Sometsuke Sencha Teapot and Cups 1830s Yamada H?gyoku ???? This fan-shaped woodcut, printed entirely in blue, presents an elegant still life of a sometsuke blue-and-white ceramic teapot and a couple of cups—used to imbibe Chinese-style sencha tea—against a saturated, dark toned azure background. This little print by Yamada H?gyoku, an artist trained in the Rinpa school, encapsulates the huge impact created by the more widespread use of the imported pigment Prussian blue in woodblock prints beginning around the front of the teapot accompanying the design of chrysanthemums is a Chinese v
Sometsuke Sencha Teapot and Cups 1830s Yamada H?gyoku ???? This fan-shaped woodcut, printed entirely in blue, presents an elegant still life of a sometsuke blue-and-white ceramic teapot and a couple of cups—used to imbibe Chinese-style sencha tea—against a saturated, dark toned azure background. This little print by Yamada H?gyoku, an artist trained in the Rinpa school, encapsulates the huge impact created by the more widespread use of the imported pigment Prussian blue in woodblock prints beginning around the front of the teapot accompanying the design of chrysanthemums is a Chinese verse couplet reading: ???????????On the ninth day, chrysanthemumsby the eastern fence that blossom in the autumn seasonare ever more fragrant. (Trans. John T. Carpenter) “Ninth day” ?? here refers to the Double Ninth or Chongyang (Japanese: Ch?y?) Festival, traditionally held on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. One activity associated with the festival is ascending a height, usually a mountain or a tower, to symbolically avoid getting sick from an epidemic. The use of the phrase “by the eastern fence” also immediately calls to mind a line from the famous poem by the Chinese recluse-poet Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian, 365?–427) that would have been familiar to all well-read Japanese of the Sometsuke Sencha Teapot and Cups. Yamada H?gyoku ???? (Japanese, active 1820s–1840s). Japan. 1830s. Blue-colored woodblock print (aizuri-e); ink and color on paper; fan print (uchiwa-e) on horizontal aiban sheet. Edo period (1615-1868). Prints
Size: 3407px × 2609px
Photo credit: © MET/BOT / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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