JAPANESE PRINTS
A MILLION QUESTIONS
TWO MILLION MYSTERIES
Ukiyo-e Prints浮世絵版画Port Townsend, Washington |
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INDEX/GLOSSARY
O thru Ri |
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The painting of the hallucinogenic of the iris posted at commons.wikimedia.org by D. L. Lindwall was used in March and April. |
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TERMS FOUND ON THIS PAGE:
Obake, Oban, Obi, Obon, Ochanomizu, O-fuda, Ōgi, Ohaguro, Ohara Koson, Oikake, Oiran, Oke, Okimayu, Okoso-zukin,
Okubi-e,
Omamori,
Onoe Kikugorō III,
Oshidori, Otokodate, William Perkin, Plum (Ume), Po Chü-i, Polonius, Port Arthur, Prussian blue, Publisher, Raijin, Rain & Snow: The Umbrella in Japanese Art,
Rengeza, Rietberg Museum, Rikugei and Rimbō
御化け, 大判, 帯, 御盆, 御茶ノ水, 御札, 扇, お歯黒, 小原古邨,
老懸,
花魁, 桶,
置眉, 大首絵,
御守り,
鬼,
雷神,
おばけ, おおばん, おび, おぼん, おちゃのみず, おふだ, おうぎ, おはぐろ, おはらこそん, おいかけ, おいらん, おいらんどうちゅう, おけ, おきまゆ, おこそずきん, おくびえ, おまもり, おもちゃ,
おんなぶどう, おんなだて, おんながた, おのえ.きくごろう,
はくきょい, りょじゅん, プロシヤ青, はんもと, らいじん,
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One more note about this page and all of the others on this site: If two or more sources are cited they may be completely contradictory. I have made no attempt to referee these differences, but have simply repeated them for your edification or use. Quote anything you find here at your own risk and with a whole lot of salt. |
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Obake |
御化け おばけ |
A monster, ogre or goblin. According to Kunio Yanagita (柳田 国男), the great modern expert on folklore (1875-1962), obake are different than yurei (幽霊 or ゆうれい) or ghosts. Obake haunt a particular place while yorei haunt a particular individual. Despite their ominous description obake are said to be more humorous than scary. |
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Oban |
大判 おおばん |
A woodblock print size generally 15" x 10". This the most commonly encountered size for 19th c. ukiyo prints. |
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Obi |
帯 おび |
The sash of a kimono and like the word 'torii' obi is a word which has entered our vocabulary. Often used in crossword puzzles. |
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Obon |
御盆 おぼん |
A Buddhist celebration during which the deceased are said to visit the homes of their relatives for several days. |
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Lanterns are hung to guide them home. Food is set for them and at the end lanterns are placed in rivers, lakes, ponds, etc. to aid the souls of the deceased to return to the netherworld. It is celebrated in some areas as early as mid-July and as late as mid-August in others. There are also regional variations in the practice of this event.
Often the spirits of the dead are accompanied by other more vengeful, uninvited spirits which have returned to wreak havoc and vengeance. Because of that the Obon dance is performed in an attempt to scare off the malicious spirits.
Celebrated as early as 657 this festival may have its roots in Zoroastrianism in Persia combined with Buddhist practices. Some sources say that the Buddhist monk Mokuren (もくれん) saw a vision of his deceased mother starving in hell and he offered her a bowl of rice. That was around July 15th and hence its origin and timing. |
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Ochanomizu |
御茶ノ水
おちゃのみず |
A district of Edo/Tokyo 1 |
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O-fuda |
御札
おふだ |
A protective charm. Note the wooden plaques strung together on a cord hanging around the figure's neck. 1
"Fuda are generally made of a flat piece of wood often both slightly pointed and broader at the top than at the bottom, on which an inscription of some sort, often the names of the shrine temple and its kami/Buddha, has been written in cursive brush strokes. They are generally also wrapped in white paper so that the inscription is visible and are tied with a bow of colored string. They are of various sizes." The larger ones are considered more efficacious. "The Kōrien-Narita-san temple... has a whole array of fuda for traffic safety (the primary riyaku [benefit: 利益 or りやく] associated with the temple), up to approximately a metre in height: the prices vary accordingly. Another common type of fuda is a piece of paper on which an image (usually of Buddha), often accompanied by a sacred inscription, has been imprinted."
Source and quotes from: Religion in Contemporary Japan, by Ian Reader, University of Hawaii Press, 1991, p. 176.
"Basically fuda sacralise an area: once acquired they are placed in, for example, the butsudan [household Buddhist shrine: 仏壇 or ぶつだん] or kamidana [small Shintō shrine or shelf: 神棚 or かみだな] or elsewhere in the house from whence they protect the environment and surrounding." These protective symbols appear on trains and ferries, too. "Similarly I have a paper fuda depicting Fudō, given to me by a priest in Shodōshima: I was, he told me, to place it in the hallway of my house facing the door, and this would keep the house safe from burglars and other miscreants." (Ibid., p. 177)
See our entry on Fudō Myōō.
To the left is a detail from a cropped photo of an O-fuda stand. It was placed in the public domain by Tomomarusan at http://commons.wikimedia.org/. |
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Ian Reader points out that "At Narita-san, for example, fuda and o-mamori are placed before the image of Fudō... and, through rituals performed by priests, Fudō's power and spirit passes into the talismans and amulets. They are sacrilised, no longer wood and paper but actually Fudō himself." (Ibid.)
Lafcadio Hearn tells us that "Homes are protected from evil spirits by holy texts and charms. In any Japanese village, or any city by-street, you can see these texts when the sliding-doors are closed at night: they are not visible by day, when the sliding doors have been pushed back into the tobukuro [戸袋 or とぶくろ]. Such texts are called o-fuda (august scripts): they are written in Chinese characters upon strips of white paper, which are attached to the door with rice paste: and there are many kinds of them. Some are texts selected from sutras... Some are texts from dhâranîs - which are magical. Some are invocations only, indicating the Buddhist sect of the household... or little prints, pasted above or beside windows or apertures - some being names of Shintō gods; others symbolical pictures only, or pictures of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. All are holy charms - o-fuda: they protect the houses; and no goblin or ghost can enter by night into a dwelling so protected, unless the o-fuda be removed. [¶] Vengeful ghosts cannot themselves remove an o-fuda; but they will endeavor by threats or promises or bribes to make some person remove it for them."
Quoted from: The Writings of Lafcadio Hearn, Houghton Mifflin, 1922, pp. 283-4. |
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Ōgi |
扇
おうぎ |
A folding fan: The image to the left is only one of the motifs used for a family crest or mon. However, in this case it could also be used as a butterfly mon. This shows the level of creativity of the Japanese sense of design. |
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In 1960 U. A. Casal in his "Lore of the Japanese Fan" published in the Monumenta Nipponica (p. 61) gave a reasonable explanation for why the Japanese never warmed to the feather fan like we did in the West and elsewhere. "...the feather-fan was never greatly developed in Japan. It would not be surprising if this were partly due to its connection with the killing of birds. Not only was killing contrary to all Buddhist tenets, and at times rigorously forbidden in whatever form, but anything dead was also taboo in Shintō."
Editorial note: While this information may seem obvious to you, it was an 'A-ha, I get it!' moment for me.
Ōgi are also called sensu (扇子 or せんす). The folding fan can also be called a suehiro (末広 or すえひろ).
The word ōgi has its origin in afugi (あふぎ) or "something which creates wind." This was its early pronunciation.
This is so Marx Brothers: "It is a recorded historical fact that Fujiwara Tadahira [藤氏忠平 or ふじわらただひら], who lived from A.D. 880 to 949 and gained a high reputation as an aesthete and dilettante, had a cuckoo painted on his fan, which he never opened without first without imitating the cry of the bird." (Casal - p. 75)
There is a legend that the Emperor Gosanjō (1069-1073: 後三条 or ごさんじょう) was a very frugal man. He owned and loved a hi-ōgi (檜扇 or ひおうぎ) or fan made of wood slats. As it aged and cracked he pasted paper onto it and the modern folding fan was born. (C. - 76)
In footnote 49 on page 95 "In the Orient it is considered highly impolite to breathe into another's face. The Buddha forbade garlic and other pungent herbs. It is possibly due to this belief in the breath's impurity that the underling has to kowtow when speaking to the lord: his breath is directed towards the ground and will not affect the atmosphere. Often the Oriental will hold his hand or his fan over the mouth when speaking..." Personally I wish this was done a little more in the West.
Another rule of etiquette was used when passing items from one person to another: "It being impolite, generally speaking, to pass a thing from hand to hand, a fan may serve as a tray, either to proffer or to receive. Begging monks never took alms except on a partly opened fan. (To open it completely would have looked greedy.) (C. - 95) In "The Tale of Genji" the prince is handed a delicate flower this way presented on a highly perfumed white fan.
"The Japanese actor, whether of the No or Kabuki stage, could not exist without a fan. With an incredibly calm mimic, wielding his fan he can "outline" any kind of object, suggest the thatched roofs of a village, the floating of a boat, the rising of smoke or the pouring of a liquid, even the appearance of some supernatural, weird being. By the clever manipulation of his fan, he can underscore his pensiveness, sorrow, jollity, or drunkenness." (C. - 96)
Casal argues (p. 101) that fans were carried in the winter too because of
their ancient linkage to function as a tool which could dispel evil spirits.
That is also the reason why all guests at weddings carried them. "For
At the name giving ceremony a prominent relative who would be comparable to our 'godfather' would present a baby boy with two ōgi representative of the two swords carried by the samurai which in their turn stand for "courage and endurance." (C. 101-2)
Every year the Emperor is presented with a special fan referred to as 'a humble thing' or kenjō (献上 or けんじょう). The front shows a flowering plant while the back is a plain black sprinkled with silver. (C. - 102)
Whenever a person would set out on a long journey friends would present the traveler with a fan with valedictory sayings painted on it. (C. - 103)
"In the early days of the telegraph in Japan, when poles and wires were full of hidden menaces to the natives, many of them would not willingly pass under the overhanging danger. If unavoidable, they would screen themselves against the diabolical wires by opening the fan and holding it over the head." (Ibid.) Is this so different from the controversy in modern society about living too close to power lines? |
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Ohaguro |
お歯黒
おはぐろ
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Tooth blackening: An ancient practice going back to the Heian period, i.e., 9th century, whereby women mainly stained their teeth black. The dye was made from a mixture of oxidized "...iron shavings melted in vinegar and powdered gallnuts." During the Muromachi period (1336-1568) this practice gained popularity among the lower classes and "...was done from the age of puberty. In the Edo period (1603-1868), married women were required to dye their teeth black."
Quoted from: Dictionary of Japanese Culture by Setsuko Kojima and Gene A. Crane, p. 253.
The powder was often applied using a split-bamboo toothbrush.
(See also nurude.)
John Stevenson in Yoshitoshi's Women: The Woodblock Print Series "Fuzoku Sanjuniso" (Avery Press, 1986, p. 34) notes: "Blackened teeth were considered beautiful, possibly because teeth were a visible part of the skeleton, which as a symbol of death was unclean. Though teeth-blackening was the special mark of married women, courtesans also used it as a sign of adulthood. It formed part of the ceremony held for the debut of a trainee courtesan when she became a shinzo at the age of about fourteen."
See also our entry on nurude on our Mom thru N index/glossary page to see an image of sumac galls used in the making of this product. |
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In The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (pp. 203-4) Ivan Morris discusses several of standards used to judge beauty such as pale skin. The higher the rank the whiter the skin color had to be even if that meant applying layers of powder. "Heian women observed two customs that, attractive as they no doubt were to the gentlemen of the time, would hardly add to their appeal for Western men, or indeed for most modern Japanese. They plucked their eyebrows and then carefully painted in a curious blot-like set, either in the same place or about an inch above. They also went to the greatest trouble to blacken their teeth with a type of dye usually made by soaking iron and powdered gallnut in vinegar or tea. During later centuries this bizarre custom spread throughout the country and came to denote a woman's married status; in Heian times it was restricted t the upper classes, but not to married women."
Morris added a reference about the eccentric heroine of "The Lady Who Loved Insects". She refused to shave her eyebrows or blacken her teeth and this disgusted both her attendants and a potential suitor. "'Ugh!' said one of her maids. 'Those eyebrows of hers! Like hairy caterpillars, aren't they. And her teeth! They look just like peeled caterpillars.' A certain Captain of the Guards, who has been interested in the girl, is put off by her dark, thick eyebrows, which give her face an unpleasing boldness, and particularly by her unblackened teeth, which gleam horribly when she smiles.'" (p. 204)
In a footnote Morris notes that during the Han dynasty in China women plucked or shaved their eyebrows. However, tooth blackening appears to have been practiced only in Japan. Van Gulik argued that this fashion statement may have originated in the South Seas.
In a second footnote Morris states: "In the Tokugawa period, courtesans, who were know as 'brides of the night', also blackened their teeth."
In the Safflower chapter of The Tale of Genji the prince has returned to "His young Murasaki.... In deference to her grandmother's old-fashioned manners her teeth hand not yet received any blacking, but he had had her made up, and the sharp line of her [applied] eyebrows was very attractive."
Quote from: The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, translated by Royall Tyler, Viking Press, 2001, vol. 1, p. 130.
The mixture used for tooth blackening was referred to as hagurome (歯黒め or はぐろめ).
In Act 2: Scene 3 of the Tokaido Yotsuy kaidan Oiwa looks in the mirror and sees the results of the poison which her husband has given her. Despite her horrific disfigurement she prepares to go out. "Bring me my tooth blackening" she demands. Takuetsu, a masseur in the employ of her husband, argues against this: "But you are still sick and weak. You've just given birth. It's not safe for you to go out." She insists. Then it is noted that "She rinses her mouth, wipes her teeth dry, and then sits down in the center of the room. She rinses her mouth, wipes her teeth dry, and then applies the blackening.... She messily covers the corners of her mouth, which makes it look as though her mouth is monstrously wide."
Source and quotes from: Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays, edited by Karen Brazell, translation and commentary by Mark Oshima, Columbia University Press, 1998, p. 477.
Staining the teeth is not unique to the Japanese. In The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana by Sir Richard Burton women are praised for having good teeth capable of being stained - a positive cosmetic feature. Tattooing is also mentioned.
In A Brief History of the Smile by Angus Trumble (published by Basic Books in 2004, pp. 63-5) notes that the Achual tribe of the Amazon basin still practice tooth staining their teeth. About the Japanese practice Trumble says: "According to one school of thought, ohaguro originated in the Buddhist idea that white teeth reveal the animal nature of men and women and that the civilized person should conceal them, if by no other means than beneath a coating of black dye." Or, the author speculates, that the samurai class had their wives and daughters stain their teeth black to make them less desirable for rape or abduction. Trumble adds "That many sources agree that the practice was also thought to protect against tooth decay..." "Well before the twelfth century, tooth-blackening marked a girl's coming of age. So did okimayu [置眉 or おきまゆ], the practice of shaving off her eyebrows and substituting painted ones..." Even some early noblemen and samurai began blackening their teeth. "One warrior, upon removing the helmet of a slain nobleman, found his ooponent to be a boy of sixteen, his face powdered, his teeth elegantly blackened." Later it was only women, again, who stained their teeth intentionally. By the 18th century it was almost universal. By the 19th it came to be used only by married women.
Basil Hall Chamberlain gives a recipe for tooth blackening in his Things Japanese (pp. 63-64) quotes A. B. Mitford from his Tales of Old Japan who in turn was quoting an Edo druggist: "Take three pints of water, and, having warmed it, add half a teacup full of wine [i.e., sake]. Put into this mixture a quantity of red-hot iron; allow it to stand for five or six days, when there will be a scum on top of the mixture, which then should be poured into a small teacup and placed near a fire. When it is warm, powdered gall-nuts and iron filings should be added to it, and the whole should be warmed again. The liquid is then painted on to the teeth by means of a soft feather brush, with more powdered gall-nuts and iron, and after several applications, the desired colour will be obtained."
Wang Bao (王褒), a 1st century B.C. Chinese author, "... writes that there are countries whose people braid their hair, scar their faces, [and] blacken their teeth..." Wang was not writing about the Japanese, but about others from extreme southern China and from Southeast Asia. It is known that tooth blackening was a common cultural practice among many different groups and was even common on certain Pacific islands. This proves how old tooth blackening is. Perhaps the Japanese were also aware of such practices.
Quote from: Tattoo in Early China, by Carrie Reed, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 120, No. 3, Jul. - Sep. 2000, p. 363. |
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Ohara Koson |
小原古邨 おはらこそん |
Artist 1877-1945 1 |
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Oikake |
老懸
おいかけ
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As I have mentioned elsewhere, if you live long enough, you will find there is a word for everything - sometimes two - sometimes more -generally more. Well, that is the case with oikake - those, unusual to the Western eyes on first glance, side-flaps to the courtly headdress. ¶ In The Japanese Theatre by Benito Ortolani (pp. 17-18) describes an ancient type of Shinto music and dance, a mikagura (御神楽 or みかぐら), performed specifically for the emperor. It is still performed today, albeit in a shortened form. In the first part, the niwabi (庭燎 or にわび) "...Within the compound of the imperial palace in front of the shrine dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu... where the sacred mirror is kept, a garden fire (niwabi) was lit. The director of the performance (ninjo) [the chief kagura dancer: 人長 or にんじょう] first entered into the dancing area, which was covered with straw mats and which was situated in front of the fire. At the sides sat about seven musicians and fifteen or sixteen singers... [¶] [The ninjo] is considered to be the successor to god Futotama in Uzume's myth, who had the task of organizing and directing the ritual perfomances, and of speaking the words of conjuration and summoning. The ninjo role was performed by a member of the imperial guard, costumed as a noble warrior of the Heian period, with its special court hat (kammuri) and feather-like eye-protections (oikake) at the sides, which had the function of keeping the dust from the warrior's eyes."
The two images to the left are by Shunshi and actually come from different versions of the same image. The detail above is from a Shunko print representing one of the Six Great Poets. |
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Oiran |
花魁 おいらん |
Highest order of courtesan 1 |
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Oiran dōchū |
花魁道中
おいらんどうちゅう
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A grand procession of courtesans: "Originally the word dōchū described the ceremonial processsion made by the shogun's officials between the cities of Kyoto and Edo. Since the Yoshiwara had streets named Edo and Kyoto, the procession of a courtesan to an ageya or a teahouse was likened to that of a grand daimyō."
Quote from: Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan, by Cecilia Segawa Seigle, University of Hawaii Press, 1993, p. 225.
Seigle adds: "...the procession of a leading oiran on the most formal occasion consisted of some twenty or twenty-one persons."
Ibid.
J. E. De Becker in his Yoshiwara: The Nightless City (p. 34) stated: "In the old days the tea-houses in Ageya-machi were allowed to contruct balconies on the second stories of their establishements for the convenience of those guests who desired to witness the procession of courtesan (Yūjo-no-dō-chū) that formed one of the most interesting features in the life of the Yoshiwara."
"The high-ranking courtesans all have male attendants, who hold parasols over them and their teenage shinzō (protégés). The girls are kamuro (attendants). The parasols are used here as symbolic markers of status rather than serving any practical function."
Quote from: The Women of the Pleasure Quarter: Japanese Paintings and Prints of the Floating World, by Elizabeth de Sabato Swinton, et al., Hudson Hill Press, 1996, p. 54.
The top example to the left is a detail from a print by Eizan. The one at the bottom is from a Yoshitoshi print and is here taken out of context, but is being used to help convey the concept. |
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Oke |
桶
おけ |
Bucket: The image to the left shows a detail from a print by Kuniyoshi where Danshichi Kurobei is washing off the blood of his father-in-law whom he has just slain. This image was sent to us courtesy of E. Thanks E!) |
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Okimayu |
置眉
おきまゆ |
Shaving the eyebrows and replacing them with false one higher up the forehead: "Well before the twelfth century, tooth-blackening marked a girl's coming of age. So did okimayu, the practice of shaving off her eyebrows and substituting painted ones; konezumi [こねずみ?], a mixture of lampblack, rouge, gold leaf, and sesame oil was occasionally used, but there were plenty of other recipes and a variety of brushes and spatulas with which to apply the gooey makeup. At first these 'adult' cosmetic procedures were adopted by girls of thirteen, but eventually, in the nineteenth century, the acceptable age climbed to seventeen."
Quoted from: A Brief History of the Smile, by Angus Trumble, published by Basic Books, 2004, p. 65
The above image with the moth eyebrows is from a detail of a Yoshitoshi print.
"By the eighteenth century... the shaving of eyebrows was only done by brides, or by mothers following the arrivals of their first-born child." (Ibid.)
The image to the left of a mother breast feeding is a detail from an Utamaro print. Notice her lightly printed areas where her eyebrows have been shaved off. |
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Okoso-zukin |
お高祖頭巾
おこそずきん |
A scarf or kerchief formerly worn by women during cold and/or inclement weather. In a bitter, frigid wind only the eyes were left visible. Clearly the okoso-zukin could be adjusted to meet the conditions.
As you may have noticed there seems to be a specialized word or phrase for just about everything. Take as an example this garment. I had seen it in prints by Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Eisen and Kunisada among others, however it wasn't until recently that I found a specific reference naming it. What I can't be sure of is the color. Most frequently it is black, but sometimes I think it could be white too. And what about similar coverings worn by men? Are those also referred to as okoso-zukin?
A thought: I don't know about you, but just knowing the name of something somehow helps me understand the milieu in which it existed. That is one of the purposes of this list of index/glossary pages. Yet there is so much more to discover. It is never ending. The tip of the iceberg. |
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Okubi-e |
大首絵
おくびえ |
Large portrait head 1 |
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O-mamori |
御守り
おまもり |
An amulet or charm: "O-mamori are smaller [than fuda], usually consisting of a small brocade bad or sachet with draw strings. On the bag are written the shrine or temple name and the particular riyaku [benefit] it is for. Inside the bag there is usually a piece of paper or wood with a further inscription such as the text of the Hannya Shingyō [the Heart Sutra]. Like much else in the world of Japanese religion, styles may change to reflect the contemporary mood: in the 1980s plastic o-mamori shaped like credit cards (and indicative of Japan's growing development of plastic money) have come into prominence. Many shrines and temples now provide, besides the more traditonal o-mamori, some in the form of a credit card." Some o-mamori double as phone cards, but always with religious inscriptions and blessings. Now one is not only protected by a talisman or amulet, but one can also make a phone call. [How convenient.]
Source and quotes from: Religion in Contemporary Japan, by Ian Reader, University of Hawaii Press, 1991, pp. 176-7.
See our entry on o-fuda above.
O-mamori are more personal than fuda since they are meant to protect only the possessor and not the whole area. Some can be worn while other, the kind that function as both talisman and phone card, can be carried in a wallet. Children carry them on their school satchels while drivers may hang them [like fuzzy dice] in their cars [or I suppose like little statues of Jesus or Mary mounted on the dashboard]. (Ibid., p. 177)
The image to the left is by Rama who placed it in the public domain at http://commons.wikimedia.org/. |
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Omikidokkuri no kuchisashi |
御神酒徳利口先 (?)
おみきどくりのくちさし |
Omiki is sacred wine
or saké. In The Writings of Lafcadio Hearn (Houghton Mifflin Company,
1922, pp. 72-73) the author writes
"The most curious objects to be
seen on any ordinary kamidana are the stoppers of saké-vessels or o-mikidokkuri
('honorable saké-jars'). These stoppers - o-mikidokuri-no-kuchisashi - may
be made of brass, or of fine thin slips of wood jointed and bent into the
singular form required. Properly speaking, the thing is not a real stopper,
in spite of its name; its lower part does not fill the mouth of the jar at
all: it simply hangs in the orifice like a leaf put there stem downwards. I
find it difficult to learn its history [a problem this writer often faces];
but, though there are many designs of it - the finer ones being of brass -
the shape of all seems to hint at a Buddhist origin. Possibly the shape was
borrowed from a Buddhist symbol - the Hoshi-no-tama, that mystic gem whose
lambent glow (iconographically suggested as a playing of flame) is the
emblem of Pure Essence..." Tokkuri is a saké bottle with an elongated mouth. During certain Shinto ceremonies a special white porcelain container is used like the one shown to the left. Drinking the saké at this time is meant to link the participant with the gods.
The (?) to the left above means I haven't the slightest what characters to use - especially the 口先. It was a guess on my part since I was unable to find the exact term. |
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玩具 おもちゃ |
Toys: Now understood as toys, but traditionally these were not viewed the same way. Formerly they were considered as talismans or amulets. According to Josef Kyburz in his Omocha: Things to Play (or not to Play) With states that the word 'omocha' may have made it first appearance in a comic novel, The Bathhouse of the Floating World or Ukiyoburo (浮世風呂 or うきよぶろ) by Sanba Shikitei (三馬式亭 or さんば.しきてい: 1776-1822) in 1809. However, in this case the plaything is another human being toyed with. That does not mean that there were not toys prior to that, but that they were referred to differently. For example, there were hobbyhorses and tops which were mentioned as early as 937. ¶ Still the term 'omocha' did not catch on quickly as meaning a toy. "It was only towards the very end of the Meiji era (1868-1912) that the word omocha, born of popular Edo idiom, came into common usage, and it was later still, in the 1930s, that it was definitely established in the written language as the standard generic term. The alternative gangu 玩具 appeared in the first years of the Taishō era but has remained to this day a learned word, originally created by toy collectors using a high-sounding Sino-Japanese pronunciation for asobigu 遊具 [referring to something to play with]... Gangu [an alternate pronunciation of omocha] was coined and adopted as a taxonomic concept in reaction to the influx of Western playthings, when it became evident that the latter had already driven traditional Japanese toys from the child's world, at least in urban society." Yet the author still makes distinctions between the two variant readings: the first, omocha, is closer to a toy while gangu is more of a plaything. (Kyburz, p. 3) |
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So what is an omocha? Kyburz sites the work of Frederick Starr who delivered a paper in 1926 to the Asiatic Society of Japan. Starr lists four categories: 1) Real toys made for play; 2) "...objects, more or less intended for children's pleasure, but somewhat related to temples or shrines..."; 3) religious objects sold by temples and shrines which look like toys but possessing protective powers and never made for play; and 4) ema or votive plaques. This last category may seem a bit odd except Kyburz clears it up in a footnote: "Ema were until at least Starr's time an integral part of all Japanese omocha collections, and have remained so in some much more recent ones." Yanagita offered a different list and left votive plaques off altogether. |
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Omohan |
主版 おもはん |
The omohan is the key block from which all of the black line prints are pulled. Generally there is one line print for each color (or area) of the finished product. Then separate blocks are carved based on the images printed from the omohan. |
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Ōmon-guchi |
大門口
おおもんぐち |
The entry gate into the Yoshiwara red-light district. The image to the left is a detail from an 1858 Hiroshige print showing clients leaving the Yoshiwara through the Omon Gate at dawn. |
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Oni |
鬼
おに |
A demon, devil, ogre or evil spirit. (In Japan in the game of tag when touched the person is not told you're 'it', but is called the 'oni'.) In hell it is red and blue oni which torment the dead. |
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陰陽道 おんみょうどう |
Literally 'The Way of Yin and Yang'. Also known as On'yōdō. "...originally [it] referred to the world view and practices found in the... I Ching or Book of Changes..." |
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Onna budō |
女武道
おんなぶどう |
A female warrior.
The image to the left is from a print by Yoshitoshi of Hangaku Gozen (板額御前 or はんがく.ごぜん). |
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Onnadate |
女伊達 おんなだて |
"...a female champion of the oppressed..." Her male counterpart is the otokodate. (See that entry below.) |
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Onnagata (or oyama) |
女形
おんながた
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A male actor performing in a female role in the kabuki theater. There is a long tradition of male only theater. In Shakespeare's day this was true. However, in Japan kabuki was first performed by women - that is until they were outlawed. Then young boys played many of the female roles until, of course, they were outlawed too. There was nothing left to do for the theater than to adapt and to draw on the talents of its remaining all male casts. Many of these men who were definitely heterosexual at home became the paragons of femininity and were often the trend setters for real women who chose to emulate them.
Donald Shively in an essay noted that "The Edo onnagata, Segawa Kikunojō II [1741-73], had three homes, three mistresses, and supported fifty-three people." ("The Social Environment of Tokugawa Japan", in Japanese Aesthetics and Culture: A Reader, Nancy G. Hume, SUNY Press, 1995, 226.) I mention this because many people believe that onnagata were gay, but this was not necessarily so. Maybe some of them were and maybe some were bisexual, but like the rest of the male population some of them like just plain liked women - exclusively.
The image to the top left is a detail from the 20th century master Natori Shunsen (名取春仙 or なとり.しゅんせん) of Nakamura Tokizo as Yamauba Yaegiri from 1952. The one below that is by Toyokuni III from 1849-53.
One of the tell tale signs that you are looking at an onnagata print is the cloth which covers a part of the forehead. (See our entry for murasaki bōshi.) However, this is not always true and can be a tricky matter when one is trying to identify the subject matter. The bottom example to the left is just such a case. Although it is clearly identified and known to be an onnagata there is no murasaki bōshi. That example is also by Toyokuni III from 1860. 1, 2
The kanji for onnagata, 女形, can also be read as oyama and these terms seem to be interchangeable with each other.
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Onoe Kikugorō III |
尾上菊五郎
おのえ.きくごろう |
Kabuki actor (1784-1849). He took the name Kikugorō III in 1815.
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怨霊 おんりょう |
Onryō "...were the individual spirits of those who died in unnatural or untimely circumstances and thus roamed this world creating havoc until placated (either by taking revenge on the wrongdoer or by acts of pacification by the living, e.g. exocism, recitation of Buddhist scriptures and of the name of the Buddha Amida... [whereas] goryō were the functional spirits of those who died of political intrigue and were believed to have transformed into epidemic or disaster-causing spirits." (See our entry on goryō on our Ges thru Hic page.) |
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Orchid (Ran) |
蘭
らん
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One of the "Four Gentlemen" or Shikunshi which are flowers which mirror positive human traits. The other three are plum, bamboo and chrysanthemum. Borrowed from the Chinese and linked to confucian concepts.
"One of the 'four princes' of Chinese painting, the orchid nonetheless failed to attain even middle-class status in Japanese heraldry, and was one of the more neglected design motifs. No family appears to have used it as a crest."
Quote from: The Elements of Japanese Design, by John W. Dower, published by Weatherhill, 1991 edition, p. 66.
The quote seen above is rather odd because there are at least ten different designs for crests or mon using an orchid pattern which I am aware of. If families didn't use them then who did? Businesses? And why? 1 |
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Ōsaka (as regards their prints vs. those of Edo) |
大阪 おおさか |
City second only to Edo in the production of Ukiyo prints. |
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"The Ōsaka printers used a wider range of colours than those from Edo. Their number of basic pigments was greater, while also more mixtures were made, mixtures of the basic pigments with each other, and with black and white. In two or three black pigments, often applied with refinement and highly determining the atmosphere of a print."
Quote from: Ōsaka Kagami, by Jan van Doesburg, published by Huys den Esch, 1985, p. 6.
"Despite the considerable contact with developments in Edo, since both actors and artists traveled freely between these centers, the prints produced in Osaka have an individual character which usually renders them unmistakable."
Osaka "...prints date almost exclusively from the first half of the nineteenth [century]. Typically they are finely engraved and printed, with pure, opaque pigments on high-quality paper. Editions were small and often for private rather than public circulation and many of the artists were either amateurs or, at most, part-time designers. Certainly by contrast with the professional artists of Edo there were few Osaka artist with any considerable output..."
Quote from: The Art of Japanese Prints, by Richard Illing, published by Gallery Books, 1983, p. 145.
"The enthusiasm with which the great Japanese printmakers of Edo were suddenly discovered in Europe during the third quarter of the nineteenth century did not extend to their contemporaries in Osaka. In some ways this is strange..."
"As the stature of the Edo masters came to be recognized in the West, the Osaka school continued to attract little attention; instead, its flamboyance was dismissed with notable condescension." Only the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston purchased numerous Osaka prints.
Source and quotes from: The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints, foreword quotes by Evan H. Turner, Director, authors Roger Keyes and Keiko Mizushima, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, p. 9.
According to Keyes and Mizushima there are three reasons for the neglect of Ōsaka prints vis-à-vis those from Edo. The first is historical: The great center of production was Edo even when the output and innovations had been greatly influenced by styles already fully developed by artists from the Kyōto-Ōsaka region.
"The second unfortunate consequence of the notion that Japanese prints are an Edo art form has been the neglect of other schools.... The only regional prints to seriously rival those of Edo on their own ground of quality in design, engraving, and printing, were those produced in Osaka. But in a century of the study and collecting of Japanese prints, those of the Osaka school have been virtually ignored." Since they were neglected for so long they weren't available to students and collectors for study.
The third reason for the neglect of Osaka prints was due to the fact that they almost exclusively limited their subject matter to kabuki while Edo artists gave us warriors, ghosts, landscapes, beauties, parodies, erotica, etc.
Ibid, quotes by Keyes, pp. 15-17. |
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Osaka Prints |
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A good source book by Dean J. Schwaab published by Rizzoli in 1989. Lots of excellent information and color plates and a good source of material for students of this area of Japanese woodblock prints. 1 |
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Oshidori |
鴛鴦
おしどり |
Mandarin duck(s): Aix galericulata
For more thoughts and images dealing with oshidori please go to our new blog at http://printsofjapan.wordpress.com/ .
The entry was made on May 9, 2009. |
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Otokodate |
男伊達
おとこだて |
A chivalrous commoner. Said to be a protector of the little man against abuses by samurai thugs and others abusing their authority. Although they were viewed somewhat the way we view Robin Hood that was probably a more romanticized than real interpretation. There were numerous such figures in late 18th and 19th century kabuki plays and ukiyo prints.
In time whole gangs of otokodate came together and may have preyed on the innocent themselves. In fact, some view them as the predecessors to today's yakuza.
The detail to the left is an image of Danshichi Kurobei by Hokuei. Kurobei is only one of many otokodate featured in kabuki and in serialized printed books. After getting out of jail for killing the retainer to an evil samurai he is often portrayed either slaying his wicked father-in-law, covered in blood or washing the blood of from his extremely messy deed. |
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Since otokodate were not allowed to carry samurai swords they armed themselves with anything at hand which could be used as a weapon: iron staffs or even heavy iron fans called tessen (鉄扇 or てっせん). "Their fans were so deadly that even they were afterwards proscribed. By then the smoking of tobacco had become habitual, and the otokodate smoked out of hardly less lethal, foot-long metal-pipes."
Quoted from: U. A. Casal in his "Lore of the Japanese Fan", Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 16, no. 1/2, 1960, p. 82
Sooooo... You must be asking yourself "Then why is Danshichi Kurobei holding a sword in his mouth in the image shown above?" Well, all I can say is 1) it must either be poetic license or 2) or he must have gotten ahold of a sword in the process of killing his wicked father-in-law or 3)... And you can fill in other possibilities here. |
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| Perkin, William | Scientist 1838-1907. First creator of a synthetic aniline dye in 1856. | |
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Plum (Ume) |
梅
うめ |
One of the "Four Gentlemen" or Shikunshi which are flowers which mirror positive human traits. The other three are orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. Borrowed from the Chinese and linked to Confucian concepts. 1 |
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Po Chü-i (or Haku Kyoi) |
白居易 (in Chinese)
はくきょい (in Japanese)
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An important Chinese poet (772-846) who strongly influenced Japanese intellectuals and literary figures. As you will see from the entry below Po's works showed up in both visual and written from the as early as the turn of the 11th century to well into the 19th.
"...Po Chü-i became the favorite poet of the Heian times - some say because his poetry was reputed to be easy. He was the Chinese poet to whom allusions and from whom recollections, were most frequent in Heian Japan. His verses were offended used for kudai waka [Japanese poems based on Chinese texts], and he epitomized Chinese poetry. So far was that the case that a nō [play], Hakku Rakuten, depicted the divinity of Sumiyoshi who represented Japan and its poetry, driving away an invasion by the Chinese poet and his nation's prestigious poetry." ¶ Murasaki Shikibu, the author of the Tale of Genji makes and early reference to the poem "A Song of Unending Sorrow" by Po Chü-i. [In Chinese it is Chang-hen-ge (長恨歌): In Japanese it is the Chōgonka (ちょうごんか). See our entrries on nashi and Yang Gui-fei for more information.]
Source and quote: The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature, by Earl Miner , Hiroko Odagiri and Robert E. Morrell, 1988, p. 160.
In Japan he is known as Haku Kyoi (白居易) or Haku Rakuten or (白居天 or はくらくてん).
Alternate readings of his name in English are Bai Juyi and Bo Ju-yi.
The images to the left and above are details from a print by Hokusai. |
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"The T'ang, everyone with an interest in Chinese literature agrees, was the great age of Chinese poetry, in the classical language. Three of its poets [Tu Fu, Li Po and Po Chü-i], because of their vast scope and creativity, loom particularly large... what is Po Chü-i most famous for? Simplicityof language, for one thing, especially in comparison with the others in the triad. For the large number of his works that have been preserved - far more than any of his contemporaries. And for an abiding desire to portray himself, whatever he may have been in real life, as a connoisseur of everyday delights, a man confronting the world, particularly in the years of old age, with an air of humor and philosophical acceptance." ¶ In his youth "...he embraced the Confucian ideal of poetry as a vehicle for exposing and righting the ills of time, he wrote caustic poems of social and political satire. Also a product of youth is the famous narrative poem 'Song of Everlasting Regret' richly romantic in tone, which tells of the tragic love between Emperor Hsüan-tsung and the beautiful Yang Kuei-fei... There are poems on religious themes reflecting his early interest in Buddhism and Taoism and his increasing devotion to Buddhist study and practice in later years. And then there are poems of intense sadness, occasioned by partings or deaths, in some cases the deaths of his own children, or by moods of deep depression, though he felt that by indulging in such outpourings of emotions he was in a sense betraying the Buddhist ideal of calm and detachment that was his professed goal. ¶ In the end, however, it is the simple, low-keyed works depicting his daily moods and activities, often almost prosy in expression, for which he is best remembered. These are the poems that exercised the greatest influence on the poets of succeeding centuries..."
Quoted from: Po Chü-i: Selected Poems, by Chu-I Pai, Juyi Bai and Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. ix-x. |
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| Port Arthur |
旅順 りょじゅん |
Scene of a Japanese victory over the Russian in 1905. 1 |
| Prussian blue |
プロシヤ青 |
A strong inorganic pigment imported into Japan beginning in the 1820s. 1 |
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版元 はんもと |
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Raijin |
雷神
らいじん |
The god of thunder and lightning: Merrily Baird notes that "Japanese art depicts Raijin, who is also known as Raiden and Kaminari-Sama, in demonic form.... [W]hen he is without his thunderbolts, his primary attribute is a barrel drum or circlet of barrel drums decorated with the three-comma (mitsu tomoe) motif." (Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design p. 40)
"The rolling thunder is made by Kaminari-san [かみなりさん] or Raijin. He lives up on the summer clouds, and is always naked, wearing only a loincloth made of tiger skin. He has horns on his head and tusks in his wide mouth. On his back, he carries about a dozen round, flat drums, arranged in a circle, and holds drumsticks in his hands. When he beats his drums, the thunder rolls through the sky and puts fear into the people on earth. He comes down to this earth whenever he wishes to eat o-heso [お臍 or おへそ] or human navels. He is very fond of them, and this fondness causes him to fall from the sky. Whenever children run around naked in summer, mothers say, 'Put on your clothes or Kaminari-san will come and take your o-heso. Then little boys will hurry to cover themselves up. Many old people still put their hands on their stomachs whenever they hear the distant rolling of thunder."
Quoted from: Mock Joya's Things Japanese, The Japan Times, Ltd., 1985, p. 345. |
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The images shown above are from a print by Kuniyoshi from the early 1850s. Although I can't be sure it seems to represent an actor in a theatrical performance playing the role of the thunder god. These are shown courtesy of my great friend M. Thanks M! |
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Rain & Snow: The Umbrella in Japanese Art |
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An excellent catalogue by Julia Meech of a show held at the Japan Society in New York in 1993. It includes a description of the techniques of production and a history plus annotated entries on everything from Kuniyoshi to Christo. |
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羅漢 らかん |
Buddhist 'saints': In China they were referred to as lohans wile in India they were called arhats. It is also called arakkan (阿羅漢 or あらかん) in Japanese. |
| Rembrandt |
レンブラント |
The great 17th c. Dutch artist who occasionally used ganpi paper. 1 |
| Rembrandt: Experimental Etcher | Reprint of an exhibition catalogue which discusses the types of paper used by Rembrandt. 1 | |
| Rengeza |
蓮華座
れんげざ |
Lotus seat or throne: "The lotus is a symbol of purity and perfection because it grows out of the mud but is not defiled, just as Buddha is born into the world but lives above the world; and because its fruits are said to be ripe when the flower blooms, just as the truth preached by Buddha bears immediately the fruit of enlightenment." (Quote from: Buddhist Art by Anesaki found in Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, by C.A.S. Williams, Castle Books, 1974 edition, p. 257)
The lotus "...as an emblem seems to result from the wheel-like form... of the flower - the petals taking the place of the spokes and thus typifying the doctrine of perpetual cycles of existence." (Ibid.)
The top image is a doctored version of one sent to us by our great contributor E! Thanks E! The one below is from a doctored image of a print by Yoshitaki. It is an example of a shini-e which is a death or memorial print. To see the full example of that print click on the example shown to the left.
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Rietberg Museum |
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A museum of non-Western art in Zurich. (Here we are making a reference to an exhibition catalog with similar Eisen examples.) 1, 2 |
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Rikugei |
六藝 りくげい |
The Six Accomplishments. |
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These are the six arts which Confucian strove to master - literature (and calligraphy), arithmetic, etiquette, archery, horsemanship and music. I mention this because of a reference in a recent publication: Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan published by the New York Public Library and the University of Washington Press, 2006, p. 108.
Keyes points out that the rikugei are the underlying subjects of the "Colors of the Triple Dawn" by Torii Kiyonaga published in 1787. Only a scholar with Keyes level of expertise could have noticed. Today's casual viewer might enjoy the beauty of the prints or be drawn to the curious displays of everyday life in late 18th century Japan, but would inevitably miss the more profound subtleties. How could it be otherwise? We cannot be criticized fairly for our profound ignorance, but we should keep in mind that most if not all of the ukiyo images we look at are telling us a much greater story than meets the eye.
An aside: Haruo Shirane in his Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900, Columbia University Press, 2002, p. 602 refers to horsemanship as charioteering. A minor point, but interesting all the same. |
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| Rimbō |
輪宝
りんぽう
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"The wheel is an
ancient Indian symbol of creation, sovereignty, protection, and the sun."
"The wheel represents motion, continuity and change, forever moving onwards like the circular wheel of the heavens." A wheel shaped weapon with sharpened blades was also used early on and came to be a symbol of protection and vengeance. "Buddhism adopted the wheel as a symbol of the Buddha's teachings and as an emblem of the...'wheel turner', identifying [it]...as the 'wheel of the law'." In Tibet the word for this wheel meant transformation or spiritual change. As a weapon the wheel "...represents the overcoming of all obstacles and illusions. Buddha's first discourse at the Deer Park in Sarnath is known as 'the first turning of the wheel of dharma'..." revealing the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its origin, its cessation and the path to the end of all suffering. Later discourses are the second and third turnings of the wheel of life.
The hub represents moral discipline and the eight spokes correspond to the Noble Eightfold Path of "...right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration."
Source and quotes from: The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs, by Robert Beer, published by Shambala in Boston in 1999, pp. 185-6
The image to the left top is one of the many variations used as a mon or crest. The bottom is a detail from a print by Kuniyoshi showing the wheel as part of a robe's fabric design. |
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