Parody of Kanzan and Jittoku
c. 1779
Medium
Color woodblock print; hashira-e
Dimensions
69.4 × 12.3 cm (27 3/8 × 4 7/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
23214
Art Historical Context
Torii Kiyonaga's *Parody of Kanzan and Jittoku* (c. 1779) is a delightful example of Edo-period ukiyo-e, the Japanese art of "pictures of the floating world" that captured the vibrant urban life of 18th-century Japan. Kiyonaga, a leading figure in the Torii school for kabuki actor prints bijin-ga (images of beautiful women), playfully reimagines the legendary Zen Buddhist monks Kanzan (Han Shan) and Jittoku ( De). Traditionally depicted as eccentric sages—Kanzan with scrolls of poetry and Jittoku sweeping with a broom—this mitate (parody) substitutes them with elegant courtesans or theater fig...
About the Artist
Torii Kiyonaga · 1752–1815
Torii Kiyonaga, born Sekiguchi Shinsuke in 1752 in Uraga, Sagami Province, was the son of an Edo bookseller who owned tenements near a bustling fish market. At age 14 in 1765, he began his apprenticeship under Torii Kiyomitsu, the third-generation head of the prestigious Torii school of ukiyo-e, renowned for kabuki theater illustrations and signage. Adopted into the Torii family, Kiyonaga succeede...