Title(s):
Binshiken Nijûshi-kô dôji kagami
Maker:
Kuniyoshi, Utagawa; designer; Japanese printmaker, 1798-1861
Category:
Name:
print
Date:
circa 1843
School/Style(s):
Japanese; Ukiyo-e
Period:
19th century
Description:
Colour print from woodblocks. Ôban. Signed: Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga. Publishers: Wakasaya Yoichi and Shiba Shimmeimae. c.1843. From the series 'Twenty-four paragons of filial piety for children'
Technique:
woodcut
Acquisition:
bequeathed; 1991; Reitlinger, Henry Scipio
Notes:
From the series Nijûshikô dôji kagami (Mirror of the twenty-four paragons of filial piety), based on the traditional Chinese collection of exemplars of filial duty. Binshiken is outside sweeping snow, forced to work in the cold by his cruel step-mother, who is seen to the left spoiling her own two children (the group is obviously derived from a European print, as it conforms to the traditional iconography of a group representing charity). When Binshiken’s father discovers how badly his step-mother had been treating him, he angrily determines to throw her out, but Binshiken pleads that ‘it is better that one son should suffer cold than that three children be left motherless’. This melts the heart of his step-mother and thereafter she is kind to him.
Acquisition Credit:
Bequeathed by Henry Scipio Reitlinger, 1950, transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 2095
Accession:
Object Number: P.638-1991
(Paintings, Drawings and Prints)
(record id: 182882; input: 2011-03-29; modified: 2012-12-04)
Permanent
Identifier: