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SHUSAI: TWO PARTS FROM THE HEXAPTYCH OF YOKAI APPEARING IN A DREAM TO THE RETIRED EMPEROR GO-TOBA SHUSAI: TWO PARTS FROM THE HEXAPTYCH OF YOKAI APPEARING IN A DREAM TO THE RETIRED EMPEROR GO-TOBA By Shusai (active 1860-1880), Signed oju Shusai utsusu Japan, dated 1865 Color woodblock print on paper. Each signed oju Shusai utsusu, censor’s seal ushi san aratame; publisher Tsukiji Daikin (Daikokuya Kinnosuke, in the Tsukiji district, Tokyo). The distorted demons walk in a chaotic parade similar to Hyakki Yagyo, carrying banners and instruments, festooned in fantastical outfits and depicted with comical expressions. SIZE of the sheet 37 x 24.6 cm (each) Condition: Good condition and great colors, with trimmed margins, very minor material loss and creasing. Firmly mounted at the upper part to a paper mat. Provenance: Galerie Wansart, Brussels, 15 February 1949. Collection of Robert and Isabelle de Strycker, acquired from the above. Robert de Strycker (1903-1968) was a French engineer who specialized in metallurgy. He was a Stanford graduate, a professor at the University of Leuven, a director of the Institute of Metallurgy at the Université Catholique de Louvain, and one of the most influential members of the faculty of applied sciences. After World War II, he made large contributions to France’s post-war recovery. Robert and his wife Isabelle (1915-2010) first encountered Chinese art at the British Museum during a stay in London in the 1930s. Enamored with the style and beauty, they both decided to study and collect Japanese and Chinese works of art. In 1938 they eventually began to build their collection, buying from Belgian, Parisian, and English dealers. They kept close contact with the famous English collector Sir Harry Garner (1891-1977) and noted Czech collector and expert Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976). In 1964, the couple lent 174 objects from their collection to the Belgian city of Leuven’s museum for an exhibition titled Oude kunst in Leuvens Privébezit (‘Old Art in Private Collections in Leuven’), and in 1967 they lent around thirty Japanese objects to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels for their exhibition Kunst van Japan im belgischen Privatverzameingen (‘Japanese Art in Belgian Private Collections’). This pair of prints is part of a hexaptych depicting the story of Emperor Go-Toba’s dream, where he was visited by yokai and oni while suffering from severe illness. Upon waking, the emperor discovered he had been cured of his ailment by the dream. The story is strongly influenced by the folk legend of the Hyakki Yagyo (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) as can be seen in the many monsters prancing about, some of which are identical to those in the Hyakki Yagyo. Hyakki Yagyo (Night parade of one hundred demons) refers to a parade of supernatural creatures, oni and yokai, who walk the streets of Japan at night. It is used as an idiom to refer to the chaos when the supernatural and natural world collide. It is similar to the English ‘pandemonium,’ which references the chaos which ensued at the opening of Pandora’s box. The night parade was a popular theme in Japanese visual art. One of the oldest and most famous examples is the 16th-century handscroll Hyakki Yagyo Zu located in the Shinju-an of Daitoku-ji, Kyoto. Museum comparison: Compare identical prints in the collection of the Fukuoka City Museum, Japan, collection number FCM2011P00750 and FCM2011P00749. A complete set of the hexaptych is in the collection of the Waseda University Library, call no. チ05 04399.

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SHUSAI: TWO PARTS FROM THE HEXAPTYCH OF YOKAI APPEARING IN A DREAM TO THE RETIRED EMPEROR GO-TOBA SHUSAI: TWO PARTS FROM THE HEXAPTYCH OF YOKAI APPEARING IN A DREAM TO THE RETIRED EMPEROR GO-TOBA By Shusai (active 1860-1880), Signed oju Shusai utsusu Japan, dated 1865 Color woodblock print on paper. Each signed oju Shusai utsusu, censor’s seal ushi san aratame; publisher Tsukiji Daikin (Daikokuya Kinnosuke, in the Tsukiji district, Tokyo). The distorted demons walk in a chaotic parade similar to Hyakki Yagyo, carrying banners and instruments, festooned in fantastical outfits and depicted with comical expressions. SIZE of the sheet 37 x 24.6 cm (each) Condition: Good condition and great colors, with trimmed margins, very minor material loss and creasing. Firmly mounted at the upper part to a paper mat. Provenance: Galerie Wansart, Brussels, 15 February 1949. Collection of Robert and Isabelle de Strycker, acquired from the above. Robert de Strycker (1903-1968) was a French engineer who specialized in metallurgy. He was a Stanford graduate, a professor at the University of Leuven, a director of the Institute of Metallurgy at the Université Catholique de Louvain, and one of the most influential members of the faculty of applied sciences. After World War II, he made large contributions to France’s post-war recovery. Robert and his wife Isabelle (1915-2010) first encountered Chinese art at the British Museum during a stay in London in the 1930s. Enamored with the style and beauty, they both decided to study and collect Japanese and Chinese works of art. In 1938 they eventually began to build their collection, buying from Belgian, Parisian, and English dealers. They kept close contact with the famous English collector Sir Harry Garner (1891-1977) and noted Czech collector and expert Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976). In 1964, the couple lent 174 objects from their collection to the Belgian city of Leuven’s museum for an exhibition titled Oude kunst in Leuvens Privébezit (‘Old Art in Private Collections in Leuven’), and in 1967 they lent around thirty Japanese objects to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels for their exhibition Kunst van Japan im belgischen Privatverzameingen (‘Japanese Art in Belgian Private Collections’). This pair of prints is part of a hexaptych depicting the story of Emperor Go-Toba’s dream, where he was visited by yokai and oni while suffering from severe illness. Upon waking, the emperor discovered he had been cured of his ailment by the dream. The story is strongly influenced by the folk legend of the Hyakki Yagyo (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) as can be seen in the many monsters prancing about, some of which are identical to those in the Hyakki Yagyo. Hyakki Yagyo (Night parade of one hundred demons) refers to a parade of supernatural creatures, oni and yokai, who walk the streets of Japan at night. It is used as an idiom to refer to the chaos when the supernatural and natural world collide. It is similar to the English ‘pandemonium,’ which references the chaos which ensued at the opening of Pandora’s box. The night parade was a popular theme in Japanese visual art. One of the oldest and most famous examples is the 16th-century handscroll Hyakki Yagyo Zu located in the Shinju-an of Daitoku-ji, Kyoto. Museum comparison: Compare identical prints in the collection of the Fukuoka City Museum, Japan, collection number FCM2011P00750 and FCM2011P00749. A complete set of the hexaptych is in the collection of the Waseda University Library, call no. チ05 04399.

Estimate 1 500 - 3 000 EUR
Starting price 1 500 EUR

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For sale on Wednesday 04 Sep : 11:00 (CEST)
vienna, Austria
Galerie Zacke
+4315320452
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RITSUO: A MASTERFUL AND RARE INLAID TWO-CASE INRO DEPICTING THE YOKAI BOX FROM THE SHITAKIRI SUZUME RITSUO: A MASTERFUL AND RARE INLAID TWO-CASE INRO DEPICTING THE YOKAI BOX FROM THE SHITAKIRI SUZUME Attributed to Mochizuki Hanzan (1743-1790), signed Ritsuo 笠翁 and kakihan Japan, 18 th century, Edo period (1615-1868) The remarkable two-case inro of box shape, acting as a trompe-l’œil optical illusion, with a ‘hinged lid’ opening to reveal several yokai creatures, inlaid in stained horn, antler, amber, ceramic, and various metals. A rokurokubi-esque snail creature with a single cycloptic eye is seen to the very left, poking its long neck through a hole in the box, next to a praying mantis with gilt eyes, and two anthropomorphic frog-creatures to the right. The ground is lacquered in an attractive reddish-brown, simulating a basketweave design, the front decorated with a gold sparrow crest, a metal-inlaid snail slithering through teared holes to either side of the inro and further with carved red lacquer flames emerging from within throughout the composition. A wasp and a butterfly are visible within the opening to the sides of the inro. With realistically modeled metal fittings posing as the hinges and closing mechanism of the box. Signed underneath in gold lacquer RITSUO with a red-lacquered kakihan, identifying the artist as Mochizuki Hanzan (Haritsu II, 1743-1790). The interior of dense nashiji with gold fundame rims. HEIGHT 6.6 cm, LENGTH 7 cm Condition: Very good condition. Only minor wear and rubbing to lacquer, some typical minuscule losses along the edges, some light surface scratches to the underside. Mochizuki Hanzan, thought to have lived from 1743 to 1790, called himself Haritsu II and was a close follower of Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747) though he was neither his son nor his pupil. The kakihan (artist’s cursive monogram) on the present inro is a close match to a kakihan seen on an inro bearing his signature, the signature illustrated in Wrangham, E. A. (1995) The Index of Inro Artists, p. 67. The inro depicts the famous treasure box from the Tongue-Cut Sparrow (Shitakiri Suzume), which was opened by the story’s culprit, Arababa, and contains a host of supernatural bakemono and yokai.