#kuniyoshi #parody #humor #japaneseprint #ukiyoe #heian #waka
Kuniyoshi created a set of prints illustrating the famous Ogura Hyakunin Isshu anthology One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets published in 1842 .
Why do I type the word parodying?
Note the figures in the middle right of the print.
A Heian aristocrat and attendants in court robes.
Whereas in the foreground we see the lower classes franticly trying to catch umbrellas blowing away in the wind.
For those who do not read Japanese or the forms used on the print the reference is to a famous poem a Heian era waka by Fun'ya (sometimes written Bunya) no Yasuhide no. 22 in the anthology.
Fuku kara ni Aki no kusa ki no Shiobrureba Mube yama kaze wo Arashi iuramu
the final verb is iuran in modern japanese.
The poem refers to how the two kanji mountain and wind combine into a characters used to describe gale force winds blowing off the mountains blowing grass and leaves and other things but instead of having leaves we see things made of wood the ki of the poem.
Kuniyoshi's picture both gently mocks the poem and yet also complements it ?
No comments:
Post a Comment