IWE'96Pref.Kochi/The"other"Ukiyoe

ART GALLERY

UKIYO-GARA HIYOKU-NO INAZUMA

NIGATSU-DO ROBEN-SUGI NO YURAI

DATE-KURABE OKUNI KABUKI - KASANE

ASHIYA DOMAN OUCHI KAGAMI

HADE KURABE ISE MONOGATARI HATTAI-CHA

BANSHU SARA-YASHIKI TETSUZAN SIMO-YASHIKI

BYOBU-E (PICTURES ON PAPER FOLDING SCREENS)
On the nights of summer festival which is held once a year, Ekin's pictures painted on paper folding screens fantastically emerge in the dark with candle lights. Why did people in Kochi want such grotesque pictures? People at that time had a religion that in summer the dead will return to the human world as revengeful spirits and bring about misfortunes. So, they wanted Ekin's picture as a charm against such evil spirits.In many of Shibai-e (drama pictures), Ekin draw a specific actor called Danjuro Ichikawa the 7th. Danjuro Ichikawa was then active in Kamigata (present Osaka and Kyoto district). Therefore, in one opinion, Ekin is said to have lived in a play theater in Kamigata during the mysterious ten years after depriviation.It is said that the compensation paid Ekin for painting Byobu-e was as much as 2 Ryo, which was equivalent to the total annual living cost of one person according to the value of currency in those days.

EMA-CHOCHIN (PICTURE PAPER LANTERNS)
Ekin painted not only Byobu-e but also Ema-chochin, which was donated to shrines. He is said to have painted more than a hundred lanterns a day when a festival was approaching.Ema-chochin is a paper lantern with Shibai-e pasted on the frames, and the candle inside the lantern lights up the surrounding pictures. It is a fantastic art as well as a practical lantern to be lined along the sidewalk of a shrine and lights visitors' step. Botanical dyes being used, Ekin's Ema-chochin showed clear and translucent coloration.At that time, Ekin had about 300 appendices, most of whom were dyers. Even today in Kochi, we have such traditional arts as Furafu (flags) and Tosa Kites which have been handed down by Ekin's pupils and supported by the average people. The Furafu is a big flag flown in order to celebrate a birth of a babyboy. In Furafu and Tosa Kites, Ekin's vivid colors and powerful lines are still surviving. FLAG

Come on! Artfreaks.(Newsgroup)

last update:july 1, 1996/(C)Kochi Pref.