1820, Katsushika Hokusai, Blue Dragon Sword and Zhuge Kongming (Shokatsu Kōmei), from the series Giant Straw Works for an Amusement-Park Attraction -- Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven)

            From the museum label: 

There are twelve animals in the Eastern Zodiac calendar. Their ordering relates to their characteristics as discussed in ancient Chinese legends. This print shows the fifth and sixth animals in the sequence: the dragon and the snake. The calendar's first four animals—the rat, ox, tiger, and rabbit—are featured in another print by Hokusai that is not on view. 

Katsushika Hokusai's Giant Straw Works for an Amusement-Park Attraction

In these three prints from a series of four, Katsushika Hokusai illustrated the animals of the Zodiac alongside papier-mâché floats for an amusement park outside Sensōji Temple, in downtown Edo (present-day Tokyo). The series demonstrates the artist's great talent in handling a wide variety of subject matter—whether human figures, elaborate costumes, or birds and animals—in a highly lifelike manner influenced not only by popular schools of Japanese painting but also by Western modes of naturalistic representation and one-point perspective. In the print at far right, for example, Hokusai's depiction of the dragon expertly captures the attributes of this creature as they had been defined throughout East Asian history.

Amid this performance of mastery in observation of the natural world, one notable departure is Hokusai's rendering at far left of the elephant—an animal that, although real rather than mythical, was unfamiliar in northeast Asia. With scalloped ears and a single eye, the white elephant here remains an element of fantasy.

Taken on: April 27, 2024

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Photo by R.M. Lenox

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Yale University Art Gallery

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Japanese woodblock print « less

Sets appears in: • All Paintings (chronological order) • All Paintings (random order) more » • 1800-1849 • Japanese painters • Asian art • Exhibition: Year of the Dragon (2024, Yale) • Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven) • Hokusai, Katsushika • Prints • Date taken « less

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