Toyohara Chikanobu (1838 - 1912) Chiyoda no-on omote (Events Outside the Chiyoda Castle): Catching Cranes, 1897. Oban triptych.
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This brilliant print by Chikanobu is quite superb. The print adopts some of the incoming realism of the west whilst portraying traditional events around the precincts of the Chiyoda Castle in Tokyo.
In the foreground we see a crane, wrestled to the ground by the joint efforts of a man and a hunting bird. In the background, a magnificent vista of Mount Fuji and the wetlands that used to surround the castle. Chikanobu produced this series as a companion to his well known Scenes Within the Chiyoda Inner Palace (Chiyoda no Ooku). The Chiyoda Palace in Tokyo became the home of the Meiji Emperor after the 1868 revolution and for traditionalists such as Chikanobu, a symbol of old Japan. The Red-Crowned Crane had the same status in nineteenth century Japan as the swan does in England - only the nobility were allowed to hunt and consume it. The red crowned crane has become an endangered species since those rules were relaxed.
Chikanobu produced several different series of exquisite triptychs, made to the highest standards, of life in and around the Chiyoda Palace in Edo (Tokyo). The Palace itself, also known as Edo Castle, was built in 1457 by the warrior Edo Shigetsugu, in what is now the Honmaru and Ninomaru part of the Castle. It later became the seat of the old Tokugawa shogunate who completed it in 1636. Chikanobu made a series of the inner castle, which was the ladies' quarters, imagining the traditional pastimes of women; and a second series in 1897, from which this is taken, of masculine pursuits such as boys' festivals and visits by noblemen.
Chikanobu shows us a noble hunt in the grounds of the palace. There is great delicacy in the landscape and the depiction of the natural world, and a poetry to the two escaping birds in the left hand sheet. There is an irony in the fact that the crane was a symbol of eternity, being ascribed a lifespan of over one thousand years.
The colour and impression are fine, with deep embossing on the white of the crane. Condition overall is very good with some toning and minor losses to the margins.
Signed Yoshu Chikanobu, published by Fukuda Hatsojiro.
73cm x 36cm.
