Hell Courtesan

Nombre del creador

Kawanabe Kyōsai

Contexto cultural

Japanese; Buddhist

Fecha

Creación: 19th century, Meiji period

Fuente

Cleveland Museum of Art

Acerca de la obra

Descripción de objeto de Curationist

In the most popular version of the Hell Courtesan’s (Jigoku Dayū’s) tale, Jigoku Dayū was working at a brothel when Ikkyū, a famous Zen Buddhist monk, patronized her. Because he broke monastic taboos by eating fish and drinking alcohol, Jigoku Dayū questioned his identity. She sent dancers to tempt him, but when she spied on them she found the monk was dancing with skeletons. Jigoku Dayū thus realized that life is impermanent. After that, she wore kimonos patterned with images of hell to express her spiritual commitment. This silk scroll is one of artist Kawanabe Kyōsai’s several ink paintings of the Hell Courtesan. In this version, her robe bears images of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune and strands of coral rather than the fires of hell. This is an example of mitate-e, a genre of prints that are visual puns on spiritual or literary figures.

Descripción de objeto de Cleveland Museum of Art

Kawanabe Kyōsai repeated this large-scale composition with variations a number of times. In this version, a famous 15th-century courtesan known for wearing a robe with images of the Buddhist hells stands before a folding screen. Legend has it that she was abducted by bandits, and wore the garment to symbolize her belief that her suffering in her current life was punishment for sins committed in a former life. Here, in a parody depiction of the garment, the courtesan stands in for Benzaiten, the goddess of everything that flows, while the remaining members of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune appear on her outer robe. One of them reports sins to Enma, the King of Hell, who is writing out his ...

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About Curationist

Hell Courtesan

Creador

Kawanabe Kyōsai (Enlace a la biografía), Painter

Kawanabe Kyōsai (Japanese, 1831–1889), artist;
河鍋暁斎, artist

Tipo de obra

Scroll painting

Painting

Contexto cultural

Japanese; Buddhist

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Material

Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and silver on silk

Dimensiones

Image: 144.2 x 67.6 cm (56 3/4 x 26 5/8 in.); Overall: 233.7 x 92.1 cm (92 x 36 1/4 in.);
height: 2.337metre;
width: 0.921metre

Técnica

Idioma

Japanese

Fecha

Creación: 19th century, Meiji period

Creation: 1871–89

Procedencia

(Nathan Chaikin, Switzerland, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith); The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art, ?–1985; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1985–; The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Estilo Período

Mitate-e

Derechos

CC0

Inscripción

artist's signature and two seals, lower right.

Ubicación

Creación: Japan

Fuente

Cleveland Museum of Art

Temas

Tema descriptivo: Benzaiten, Deity, Woman, Flower, Sex worker, Dragon, Seven Lucky Gods, Hell, Moon, Enma, Death (natural phenomenon);
Nombre de pila: Jigoku dayu

Tema

Colaboradores de Curationist

Reina Gattuso; Amanda Acosta; Jessica Gengler

Contenido relacionado

Parte de: The Learned Courtesan in Edo Japan

Todas las obras de los archivos de Curationist pueden usarse y reproducirse libremente. Cómo asignar esta obra:

Kawanabe Kyōsai, Hell Courtesan 地獄太夫図, 1871–89. Cleveland Museum of Art. The Hell Courtesan, a courtesan from Japanese myth, stands in front of a painted screen in an ornately decorated kimono depicting the Seven Gods of Good Fortune and the King of Hell. CC0.

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