Kakogawa Tonase and Konami Traveling by River, Act 8 (Hachidanme), from the series The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon chūshingura)
- Date:
- 1804-1812
- Medium:
- Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Harvard Art Museums
Kakogawa Tonase and Konami Traveling by River, Act 8 (Hachidanme), produced around 1804, is part of Katsushika Hokusai's series The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon Chushingura), illustrating the celebrated kabuki and bunraku drama based on the historical revenge of the forty-seven ronin. The eighth act follows the mother Tonase and her daughter Konami as they travel by river en route to confront the family obligations imposed by the tragedy unfolding in the main narrative. Hokusai shows the two women in a small boat poled along a quiet river, with the verdant banks marked by springtime cherry blossoms. As a ukiyo-e print, the design balances figure work characteristic of Hokusai's earlier theatrical and figural designs with the increasingly assured landscape sensibility that would dominate his later career. The Harvard Art Museums preserve an impression that allows close study of the carved water and the soft bokashi gradation of the riverbanks. The Chushingura prints of around 1804 are central to the broader Edo ukiyo-e tradition of theatrical and historical narrative imagery and show how the kabuki repertoire shaped the visual culture of nineteenth-century Japan. The print also reveals how Hokusai, like his contemporaries, was able to translate stage performance into a calm, scenographic register that drew the viewer into the emotional weight of the play.
1821
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; surimono shikishiban
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
c. 1832
Color woodblock print; oban
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Kakogawa Tonase and Konami Traveling by River, Act 8 (Hachidanme), from the series The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon chūshingura) was created by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) in 1804-1812.
Kakogawa Tonase and Konami Traveling by River, Act 8 (Hachidanme), from the series The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon chūshingura) depicts landscapes.