Lot 43
Japan, Soba Sojo School, Matsuya Jichosai or Suizan, ca. 1780 to 1800 CE. A published ink with color drawing with seal/signature, attributed to either Jichosai or Suizan, Japanese masters of satire, on a hand scroll of hand-made paper. The figures are wonderfully outlined with black ink and highlighted with pinkish flesh tones and occasional blue-green highlights. The iconography depicts multitudinous episodes of an exciting men's contest, replete with bold imagery, in which nude and scantily clad men with larger than life phalluses that seem to defy gravity engage in various creative events. Such depictions, scholars believe, originated in kachi-e, painting of a phallic contest among men with surrealistically huge male members. Size: a massive 37-1/2 feet long x 1 foot high.
Published in Drs. Phyllis and Eberhard Kronhausen, The Complete Book of Erotic Art, vols 1-2, Bell Publishing Company, New York, 1978. -pp. 78-79 (2 full-page color illustrations), pp. 276, 277 (4 black and white scenes), pp. 233-235, (5 black and white illustrations). Scroll is attributed to Jichosai (active 1781-1788 CE). In a different publication, L. Gichner, Erotic Aspects of Japanese Sculpture, 1953, pp. 22-23, precisely the same scroll is attributed to " Suizan (ca. 1800)...with signature and seal of Suizan...Emakimono painted in India ink and color on paper...This masterpiece of humor is executed in the spirit of the father of Japanese caricature, Toba Sojo, famous priest-artist of the 12th Century." (op.cit)
For additional information tracing the Japanese penchant for this iconography, see Akiko Yano, "Historiography of the 'Phallic Contest' Handscroll in Japanese Art" Japan Review 26 Special Issue Shunga (2013): 59-82.)
Toba Sojo also called Kakuyu (1053-1140) was the 47th head priest of the Enryaku-ji, the headquarters of the Tendai sect of Buddhism, near Kyoto. Toba, the father of Japanese caricature, was the artist of a series of important narrative scrolls featuring humorous secular subjects including "History of Mount Shigi" and "Scrolls of Frolicking Animals." In the "Scroll of the Frolicking Animals" Toba Sojo used a new technique of free-line ink drawing against a white background to depict the frolicking animals which some experts have said were caricatures of contemporary Buddhist priests. Such caricature-like drawings have been dubbed Toba-e (Toba paintings) and have been given to similar, although somewhat cruder, cartoon-like drawings that were popular during the Tokugawa period (1603-1867 CE).
Provenance: Ex-Kronhausen Collection; The Kronhausen Collection of Erotic Art, from the International Museum of Erotic Art, San Francisco, was sold at auction through Phillips, March 31, 1979. Ex- private New York City collection, acquired in the 1950s to 1970s. The collector was a respected published scholar and collector of erotic art from various cultures.
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#107412
- Condition: Intact. Aged paper with normal fading and small areas of discoloration and very minor tears.
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