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Kelly Crow, 'Great Wave' Sells for Record Bid; The Hokusai print, an icon of Asian art, gets $2.8 million at Christie's auction. Wall Street Journal, Mar 22, 2023.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/great-wave-print-auction-77a48cbf
Note:
(a) "Christie's in New York sold Katsushika Hokusai's 'Under the Well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa' for $2.8 million * * * a trio of tiny boats with Mount Fuji in the distance has proven wildly popular since the artist created it at the age of 70 [the woodblock print at issue was first prined/ published in 1831, making Hokusai 71]"
(i) KATSUSHIKA Hokusai 葛飾 北斎 (1760 – 1849; known simply as Hokusai) en.wikipedia.org
(A) 葛 in Japan and China means the same plants. The kanji in Japan has the Chinese pronunciation "katsu" and Japanese pronunciation "kuzu."
Its English name comes from the latter pronunciation (kuzu) with a twist (insertion of d): kudzu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu
("The plants are in the genus Pueraria, in the pea family Fabaceae" 豆科)
(B) 飾 means decoration, It is pronounced as shika in (human or place) names only.
(ii) The print is called "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" 神奈川沖浪裏 in en.wikipedia.org. For decades I fail to comprehend the meaning of 裏 in the Japanese name of the print, because the term "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" has nothing to do with "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." Now that the WSJ articles identifies the print as "Under the Well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa." Then the meaning of 裏 in Japan shares its Chinese meaning "inside," though in Japan, the kanji also can mean the back or rear of a house or a place -- antonym of 表 (front of a building).
(iii) "Kanagawa" in the print title refers to 神奈川県横浜市神奈川区.
(A) The ja.wikipeia.org for 神奈川区 says its name came from 神奈川宿.
(B) The en.wikipeia.org for "Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama" says the same: "The area prospered in the Edo period as Kanagawa-juku [Chinese pronunciation of 宿], a post station on the Tōkaidō [東海道] connecting Edo with Kyoto."
In fact, Kanagawa Prefecture 神奈川県 also derives its name from 神奈川宿.
(iv) Japanese-English dictionary:
* oki 沖 【おき】 (n): "open sea <その島は海岸から１マイル [katakana for 'mile'] 沖にある。 The island lies a mile off the coast>"
* oki-a-i 沖合 【おきあい】 (n): "off the coast; offshore"
Thus in the title of the print, 沖 is abbreviation of 沖合.
(v) Regarding the boats in the prints:
(A) ja.wikipedia.org: "この船は当時活魚輸送などに使われた押送船である。 船ごとに艪にしがみつく8人の漕ぎ手 [rower; 漕ぐ is a verb that means 'row'] が居り、船首には2人以上の乗客が見え"
(B) en.wikipedia.org: "oshiokuri-bune [pronunciation for 押送船, where 押送 means exactly the same as in Chinese: escort], fast barges that were used to transport live fish from the Izu and Bōsō [房総(半島), where Chiba Prefecture is located] peninsulas to markets in Edo * * * Each boat has eight rowers who are holding their oars. At the front of each boat are two more relief crew members * * * The size of the wave can be approximated using the boats as a reference: the oshiokuri-bune were generally between 12 and 15 metres (39 and 49 ft) long. Taking into account Hokusai reduced the vertical scale by 30%, the wave is between 10 and 12 metres (33 and 39 ft) high."
The ja.wikipedia.org and en.wikipedia.org agree that two persons are located at the front of the boat, but differ about who they ate -- a discrepancy that is easy to find out from historical material. The two also agree on the estimates if wave height, judging from boat length.
HOWEVER, in real life the waves off the coast of Kanagawa are not like this. One may use image.google.com to search (Kanagawa surfing). Indeed, the best surfing spots in Japan are in Chiba Prefecture 千葉県 across Tokyo Bay. That is why some people speculate whether Hokusai was depicting tsunami, which he did not see in his lifetime.
(b) "Hokusai's 'Great Wave' influenced rivals like Utagawa Hiroshige [歌川 広重] and Utagawa Kuniyoshi [歌川 国芳], who soon attempted their own tsunami scenes, including the latter's circa-1835 Monk Nichiren Calming the Stormy Sea,' now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art."
(i) Of course, there is more than one in the world: woodblock prints were used like old newspaper to carry light goods. Here is one from another museum:
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/RP-P-1956-717
(ii) Monk Nichiren Calming the Stormy Sea. Manhattan: Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), undated
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45287
("ca 1835
The story of the life of Nichiren (1222–1282), the iconoclastic founder of the sect of Buddhism that bears his name [日蓮宗の宗祖; 歌川国芳 was a believer of 日蓮宗], has inspired legions of his followers to the present day. Kuniyoshi's series of prints captures the dramatic moments of the priest's biography, including this scene of a vision of the sect's main devotion, the invocation 'Praise to the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma [Namu Myoho Renge Kyo],' in the ocean waves as Nichiren travels to exile on the island of Sado in 1272") (insertion original)
(A) On the right margin is 高祖御一代略図・佐州流刑角田波題目. On the left margin is 一勇斉国芳, which is 歌川国芳's 画号 for a couple of years.
(B) Praise to the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma 南無妙法蓮華経 (pronunciation in Japan: Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō) is an incantation of 日蓮宗.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namu_My%C5%8Dh%C5%8D_Renge_Ky%C5%8D
• 蓮華経 (pronunciation: Renge Kyō) is Lotus Sutra in English, where renge 蓮華/ 蓮花 is lotus flower. (Both nouns, Kanji 華 and 花 share the same meaning flower, but the former also can mean splendor, Both kanji have the same pronunciations: kaor ke as Chinese pronunciations, and hana as Japanese pronunciation.)
• In both Chinese and Japanese: 南無
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/南無
("from Sanskrit नमो (namo) * * * a bow")
• The dharma is not a person but
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma
See also John Powers, Dharma. Oxford Bibliographies, Sept 13, 2010
https://www.oxfordbibliographies ... 0195393521-0059.xml
("Dharma (Pāli dhamma; East Asia: 法, pronounced fǎ in Mandarin, beop in Korean, hō in Japanese, and pháp in Vietnamese) is a Sanskrit word that has multiple meanings. It can refer to universal law, righteousness, social duties, good qualities, or subtle phenomena that are the constituent elements of all existence. These meanings are separable in theory, but are conceptually interconnected")
In Japan (as well as China, after entering the priesthood 出家 one gets Dharma name 法名/ 法号/ 戒名.
• Sado Island 佐渡島 constitutes Sado City, Niigata Prefecture 新潟県 佐渡市.
佐州: "さ‐しゅう 佐渡 (さど) 国の異称。"
• About Sado. Sado Island Tourism Exchange Organization, undated
https://www.visitsado.com/en/about-sado/history/
("Nichiren Shonin (Buddhist monk)[:] Nichiren is the founder of the Nichiren school of Japanese Buddhism. After a wave of earthquakes, famines and epidemics, he wrote and submitted a book Rissho Ankokuron [立正安国論 (1260)] (The Establishment of Righteousness and the Pacification of the Country) to Tokiyori Hojo [Tokiyori HŌJŌ 北条 時頼], who reigned supreme at the Kamakura Shogunate. In the book, Nichiren explained that the series of disasters happened because the Shogunate and common people believed in heretic religions, and insisted that more disasters are likely to happen unless everyone believes in hokekyo (the Lotus Sutra). Accused of blaming the Kamakura Shogunate and other Buddhism schools, he was exiled to Sado in 1271" until 1274)
• Japanese-English dictionary:
* shōnin 上人 【しょうにん】 (n): "holy priest"
• Kamakura Shogunate 鎌倉幕府
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakura_shogunate
(1192–1333; "was established by Minamoto no Yoritomo [源 頼朝] after victory in the Genpei War [源平合戦 (1180-1185)] * * * Yoritomo unexpectedly died in an accident in 1199 [at age 51; ja.wikipedia.org says it is unclear whether due to 落馬 (fallen from horse) or sickness], leaving the Minamoto clan weakened. Hōjō Tokimasa [北条 時政], the father of Yoritomo's widow, Hōjō Masako [北条 政子], and former guardian and protector of Yoritomo, claimed the title of regent (shikken [執権]) to Yoritomo's son Minamoto no Yoriie [源 頼家], eventually making that claim hereditary to the Hōjō clan")
• hokekyō 法華経 is 蓮華経.
(iii) from the WSJ article: "Kuniyoshi's series of prints"
(A) Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Monk Nichiren in Exile on Sado Island, from the series "Illustration of Famous Monks." The Met, undated.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/57049
total text:
"Kuniyoshi's series of ten prints published in 1835–36 was an abridged biography of the life of the monk Nichiren (1222–1282), the founder of the Nichiren Buddhist sect, which is based on the worship of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren lived in exile on Sado Island from 1271 to 1274.
"This particular masterpiece of ukiyo-e printmaking creates a perfect resonance between pictorial and emotional presentation. The severe snowstorm symbolizes the hardships Nichiren underwent during his exile. The monk demonstrates his strength of spirit by persevering in his uphill struggle.
• Thus (from the right margin of the print) we know the series name is 高祖御一代略図 (こうそごいちだいりゃくず); and this particular print is titled 佐州塚原雪中 (さしゅうつかはらせっちゅう). Tsukahara 塚原 was a place in Sado Island.
(C) Now we return to (b)(ii)(A) to understand the title of that print: 佐州流刑角田波題目. The Met does not explain it at all. But British Museum, gives a hint by translating the title into English.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1913-0415-0-10
"Object: Sashu r[y]ukei Kakuta nami daimoku 佐州流刑角田波題目 (Banishment to Sado Island: Sutra Title on the Waves at Kakuta)
Series: Koso [should be Kōso] go-ichidai ryakuzu 高祖御一代略圖 (Brief Illustrated History of Life of the Great Monk)
Description[:] Woodblock print. Nichiren calming storm on his way to Sado; with large waves."
• Look at the print: There is something black in the wave. Click to enlarge twice, one can see 南無妙法蓮華経 in black in the wave: writing vertically (rather than horizontally) that can be read if you were in the boat!
• Japanese-English dictionary:
* da-i-moku 題目 【だいもく】 (n): "(1) title; heading * * * (n) (3) {Buddh} (See 南無妙法蓮華経, お題目・1) Nichiren chant" (題目 in Japan means title(of a book), not question as inChina.)
• Nichiren. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion (part of online Oxford Research Encyclopedia that is updated continuously -- but the URL shows the princeton version is that of 2020), undated
https://jstone.mycpanel2.princet ... f-Buddhism-2020.pdf
(page 1: "Summary and Keywords[:]
The Japanese Buddhist leader Nichiren 日蓮 (1222–1282) taught exclusive devotion to the Lotus Sūtra, a scripture widely revered as the Buddha's highest teaching. Nichiren asserted that in the present, degenerate age, other teachings, being provisional, have lost their efficacy; only the Lotus Sūtra is profound and powerful enough to lead all men and women to liberation. The form of Lotus practice that he taught—chanting the sūtra's title or daimoku題目 in the phrase Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō南無妙法蓮華経—was available to all, whether monastics or laity, and regardless of education, ability, or social level")
• 妙光寺 (新潟市)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/妙光寺_(新潟市)
("妙光寺（みょうこうじ）は、新潟県新潟市西蒲区角田浜にある日蓮宗の寺院である。山号は角田山。 * * * 文永8年（1271年）、寺泊を船出して佐渡に配流される日蓮が、強風のため角田浜に漂着して穴に棲む悪蛇（のちの七面大明神）を教化し、岸、岩、波に三題目を書き遺したという")
Was first built in 1313 per this (Japanese) Wiki.
my rough translation: Myōkōji is a 日蓮宗 temple located at 新潟県新潟市西蒲区角田浜. The temple's 山号 is 角田山 [the name of the mountain the temple sits on]. * * * In 1271, Nichiren was banished to 佐渡 by taking boat from Teradomari, Niigata [寺泊町 until 2006, when it was merged into a city; there is a harbor in 寺泊]. Due to strong wind, the boat drifted ashore 漂着. There he civilized 教化 a serpent living in a cave -- that serpent would later become 七面大明神. Nichiren also wrote the title of Lotus Sutra on the shore, on the rock, and on the wave, which is left to this day.
• 小川 英爾, 『佐州流刑角田波題目』. 妙光寺 寺報「妙の光」 2014年12月号
https://myoukouji.or.jp/taeback/bn_p/p_column1412_01.html
the first three paragraphs:
"江戸時代の天保2 (1831) 年、日蓮聖人滅後550年忌を記念して板行された10枚揃い錦絵の1枚である。
"文永8 (1271) 年10月28日(現在の暦で11月末)、佐渡へ流罪の日蓮聖人は寺泊を船出、強風に流されて角田浜に漂着された。その折り岸辺の岩に〝南無妙法蓮華経〟と書かれたのが『岸の題目』である。そこに現れたひとりの老翁の願いで、岩屋（妙光寺裏手の洞窟）に住む〝七頭一尾〟の大蛇を教化され、その記念に書かれた『岩の題目』とともに現存する。
"翌日再び佐渡に向かわれたが、またもや嵐で船が転覆しそうになった。日蓮聖人が船頭に乞われて竿で波の上にお題目を書かれると、海が静まり無事佐渡に着岸できた。これが角田の『波の題目』の奇跡として後世に伝わり、錦絵の題材となった。
my rough translation: In 1831, 550 years after the death of Nichiren, this is one of a set of ten multi-color prints 錦絵.
On Oct 28, 1271 (late November in the present calendar), 日蓮聖人 * * * due to strong wind the boat drifted to 角田浜. On that occasion, (Nichren) wrote 南無妙法蓮華経 on a rock by the shore 岸辺の岩, and that is 岸の題目. To answer the prayer of an old man who appeared there, (Nichiren) went to 岩屋 (which is a cave in the back 裏手 of this temple) and civilized a serpent of 七頭一尾. To commemorate the occasion, Nichiren wrote 南無妙法蓮華経 which is 岩の題目 that exists to this date.
The next day, again moving toward 佐渡. But thanks to storm, once again the boat appeared to be sinking. Nichiren prayed at the bow of the boat and used a pole 竿 to write the same title on the wave and the sea calmed. And all landed on Sado uneventfully. This is 角田の『波の題目』, the miracle that is handed to the posteriority, and turned into the subject 題材 of a multi-color print.
• None of these appears in English or Japanese Wikipedia. So I have to find then in the Web.
• 角田浜 is a shore by 角田山 |
发表于 3-30-2023 15:50:40
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