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Sinitsyn A., Tyagunova E. Kyosai Hyakuzu print series by Kawanabe Kyosai in the MAE RAS museum collection: Visual source on the late nineteenth-century Japanese culture

A. Sinitsyn
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0001-7392-1837
E-mail: asin@kunstkamera.ru 

E. Tyagunova
Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-1995-3632
E-mail: lena.tyaga@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. The paper examines the ethnographic aspects of the Kyosai Hyakuzu series of prints by Kawanabe Kyosai (1831–1889), a famous late nineteenth-century artist, whose nickname was “Demon of Painting.” The paper focuses on one of the three albums of this series in the Japanese collection of the MAE RAS museum (MAE no. 6132-6). This selection of prints can be viewed not only as a masterpiece of traditional Japanese ukiyo-e genre xylography but also as a specific source of the ethnic tradition of the late Edo-early Meiji periods. The prints provide an insider’s perception of the profound aspects of Japanese ethnic culture that cannot be fully expressed by linguistic means. Popular both in Japan and in Western countries, the Kyosai Hyakuzu series has not yet attracted research attention from Russian ethnographers and art historians. The allegorical meaning of the series’ images and inscriptions hasn’t been studied in detail yet, as most publications about the series limit themselves to the inscriptions’ translation or the description of some selected lists. No comprehensive research of all lists in Kyosai Hyakuzu three albums series has been conducted. This article attempts to describe all prints of the series’ albums and to interpret the realities of the late nineteenth-century Japanese society as reflected in these prints.

 

KEYWORDS: Kawanabe Kyosai, Kyosai Hyakuzu series, ethnography, Japanese traditional culture, visual source, MAE RAS

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-1(23)-55-85
UDC 392(520)
 

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