; two women rolled up together on the floor, tearing at a letter. Among the great surimonos of women from this year and the years to come, Hokusai escaped from the ‘precious’ or ‘doll-like’ grace, typical of his early years. His creatures become more ample, more true, and approach true feminine grace, as a result of studying from nature.
The year 1799 was, in the Japanese calendar, the year of the sheep on the zodiac and many surimonos have a sheep in the corner of the composition. One of these surimonos represents a Japanese man holding a sheep in his arms. It is important to note this story about the sheep: in the past, the Japanese, surprised to see the Dutch making the voyage to Japan without women, believed that the sheep on board took their place. They were so convinced of this that, later, the Japanese women who entered relationships with the foreigners were called ‘sheep’ by their compatriots. Some of the surimonos from this year were curiously composed, as follows: a woman selling toothpaste powder fashioning a piece of black camphorwood to make a toothbrush; a manufacturer of wigs and mats; a silk peddler and the manufacture of silk in the countryside. There was also a series of busts of women. One also notes a series representing young women, with a ‘sinuous’ grace: a woman sweeping snow or a woman standing, folding a piece of fabric as tall as she is with an elegant undulation to her body. A surimono also represents a toad covered in warts. Finally, is a large surimono that is quite surprising: a half opened blind looking out on a flowering branch, part of which can be seen, in shadow, through the weave of the blind.
In 1800, the artist completed a series of fifteen surimonos, ‘The Childhoods of Historical Figures’ and a series of seven surimonos, ‘The Wise Men of the Bamboo’, in which old wise men are represented as modern women.
Woman beneath a Willow in Winter, c. 1802.
Black and coloured ink on paper, 136.5 × 46.2 cm.
Henry and Lee Harrison Collection.
One series of twenty-four surimonos is entitled ‘Filial Piety’. In them, one sees a charming drawing of a woman doing laundry, her upper body bare. Her torso is studded with petals from a flowering plum tree above her being shaken by the wind.
Another series represents the twelve months of the year, as seen by women, where in one graceful drawing, a young Japanese girl scours a floor while her mistress watches lazily. Another shows three pieces of music represented by three female musicians.
One series is entitled ‘Eight Bedrooms’. It contains eight representations of small women, one of which, with a bare torso, is washing herself in front of a monkey onto which she has thrown her robe. The monkey was, that particular year, the animal of the year and reappears in several of the plates. Another series is a caricature, in the Otsuye genre, of industrial imagery of the Japanese Epinal of Otsu, near Kyoto.
In 1801 appeared a series of twelve little upright works entitled ‘A Pair of Folding Screens’. It shows a series of small modern women with old men from another century at their feet. Some plates represent women making marionettes play in a little theatre, or actors and theatrical sets, notably with Daïkoku making pieces of gold rain down on a woman getting water from a well.
This year, still life surimonos began to appear and would furnish Hokusai with original compositions and admirable prints. These were small works with a dead duck and a porcelain bowl on a lacquered tray or a bird in a cage and a vase of flowers.
On these large plates, one can see the arrival of the manzai at a palace, where a group of children burst with joy welcoming them and where one sees, behind the blinds, the shadow theatre of princesses full of curiosity, but not showing themselves.
Courtesan Resting, c. 1802.
Black and coloured ink and gofun on paper, 29.2 × 44.8 cm.
Peter and Diana Grilli Collection.
Two Women and a Servant on the Banks of the Sumida; a Man Sealing the Bottom of a Boat, excerpt from the series Birds of the Old Capital (The Gulls) (Miyakodori), 1802.
Galerie Berès, Paris.
Concert under the Wisteria, c. 1796–1804.
Yoko-ōban, nishiki-e, 25.2 × 38.4 cm.
Musée national des Arts asiatiques – Guimet, Paris.
Tea House for Travellers, c. 1804.
Nishiki-e, 39 × 52 cm.
Museo d’Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone, Genoa.
In 1802, a small series of three plates represents a Japanese gesture game, with a judge, a hunter, and a fox. On one of the plates, a woman makes a fox with her hands close to her face and bent back in front of her. A series of twelve plates simulates scenes of the ronin by women and children.
A series was completed in honour of the moon, which is represented by women. A young woman is particularly graceful, her head turned backwards. With one hand, she holds a scarf of black crepe flying around her, a boshi, at her neck, and with the other hand, she holds a closed parasol against her. Another series is on Edo, showing industries and small landscapes. Yet another series bears the title ‘The twelve animals of the zodiac’, with the animals in the form of toys in the hands of elegant young women.
The year 1803 is marked by a series of thirty-six plates, ‘The Thirty-Six Occupations of Life’. Among these compositions, is a charming print of a young Japanese boy learning to write while his mother guides the hand holding the brush.
The artist also painted another series of five plates, ‘The Five Forces, Represented as Women’ and a series of ten plates, ‘The Five Elegant Knights’, also represented as women.
A series of seven plates, ‘The Seven Komatis’, represents the seven periods of the life of the poet Komati. This female poet with a checkered life is very popular in Japan. She had, at one time, the ambition of becoming the emperor’s mistress, so even when she had feelings for an educated lord of the court named Fukakusa-no-Shunshō, it is said she made the following pact: he would come talk with her of love and poetry for ninety-nine nights, and on the one hundredth night she would be his. The lover fulfilled the conditions imposed by the poet, but upon leaving her house on the ninety-ninth night – it was a very cold winter – he froze. The poet acquired the reputation of having died a virgin.
Among the large plates that Hokusai produced that year, one notes a young girl’s dance with a double parasol in a palace, with an orchestra behind a blind, and princesses behind another blind.
In 1804, a series bore the title ‘The Twelve Months of the Year’, and like all the other similar titles by the artist, consisted of small drawings of women.
One series has no title. It represented women of various classes: a noblewoman, a great courtesan, and a yotaka, a bird of the night, wandering among the construction sites and warehouses.
One also notes a series of ten plates, ‘Contemplation of the Beautiful Scenes of Edo’, and a series of ten plates with the title ‘The Ten Elements’.
Plates also appeared separately: a game for young girls, where one pronounces the names of animals and pinches the top of the hand of the girl who makes a mistake; flowering branches of shrubs on a paper resembling dimity; a curious still life that reminds one of the simplicity of the subjects treated by Chardin: on a bed of bamboo leaves rest a slice of salmon and a slice of katsuo, a fish highly prized by the Japanese. Some of the plates that appeared this particular year