Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Now on Show at Okuyama, Asakusa: Lifelike Dolls of Foreign Strangers and the Maruyama Courtesans (浅草奥山生人形 - Asakusa Okuyama ikiningyo)
05/1855
10 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Kamaya Kihei (Marks 201 - seal 11-024)
Censor seal: aratame & Hare 5
Date seal: 5/1855
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow - a variant diptych
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan) - another version
Lyon Collection - another example based on displays at Asakusa
Lyon Collection - another example based on displays at Asakusa If you find this print a bit unusual, you are not alone. To the untrained eye, which is most of us, this print would seem somewhat weird, but it isn't as weird as you might think. Of course, it lies way outside the bounds of typical ukiyo prints, but there is an explanation for everything you are seeing here.
Hiraga Gennai (平賀源内), an 18th century genius, inventor, writer and scholar is probably the source for most of the imagery to be seen in this print, but only via a very circuitous route. Among his many accomplishments were the publication of two important satires. The Modern Life of Shidōken (Fūryū Shidōkenden 風流志道軒伝) is the one we are dealing with here. It was written under the pen name Fūrai Sanjin (風来山人).
Gennai was born two years after Gulliver's Travels was published in England in 1726, but the English had no direct contact with Japan. Only the Dutch were allowed to trade at the controlled site of Nagasaki during Gennai's lifetime because the Portuguese had been expelled from Japan in 1639. Some scholars have implied that Gennai must have known Jonathan Swift's classical satire, but with no real proof. However this writer believes that Gennai must have known the story of Gulliver whether he had read it or not. I came to this conclusion based on Gennai's special interest in Dutch studies, Rangaku (蘭学). Surely any well educated Dutchman must have known in the last three quarters of the 18th century that both the Dutch and Japan had played a major role at the end of that epic satire.
Swift had written in Chapter One of Part Three:
"We were boarded about the same time by both the pirates, who entered furiously at the head of their men; but finding us all prostrate upon our faces (for so I gave order), they pinioned us with strong ropes, and setting guard upon us, went to search the sloop."
"I observed among them a Dutchman, who seemed to be of some authority, though he was not commander of either ship. He knew us by our countenances to be Englishmen, and jabbering to us in his own language, swore we should be tied back to back and thrown into the sea. I spoke Dutch tolerably well; I told him who we were, and begged him, in consideration of our being Christians and Protestants, of neighbouring countries in strict alliance, that he would move the captains to take some pity on us. This inflamed his rage; he repeated his threatenings, and turning to his companions, spoke with great vehemence in the Japanese language, as I suppose, often using the word Christianos."
"The largest of the two pirate ships was commanded by a Japanese captain, who spoke a little Dutch, but very imperfectly. He came up to me, and after several questions, which I answered in great humility, he said, “we should not die.” I made the captain a very low bow, and then, turning to the Dutchman, said, “I was sorry to find more mercy in a heathen, than in a brother christian."
Ergo - and I have always wanted to say ergo - the connection between the English, represented by Swift, the Dutch, and the Japanese has been sealed. I cannot imagine that Gennai would not have heard this tale. The fantastical settings, which often mimic Swift, cannot have be dismissed so easily. Swift had a land of giants and of Lilliputians. The differences between the two great satirists can be chalked up to creativity and poetic license. Therefore the images in this Kuniyoshi print come straight out of Gennai, via his knowledge of Swift's great masterpiece.
The Land of the Chest Holes
After Asanoshin, the protagonist of this tale, fled the land of the giants, he landed in the Land of the Long Legged People. Exhausted by his adventures he rented part of a room in a tea house and fell fast asleep. He was awakened by a noise that was caused by one of the long armed people who was reaching down from above to steal his fan. Asanoshin took out his short sword and ran it through the thief's arm. "Suddenly there was shouting and commotion in every direction. All heaven and earth shook with attack drums and battle cries. Prepared for the worst, Asanoshin ran outside and found himself surrounded by hundreds of thousands of long-legged people carrying long-armed people on their shoulders. Each pair must have been thirty feet high. The attackers spread out all around him like a vast expanse of tangled trees and vines."
Thinking himself doomed, but desperate, Asanoshin ran out into the throng and started lashing out wildly at the shins of the long-legged men while the long arms sought to grab him, but became a jumbled mess. After he succeeded in knocking a couple of these pairs, the rest fell like dominoes in a giant construction and they all fell over one after another. There is a funny thing about these pairings, whenever one pair would fall over it would take another pair to set them upright. However, since they had all fallen over there was no one there still standing to help them out of this mess. Seeing this as Asanoshin was escaping on his feather transport he caused a great wind to kick up, but only strong enough to get some of them upright again and the problem was solved. Whew, that was a close one both for our hero and for these strange inhabitants of this land.
After flying another 11-12,000 miles he arrived at the Land of the Chest Holes, "where everyone has a hole in the middle of his or her chest. When the aristocrats here go out, they don't ride in palanquins but have their carriers pass a pole through their chests and carry them around on poles. It is completely painless. Commoners holding poles stand waiting on the street corners shouting "Get poled! Get poled!" just the way they call out "Ride our palanquin!" in Japan."
Since Asanoshin had no hole in his chest, he could not take advantage of this form of transformation. So, he had to walk among the people, but he cut an odd figure. Everyone stared at him and his clothes and gasped at what a handsome man he was. The locals would quit gaping and followed him everywhere. In time, word of this handsome stranger spread throughout the land. "The ruler, Emperor Great Hole, heard about him and had some of his officials bring Asanoshin into his presence." Note: the bigger the hole the higher the rank of the individual.
When the Emperor's daughter saw Asanoshin, she immediately fell in love with him and said she wanted to marry him. After consulting with his court advisors, the emperor had him whisked away to be dressed for the marriage ceremony. But when the ladies removed his robes, and saw that he had no hole in his chest the fled in terror. Then from other rooms, Asanoshin heard the women talking about how sad it was that such a handsome man was so badly deformed.
The wedding was off, of course, and one of the chief ministers came to Asanoshin and ordered him to leave that land immediately, because in that country the size of the hole indicated the greatness of one's intelligence. Ergo - there is that word again - Asanoshin must leave at once, because he had to be an idiot.
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"The area around Asakusa was one of the main venues for misemono (sideshows). In February 1855 a life-size display of dolls representing 'people from strange lands' was staged. They had abnormally long arms and legs, and holes in their chests not unlike people visited by the wandering Asahina [sic]... Made by Matsumoto Kisaburō from Kumamoto, the figures were essentially high quality papier-mâché on bamboo frames and were said to be astonishingly lifelike. Artists including Kuniyoshi are known to have visited the spectacles and the prints portraying what they had seen were published a few months later - timed. no doubt, to profit from their popularity."
Quoted from: Japanese Popular Prints from Votive Slips to Playing Cards by Rebecca Salter, University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, page 35. (This entry is accompanied by a variant diptych by Kuniyoshi.)
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On the origin of Tenaga and Ashinaga
In an article in Andon 57, September, 1997 Matthi Forrer wrote on page 41: "The popular belief in the Edo Period was that there would somewhere exist a country inhabited by people with either extremely long arms or similar long legs. (It has even been suggested that this was actually quite common with the people of Colombo, although there may also have been some confusion here with kurombō, a more general indication for black people - which will be discussed also later on.) The inconveniences of the long limbs of these creatures were, to some extent, relieved by their collaborative efforts to procure their daily food. Living by the coast, this naturally consisted primarily of fish. Generally, the long-armed creatures, called Tenaga, would be seated on the back of the long-legged Ashinaga and, while these would wade through the water, the long-armed one would try to catch some fish. Probably first introduced properly into Japan through the Sankaikyō, a Japanese translation of a Chinese work first made by Hayashi Razan (1583-1657), their portrayal in netsuke has become a quite popular subject and, indeed, numerous examples of the Tenaga holding fish or grasping an octopus can be encountered. In pictorial form, however, such as in prints and illustrated books, they seem to have been less common, the Hokusai manga vol. 12 (c. 1832) not surprisingly being an exception. And Utagawa Kuniyoshi designed a print of them after an exhibition of life-size dolls, iki ningyō, at Asakusa Okuyama in Edo, probably in 1855."
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The story as related in Japanese Treasure Tales by Kumasaku Tomita and published by Yamanaka & Company in 1906, on page 95, it says that 'Te' means arm and 'naga' means long while 'Ashi' means leg. "In the book Sansaizuye, it is recorded that on the east of the Shakusui river is situated the long leg province, Ashinaga , close by the long arm province, Tenaga. The long-legged folks carried the long-armed people on their backs into the deep waters where the fish only could be caught. Neither could fish alone, for the long-armed man, having short legs could not wade into the deep water, while the long-legged man although he could do so, could not catch fish when he got there, owing to his short arms. Tradition asserts that the average length of arm of these people was nine feet, and a pair of sleeves over ten feet long had been once picked up out of the sea, while the legs of the long-legged folk ran to fifteen feet."
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The figure with the long arms is Tenaga (てなが) and the one with long legs is Ashinaga (あしなが). Click on the print and then enlarge it. Pay specific attention to the title cartouche with the white elephant in the upper right corner. Next to and behind the elephant is a man with an incredibly long tongue sticking out of his mouth. It hangs half-way down to his waist. At the elephant's long equally long tongue is a small seated or kneeling figure. Odd.
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This print was also published by Izutaya Shokichi. The carver was probably Hori Shōji. His seal shows up in the print that forms a diptych with this one.
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The figures in this print are 'living dolls' or iki-ningyō
Andrew Markus wrote of these automotons in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies in 1985: "An outgrowth of these simple static ningyō 人形, "dolls," or "figures," was the phenomenon of karakuri-ningyō 絡繰人形 "contraption dolls," or more commonly, iki-ningyō 活偶人 "living dolls." From the descriptions I have seen, these were spring-driven automata, capable of a limited range of repetitive motions. The earliest mention of iki-ningyō in Bukō nenpyō appears for the year 1853, although the exhibit of automata is clearly far older. The same source records that in 1813, an old woman made dolls dance and play instruments "without any human agency" by connecting their mechanisms to a water wheel in Asakusa. A figure of the "Laughing Buddha" Hotei 布袋, exhibited in 1822, would rouse himself from slumber when called, take up his fan, dance, and laugh (the same figure was still being exhibited in 1859). An 1833 misemono in Fukagawa 深川, to judge by an ornamental description in Edo hanjōki 江戶繁昌記 (Chronicle of the prosperity of Edo, 1832-1836), displayed lavish tableaux of iki-ningyō in climactic scenes from the Chinese vernacular novel Shui hu chuan 水滸伝, complete with narrator, orchestra lodged in the rafters, special effects of smoke and colored lights, and mechanical scene changes on each of the four stages surrounding the audience."
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Among the living dolls in this print are a man from the Land of the Hollow-chested People and men from the Land of Long-armed and Long-legged People. Not shown are representatives of the people from the Land of the Feathered People, nor ones from the Land of the Crossed Legs, nor from the land of the Long Ears.
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A large selection of these animated dolls can be found at the Kuniyoshi Project.
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Illustrated:
1) in a small black and white reproduction in "L'ukiyo-e come arte «di uso e consumo»" by Manuela Capriati, Il Giappone, Vol. 41 (2001), fig. 8, p. 53.
2) in color in Kuniyoshi 国芳 by Jūzō Suzuki (鈴木重三), Heibonsha Limited, Publishers, 1992, no. 348. This print is shown as the right-hand panel of a diptych.
3) in color in 'The elusive Wasōbei' by Dieuwke Eijer in Andon 106, December, 2018, fig. 6, p. 19.
Kamaya Kihei (釜屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
comic prints (giga - 戯画 / kyōga - 狂画) (genre)
Historical - Social - Ephemera (genre)