Description
Fascinating woodblock print inspired by the classic text of the Confucian tradition entitled “The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars” (二十四孝), written by Guo Jujing (郭居敬) during the period of the Yuan dynasty (元朝). In the upper inset we see Ding Lan (丁蘭), Japanese name “Teiran”, who was orphaned at a young age. The man, not having had the opportunity to serve his parents properly, twice a day offered incense and bowed in front of two statues that he had commissioned with their likeness. Next to Teiran we see his wife, who was repudiated by him when the woman, as a joke, pricked the finger of one of the two statues from which a bead of blood welled up.
In the lower part of the work, instead, Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延) depicts a bijin (美人) beauty, with sleeves and hair strands blown by the wind raised by a summer downpour, in the middle of a room decorated with a wooden statue of Kannon (観音), the bodhisattva of compassion.
The work, taken from the series “Collection of Twenty-four Exemplary Images of Filial Piety” (二十四孝見立画合), and produced in 1890 by the publisher Hasegawa Tsunejiro (長谷川常治郎) and by the engraver Hori Asa (彫朝), despite the right signs of aging and in particular imperfections on the margins, is in overall good condition.
