Edo prints
| Design: | Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) | |||||
| Album title: | Ehon mushi erami | |||||
| Size: | 21.9 x 32.5 cm (ōban) | |||||
| Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Special effects: silver metallic pigments on the wings of the grasshopper and dragonfly.
Originally published in 1788 by publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō (1750-1797). The black stamp on the verso of the print mentions that the blocks of this later edition were carved by Maeda Kentarō (前田 謙太郎), and printed by Watanabe Akio (渡辺 章夫).
This is one double page from the second album called Ehon mushi erami (which is written as 絵本虫撰 and translates into ‘Selected insects picture book’).
The poem for the insect on the right part of the print reads:
Inago
Tsuyubakari
kusa no tamoto wo
hiki mireba
hinago no ina to
tobinoku zo uki
which translates into:
Rice grasshopper
Just a little
at her green sleeve
to see I have tucked
But saying no, just like the grasshopper
with one leap she ran away
The poem for the insect on the left part of the print reads:
Aka-tonbo
Shinobu yori
koe koso tatene
aka-tonbo
ono ga omoi ni
yaseigokete mo
which translates into:
Red dragonfly
Better to cry one's pain
than suffer in silence
should one like the red dragonfly
exhaust oneself
from love
David Bull also made a great reproduction of the left part of this print as can be seen here and obtained here.
References
- Asano, Shūgō, and Clark, Timothy (1995). The passionate art of Kitagawa Utamaro (2 volumes in slipcase). Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.
- Utamaro, Kitagawa, Morelon, Dominique, Lemirre, Elizabeth, et Marquet, Christophe (2012). Insectes choisis. Myriades d’oiseaux. (Selected insects. Myriads of birds.) Arles: Editions Philippe Picquier.
Provenance: Fuji Arts