THE HELL COURTESAN (Tomioka Eisen)

N.1 kuchi-e woodblock print
Year: 1903
Condition: good
Size: 23,5 x 36,5 cm

SOLD

Description

Important woodblock print of the kuchi-e (口絵) type made by the artist Tomioka Eisen (富岡永洗) as frontispiece of the novel “Shiki soku ze ku” (色即是空), that is “Form is Emptiness”, and depicting the “Hell Courtesan” Jigoku Dayu (地獄太夫) contemplating a skull and on whose obi (帯) sash the faces of the cosmic Bodhisattva Jizo Bosatsu (地蔵菩薩) and the Deva of death Enma (閻魔) stand out.

The work, of a rare oversized format, is taken from vol. 9 n. 6 of the famous literary magazine Bungei Kurabu (文芸倶楽部), a special edition (増刊) published in April 1903 and entitled “Flowers and Women” (花と女).

The precious print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), despite the right signs of aging and the folds resulting from the fact that it was a six-part folded attachment from the aforementioned magazine, is in overall good condition.