Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿) (artist ca 1753 – 1806)
Ōtomo no Kuronushi (大伴黒主) from the series 'Modern Children as the Six Poetic Immortals' - Tōsei kodomo rokkasen (当世子供六歌仙)
ca 1804 – 1805
10.5 in x 15.375 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Utamaro hitsu (哥麿筆)
Publisher: Izumiya Ichibei
(Marks 180 - seal not listed, but closest to 25-365)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Library of Congress
Harvard Art Museums
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow
Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire
Art Institute of Chicago - Clarence Buckingham Collection
Adachi Museum of Art - an Eizan print of the same theme
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - an Utamaro print showing a mother sticking her tongue out to amuse her baby
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium
Yale University Art Gallery - this print plus two others from this series
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln - misattributed to Utamaro II This unusual series shows all of the Six Immortal Poets as children being doted upon by adoring adults - almost as though they knew what the future would hold for these toddlers. Of course, in each of these the grownups are dressed in contemporary Japanese clothing dating from the turn of the 19th century.
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There is another Utamaro print of a 'mother peeping at her child' from ca. 1799-1800. In that image a child is sneaking around to lacquered furnishings to spy on its mother looking in a mirror. She sees him in the reflection and playfully sticks out her tongue to amuse the baby. (See the link to a copy of this print in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston above.)
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The wonderful pose of the child may be related to the age-old tradition of Sambasō performances. Jane Marie Law wrote about this: "In some kabuki plays, Sambasō appeared as a clown or as a puppet manipulated by a stage attendant, and one dance piece (shōsagoto) still performed is commonly called The Tongue-Sticking-Out Sambasō (Shitadashi Sambasō), because the dancer does just that in the middle of his performance."
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What do we know about Ōtomo no Kuronish (大伴黒主)? Precious little.
Even though he is listed as one of the Six Immortal Poets (六歌仙) we know little of his poetry. We don't even know the years when he was born or when he died. The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature says on page 216: "Early Heian waka poet, one of the rokkasen, or six poetic sages. Little is known of him, and from the poetry by him in the Kokinshū and a later collection or two it is not easy to understand why he should be included among the rokkasen along with Ariwara Narihira and Ono no Komachi."
Dictionnaire historique du Japon / Année 1990 says on page 126: "Né à Ōtomo 大友 dans le district de Shiga 滋賀郡, province d'Ōmi, il deviendra administrateur de district (gunji 郡司) et sera promu au huitième rang inférieur. Durant l'ère Engi (901-923), il présenta un poème à l'empereur retiré Uda lors de sa visite au temple Ishiyama-dera 石山寺, ce qui lui valut la célébrité. Dix de ses poèmes sont inclus dans le Kokin-shū 古今集 et le Gosen-shū 後撰集. Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之 écrit dans sa préface au Kokin-shū à propos de la poésie du Kuronushi: le fond est plaisant mais le style vulgaire."
Izumiya Ichibei (和泉屋市兵衛) (publisher)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)