Kimono in Ukiyo-e II

choi

The previous WSJ article was an art review on
The Kimono in Print: 300 Years of Japanese Design. Worcester Art Museum, Feb 6 - May 2, 2021 (press release).
https://www.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/kimono-in-print/press/

Note: The following are eleven online ukiyo-e and captions that appeal in the WSJ review (as opposed to print, which has just three ukiyo-e: Chiso wedding kimono, Yoyoyama, and kabuki actor).
(1) and (2) "CHISO, Ltd, Worcester Wedding Kimono, 2020 * * * "

Take notice in (2), the sleeves may be barely discerned as slender rectangles on both sides of the main kimono rectangle.
``````````````

(3) "Utagawa Kunisada, 1786-1865, The Kabuki Actor Ichimura Uzaemon XIII, 1860, color woodblock print with graduated colors (bokashi) and blind-printing (karazuri), [source:] Mrs Kingsmill Marrs Collection, [Worcester's accesstion number] 1925.1001"
(a) I search high and low in the entire Web, and the Worcester museum seems the only one in the whole world, which has this ukiyo-e 00 without Japanese title.
(i) I believe the Japanese title is:
歌川 国貞, 十三代目 市村 羽左衛門.
(ii) And it is possible the actor was playing lord SASAKI Keinosuke 佐々木 桂之助.
(iii) The u and sa are Chinese pronunciations of kanji 羽 and 左, respectively.
(iv) The seal in the ukiyo-e says "豊国画" (I am unsure about the first two kanji), that is because 歌川 国貞 is also known as 三代目歌川豊国, being "初代歌川豊国の門人." ja.wikipedia.org for 歌川国貞.
(v) The kanji 貞 pronounced as sada is used in names only.
(b) Jim Breen's online Japanese-English dictionary:
* bokashi ぼかし 《暈し》 (n): "shading off; gradation"
* kara 空 【から】 (n): "emptiness; vacuum; blank   <ほとんど空なのでガソリンを入れなくてはなりません。 I need to put some gas in the car, as it's almost empty.>"  (Recall karate 空手(道).)
* suru 摺る する (v): "rub; fold; print (on cloth)"  (Its corresponding noun is suri 摺り, which is turn was softened to zuri (because its position in the middle of a compound word).)
(c) list of ukiyo-e terms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ukiyo-e_terms  
("• Bokashi (printing) (ぼかし); technique of applying a gradation of ink to a moistened block to vary lightness and darkness (value) of a single colour  
* * *
• Karazuri (空摺); dry printing, embossing")
(d)
(i) Dave (last name unclear), Deluxe Printing Techniques--Gauffrage. UkiyoeGallery.com, undated
www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/gauffrage.htm
("The printing technique that we commonly refer to as 'gauffrage' is most easily described simply as 'embossing.' It also goes by the names of 'blind printing,' 'goffer,' or in Japanese, 'karazuri,' which means literally 'empty printing.' The Japanese name is actually very apropos, since it describes the printing process in literal terms, that is, done without ink, or 'empty.' * * * Karazuri is done in exactly the same way as 'normal' printing - by rubbing the paper with a 'baren' onto a carved woodblock. The difference is that for karazuri, no pigment is applied to the block first, so the resulting lines appear as a purely embossed area. The back side of the paper remains flat, and the embossed effect is apparent only from the front of the print. * * * Normal "karazuri" is done with the paper MOIST")
(ii)
(A) Neither Oxford English dictionary (online) nor Wiktionary (even its FRENCH, rather than English, portion) has
gauffrage (n, etymology)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gauffrage

In English, gauffrage is a noun, whose corresponding verb is goffer (which doubles as a noun), whose variant is gauffer (this spelling is closer to its French root). Take notie that gofer is a rodent.
(B) apropos (adj; from French [preposition] à [to (destination)] + propos [noun masculine] aim)
https://www.lexico.com/definition/apropos
(C) paper embossing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_embossing
(D)
* emboss (vt): "to raise the surface of into bosses"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emboss
* boss (n; Did You Know (about the common meaning of boss)? ): "(noun 2’ from Middle English boce) a raised ornamentation * * *"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boss
(e) Use images.google.com with search terms (空摺 浮世絵) -- no quotation marks -- and you will see what 空摺 means.
````````````````````````````````````

(4) "Keisai Eisen (1790–1848), Modern Figures on a Snowy Day, early to mid-1820s, from the series The Four Seasons, Publisher: Sanoya Kihei, color woodblock print with graduated colors (bokashi) and blind-printing (karazuri), John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.146"
(a) KEISAI Eisen 渓斎 英泉
(b) title of ukiyo-e:
• Museum of Fine Arts at Boston has the same, whose titles in English and Japanese are:
Fashionable Figures at Dawn on a Snowy Day (Imayō sugata yuki no akebono), from the series The Four Seasons (Shunkashūtō no uchi [春夏秋冬之内])  
「春夏秋冬之内　今様姿雪の明ほの」
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/526898

I look at the ukiyo-e, which indeed has 明 but I do not think ほの (pronounced hono) is there.
• I diligently google, and finally come up with 春夏秋冬之内 今様姿雪のあけぼの. The ukiyo-e does not have あけぼの, but that is enough.
(c) Jim Breen's online Japanese-English dictionary:
* akebono 曙 【あけぼの】 (n): "dawn; daybreak; beginning"
(d) In ancient Japanese 古文単語, 曙 might be alternately written as 明ぼの, because

Jim Breen's online Japanese-English dictionary:
* ake 明け 【あけ】 (n): "(ant[onym]: 暮れ) dawn; daybreak"
* yuki 雪 【ゆき】 (n): "snow"
(e) Akebono can be written as 明保能 (which doubles as a family name) or 明保乃. I re-visit Museum of Fine Arts' collection
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/526898
, and believe the title used 明保能. Kanji 保 and 能/乃 are pronounced as ho and no, respectively; and this use of Kanji for sound only (detached from its meaning) is similar to Chinese translation of foreign names.
````````````````

(5) "Suzuki Harunobu (1725–70), Youth (wakashu) Unrolling a Hanging Scroll, 1765–70, Publisher: Iwatoya Kenpachi, color woodblock print in red and green (benizuri-e), John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.289"
(a) SUZUKI Harunobu  鈴木 春信
(b) The Japanese title of the ujiyo-e is 掛け軸をひらく若衆.
(c) Japanese -English dictionary:
* kakejiku 掛け軸(P); 掛軸(P) 【かけじく】 (n): "hanging scroll"
* hiroku 開く 【ひらく】 (v): "to open; to undo; to unseal; to unpack"
* wakashu or wakashū 若衆 【わかしゅ; わかしゅう】 (n): "young man (in the Edo period, esp. one with forelocks who has not yet had his coming-of-age ceremony)"
(d)
(i) Publisher: IWATOYA Kenpachi
板元: 岩戸屋 源八
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/岩戸屋源八
(ii) The Worcester museum misspells the English name again. The given name should be Genpachi, not Kenpachi. Besides, the kanji 源 has only one Chinese pronunciation: gen asin Genji Monogatari 源氏物語.
(e) benizuri-e  紅刷絵
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benizuri-e
, where beni is the Japanese pronunciation of kanji 紅 (the kanji 赤 has its own, separate set of Chinese an Japanese pronunciations).
(f) In Japan:
(i) This is the color of 紅, which in English is magenta.
https://www.colordic.org/colorsample/2014
(ii) This is the color of 赤
http://www.colordic.org/colorsample/2012.html
(iii) This is the color of 朱
http://www.colordic.org/colorsample/2245.html
("橙系の色")
``````````````````````

(6) "Torii Kiyomasu II (1706–50), The Kabuki Actor Ogino Isaburō I as Sanada no Yoichi, 1735, Publisher: Urokogataya Magobei, woodblock print with hand-applied color (beni-e 紅絵), and metal filings, John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.59.2130"
(a) TORII Kiyomasu II  鳥居清倍 (2代目)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torii_Kiyomasu_II
(c 1720–1750 (per en.wikipedia.org); "Scholars are unsure as to Kiyomasu II's relation to the original [Torii] Kiyomasu ['鳥居 清倍, fl[ourish] 1690s – 1720s': also per en.wikipedia.org] who came a few decades earlier; they may have been close relations, or master and student, or they may have been the same man")
(b) The ja.wikipedia.org has both 鳥居清倍 (生没年不詳) and 鳥居清倍 (2代目), where 2代目 means the second generation (as opposed to 2代, two generation); simply put, the 目 change a (natural) number to the corresponding ordinal.
(c) Japanese title of the ukiyo-e can be seen in the ukiyo-e:
(i) さなだのよ一 on the rightmost margin, with 荻野伊三郎 to its left.
(ii) In the bottom, right to left, are 絵師鳥居清倍筆 and 鱗形屋 板元.
(d)
(i) OGINO Isaburō I  初代荻野伊三郎 (The Worcester museum misspells the English given name, it is Isaburō, not Izaburō).
(ii) 真田の与一
(iii) Kanji 三 and 真 pronounced as sabu and sana appear in (place and human) names only.
(e) For 真田の与一, see 佐奈田 義忠
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/佐奈田義忠
(真田義忠とも称される; 義忠は岡崎の西方の真田（佐奈田）の地（平塚市真田）を領した; table: 通称：与一)

My translation: 佐奈田 義忠 was also known as 真田義忠; 義忠 was given 真田/佐奈田 (which is presently 平塚市真田), west of a place called 岡崎; popular name: 与一)

佐奈田 and 真田 share the same pronunciation in Japanese -- hence the alternate terms of Kanji.  

The の between family and given names appeared in ancient Japanese names only.
(f) To make the long story short, this is how 真田の与一 got his fame:killed inthe battlefield.
(i) Michael Watson, Genpei Tales and the Nō. Premodern Japanese Studies, Meiji Gakuin University 明治学院大学 (1863, private), 2012
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/biblio/genpei-noh.html
("Episodes from the Genpei 源平 War of 1180–1185 form the subject matter of a greater number of nō plays than does any other period of Japanese history. The courtly narratives of the Tales of Ise and the Tale of Genji [源氏物語] figure prominently among literary sources for the nō stage, but plays based on characters or episodes from the Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari [平家物語]) outnumber Ise and Genji plays by a large margin. Some thirty-four plays, well over a tenth of the modern performance repertoire (genkō yōkyoku 現行謡曲), are based on Heike monogatari, while many dozens more 'Genpei'-related plays are to be found in the very large but still little explored corpus of bangai yōkyoku 番外謡曲 or 'non-canonical' plays")

The Tales of Ise  伊勢物語
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Ise  
("date of composition and authorship" unclear)
(ii) in chronological order.
(A) "On August 22, 1155, Emperor Konoe 近衛天皇 died at the age of 17 years without leaving any heirs." :en.wikipedia.org for "Emperor Go-Shirakawa 後白河天皇."

(B) Fighting on the side of 源 頼朝, general 真田の与一 died in the first battle against Taira, at Battle of Ishibashiyama  石橋山の戦い
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ishibashiyama  
(September 14, 1180; in present-day Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture 神奈川県 小田原市)
, where general 俣野 五郎 景久 defeated and killed 真田の与一 (identified as 真田 與市 義忠 in the ukiyo-e of this Wiki page. (市 and 一 share the same Japanese pronunciation.)  
```````````````````````

(7) "Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764), A Courtesan as Hi Chōbō, ca 1710, Publisher: Igaya Kan'emon, woodblock-printed album sheet with black-line printing (sumizuri), John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.59.2214"
(a) OKUMURA Masanobu  奥村 政信
Hi Chōbō is Japanese pronunciation of Fei Changfang 費長房, a male 道士 of Eastern Han Dynasty.,
(b) English title: Courtesan as Fei Zhangfang (Hi Chōbō), from a series of courtesans imitating Taoist immortals
Japanese title: 見立仙人　「ひてうぼう」
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/177263
(i) ひてうぼう is seen in the heart-shaped black seal with white writing. However, I am clueless about its meaning.
(ii) Japanese-English dictionary:
* mitate (n): "choice, selection"
(c) Publisher: Igaya Kan'emon
板元: 伊賀屋 勘右衛門
(d) sumizuri-e  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumizuri-e
"is a type of monochromatic woodblock printing that uses only black ink. It is one of the earliest forms of Japanese woodblock printing, dating back to the Nara period (710 – 794)" )
, whose kanji are 墨摺絵.

``````````````````

(8) Kikugawa Eizan (1787–1867), Kashiku of the Tsuruya, ca. 1824–29, from the series Pines of the Green Houses, color woodblock print, John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.59.2637"
(a) Japanese title of ukiyo-e (as seen in the ukiyo-e):
青樓松之內　つる屋内 かしく
(b) Jim Breen's online Japanese-English dictionary does not have 青楼. The following is from another online Japanese-English dictionary:
* seirō 青楼 (n): "officially sanctioned brothel (Edo-period"
(c) For 松之內, see
Jim Breen's online Japanese-English dictionary:
* matsunouchi 松の内 【まつのうち】 (n): "New Year's Week (festivities)"  (松之內 or 松の内 is also a family name in Japan. But apparently the meaning does not suit the title,(
* imayō 今様 【いまよう】 (n): "modern style; contemporary style; current fashion"
* tsuru 鶴 【つる】 (n): "crane (any bird of the family Gruidae, esp the red-crowned crane, Grus japonensis)"
(d) Kashiku is the name of courtesan, who worked in Tsuruya つる屋 (tsuru is defined immediately prior).
````````````````````````

(9) "Kikugawa Eizan (1787–1867), The Courtesan Yoyoyama of the Matsubaya with Her Two Young Female Attendants Standing Under Branches of Cherry Blossoms, ca 1830, Publisher: Sanoya Kihei, color woodblock print with blind-printing (karazuri) and graduated colors (bokashi), John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.59.2650"
```````````````

(10) "Torii Kiyonobu I (1664–1729), The Kabuki Actor Sawamura Kodenji I as Tsuyu no Mae, 1698, Publisher: Hangiya Shichirōbei, woodblock print with hand-applied color (tan-e 丹絵), John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.59"
(a) TORII  Kiyonobu I  鳥居 清信
(b) Japanese title of the ukiyo-e:
初代沢村小伝次 の 露の前
(i) SAWAMURA Kodenji I  初代沢村小伝次
(ii) TSUYU no Mae  露の前
(c) Japanese-English dictionary:
* tsuyu 露 【つゆ】 (n): "dew"  (露 also is a family name in Japan, as here.)
(d) I fail to find out who 露の前 was.
(e) tan-e
https://www.britannica.com/art/tan-e
`````````````````````````````

(11) "Itō Shinsui (1898–1972), Woman with Marumage Hairstyle, 1924, Publisher: Watanabe Shōzaburō, color woodblock print on mica (kirazuri) ground, Gift of Edward Kenway, 1960.7"
(a) IT Shinsui 伊東 深水
(b) Jim Breen's online Japanese-English dictionary:
* marumage 丸髷; 丸曲 【まるまげ】 (n): "traditional married woman's hair style with an oval chignon on top"
(c) 丸髷
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/丸髷
(d) Publisher: WATANABE Shōzaburō  渡辺 庄三郎
(e) kirazuri  雲母摺り
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirazuri