Collection Online as of January 29, 2023

Koto from the series The Six Arts in Fashionable Guise

c. 1793–96

Chōbunsai Eishi 鳥文斎栄之

(Japanese, 1756–1829)

Japan, Edo period

(1615-1868)

Color woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Sheet: 36.6 x 25 cm (14 7/16 x 9 13/16 in.)

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith 1985.301

Location

not on view

Description

Chinese classical education consisted of the Six Arts: performing rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. The Chinese qin, a stringed musical instrument in the zither family, customarily symbolizes the art of music. In this print a similar Japanese instrument, the koto, replaces the qin. The fashionable Japanese entertainer playing it stands in for an accomplished Chinese scholar.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signature: Eishi zu Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eiju han, emblem) Censorship Seal: kiwame

Provenance

McNair Scott (sale: Glendinings sale catalogue, April 1, 1960, lot 46)

Hans Popper (sale: Sotheby Parke Bernet, October 5, 1972, lot 142)

Eugene V. Thaw

Exhibition history

Cleveland Museum of Art, 1988: A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection.

A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).

Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 7, 1993-January 2, 1994).

Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation - September 2016-January 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 19, 2016-January 8, 2017).