The Complete Works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (Dai Chikamatsu zenshu)
Dai Chikamatsu zenshu
About This Series
Uemura Shoen's contribution to The Complete Works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (Dai Chikamatsu zenshu) belongs to the deluxe publishing project issued in the 1920s under the editorship of the Chikamatsu Zenshu Kankokai, which gathered the puppet and kabuki plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) into a multi-volume scholarly edition with frontispiece prints commissioned from the leading nihonga painters of the day. Uemura Shoen (1875-1949) was by the 1920s the foremost female nihonga master in Japan and the central Kyoto bijin-ga painter of her generation, and her sheet for the Chikamatsu project belongs alongside contributions by Kaburaki Kiyokata, Suga Tatehiko, and other senior nihonga figures who were invited to translate scenes from Chikamatsu's domestic and historical plays into the woodblock medium. Shoen's choice characteristically depicts a female protagonist from one of Chikamatsu's domestic tragedies (sewamono), drawn in the elegant elongated proportions and the restrained palette of her mature bijin-ga, with the costume and accessories registered with the documentary precision that characterized her engagement with Tokugawa-era feminine culture. The print is issued in a deluxe format with the production values appropriate to the limited subscription edition, employing fine textile patterning, graduated color, and selective metallic registration, and is signed and sealed by the artist. Shoen's contribution to the Chikamatsu project belongs alongside her other engagements with classical Japanese literary and theatrical subjects, an aspect of her practice that paralleled her better-known reconstructions of historical female figures and that would culminate in her receipt of the Order of Culture in 1948 as the first woman so honored. Impressions are catalogued among the Shoen holdings of the Tokyo National Museum, the Kyoto National Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Shohaku Art Museum in Nara, where Shoen's print and painting holdings are most fully preserved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Uemura Shoen's contribution to The Complete Works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (Dai Chikamatsu zenshu) belongs to the deluxe publishing project issued in the 1920s under the editorship of the Chikamatsu Zenshu Kankokai, which gathered the puppet and kabuki plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) into a multi-volume scholarly edition with frontispiece prints commissioned from the leading nihonga painters of the day. Uemura Shoen (1875-1949) was by the 1920s the foremost female nihonga master in Japan and the central Kyoto bijin-ga painter of her generation, and her sheet for the Chikamatsu project belongs alongside contributions by Kaburaki Kiyokata, Suga Tatehiko, and other senior nihonga figures who were invited to translate scenes from Chikamatsu's domestic and historical plays into the woodblock medium. Shoen's choice characteristically depicts a female protagonist from one of Chikamatsu's domestic tragedies (sewamono), drawn in the elegant elongated proportions and the restrained palette of her mature bijin-ga, with the costume and accessories registered with the documentary precision that characterized her engagement with Tokugawa-era feminine culture. The print is issued in a deluxe format with the production values appropriate to the limited subscription edition, employing fine textile patterning, graduated color, and selective metallic registration, and is signed and sealed by the artist. Shoen's contribution to the Chikamatsu project belongs alongside her other engagements with classical Japanese literary and theatrical subjects, an aspect of her practice that paralleled her better-known reconstructions of historical female figures and that would culminate in her receipt of the Order of Culture in 1948 as the first woman so honored. Impressions are catalogued among the Shoen holdings of the Tokyo National Museum, the Kyoto National Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Shohaku Art Museum in Nara, where Shoen's print and painting holdings are most fully preserved.
The The Complete Works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (Dai Chikamatsu zenshu) series contains 1 prints, created by Uemura Shoen.
The The Complete Works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (Dai Chikamatsu zenshu) series was created by Uemura Shoen (上村松園).
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