Ashikaga Silk Steeped in Purple (Ashikga ginu tezome murasaki), by Ryûtei Senka (Baichôrô)
Utagawa Kunisada
Description
Like "Genji as a Country Bumpkin" (1954/1.73), "Ashikaga Silk Steeped in Purple" is a humorous adaptation of an ancient court classic. The text for woodblock-printed books like these is in kana, the Japanese syllabary, with very little use of Chinese characters. They are part of a genre known as kana zôshi (which might be loosely rendered as "paperback novels in the ABCs"). Many of these were novels of enormous length, published in a series over the course of a decade or more. The language, themes, and low price made kana zôshi accessible to a very wide audience in Edo-period Japan. Women, in particular, were eager consumers of serial novels. Tales have been handed down about samurai women of the highest classes neglecting their wifely duties to curl up with a good book.
Kunisada once again treats the full-color frontispiece like a surimono, with rich mineral pigments and a highly decorative effect. The seated figure in the illustration is a woman of very high rank, probably meant to be a princess; to the right stands her lady-in-waiting, carrying a leaf on a fan; and beyond them both lies a koto zither, an instrument of court music.
M. Graybill
"Courtesans, Cross-Dressers, and the Girl Next Door Images of the Feminine in Japanese Popular Prints"
3/9 - 9/1/02
Subject Matter:
The label copy details most of the significant subject matter.
The artist Utagawa Kunisada was an incredibly popular designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, the artist of the many prints in this book. Ryûtei Senka is responsible for the writing in the book.
Physical Description:
This piece appears to be a small book filled with writings and drawings. The cover is silk steeped in a blue (originally purple ink). There is a floral and checkerboard motif. There is weathered writing on the cover. The contents of the small book include pages of writing and some pages of people accompanied with dense writing. There seems to be a preference for women, birds, and flowers.
Usage Rights:
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