| TSUKIOKA YOSHITOSHI (1839 - 1892) AT ONE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON: A GEISHA IS BLACKENING HER TEETH Woodcut, 1880, from the series 'Twenty-Four Hours at Shinbashi and Yanagibashi'. Signed 'Oju Yoshitoshi ga', artist's seal. Very good impression and colour, slightly toned and soiled, wrinkled, a few creases, otherwise in good condition. 'Oban', 350 x 240 mm. This series follows the pattern of previous print series by artists such as Utamaro, depicting beautiful women engaged in pursuits at different hours of the day, but the use of the 24-hour clock gave the series a modern ring, as Japan had only recently moved from the Chinese zodiacal system. Shinbashi and Yanagibashi were the two most popular entertainment districts of Tokyo during the early Meiji period. In this series Yoshitoshi interpreted each hour of a geisha’s day. All the women in the series are geisha, except for the woman in this print who has retired from the profession of geisha to become a wife. Blackened teeth were considered attractive (visible teeth were regarded as improper) and were usually the mark of a married woman. Yoshitoshi was one of the last great masters, and one of the great innovative and creative geniuses, of the Japanese woodblock print. At the age of eleven, he was enrolled as a student of the school of Kuniyoshi. His early work is full of extremely graphic violence and death, perhaps mirroring the lawlessness and violence of the Japan around him, which was simultaneously going through the breakdown of the feudal system imposed by the Tokugawa shoguns, as well as the impact of the West. By 1871, Yoshitoshi became severely depressed. Unable to work, he hardly produced any prints for two years. In 1873 he recovered from his depressions and changed his name to Taiso, which means 'great resurrection'. In 1882 he was employed by a newspaper. This gave him a steady income and marked the end of years of poverty. His last years were among his most productive, not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of artistic quality. In 1885 the first designs of 'One Hundred Aspects of the Moon' were published. This series was extremely popular. In 1888 the series '32 Aspects of Customs and Manners was published', a series of women prints. In 1889 a new series with ghost subjects came on the market: 'New Form of 36 Ghosts'. The symptoms of mental illness became more and more frequent. Nevertheless Yoshitoshi Tsukioka continued to work. He died in 1892 from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 53. |
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