Yoshitoshi | Gentoku Visits Komei in Snow Storm
月岡芳年 Tsukioka Yoshitoshi（1839–1892）
三国志图会 玄德风雪夜访孔明
Gentoku Visits Komei in Snow Storm
1883
木版画｜三幅续绘-纵绘大判｜37cm × 25cm × 3
Woodblock｜Triptych-Oban-tate-e｜37cm × 25cm × 3
早期版次；颜色鲜艳；品相完好；右联左边边缘处有两处损角
Early impression; strong color; Good condition; slight loss in margin of the right sheet
$5,000
三国故事何时传入日本，现已不可考。至早在720年成书的《日本书纪》中，就已引用了《三国志·魏书》的部分记述；十七世纪末，由湖南文山翻译的《通俗三国志》问世，引起了江户子们的极大热情。此后，各种话本、绘本、浮世绘等衍生品层出不穷，开启了日本经久不衰的“三国热”。
本作取材于著名的三国故事——《三顾茅庐》。此事件过程在《三国志》中着墨不多，但在《三国演义》中用了占据了不少篇幅。若从第35回司马徽推荐诸葛亮起算，共有5回与之有关的章节。
继刘备初至隆中访诸葛亮不遇，数日后，刘备与关羽，张飞一同再次寻访。此时正值隆冬，天气严寒，三人才行数里，忽然便“朔风凛凛，瑞雪霏霏”，这场瑞雪，也就为本画定下了基调：天与山与水与树，上下一白。马上刘玄德蓑衣银装，稍远等候，关张二人须发翻飞，笠顶白头，正听着应门童子的回答。屋檐上，两只寒雀惊飞，圆窗草庐中，蓄一绺山羊胡的诸葛孔明气定神闲，手持一卷书静读，好一副“山人自有妙计”的模样。
读罢原著，我们就可知晓，此次寻访，刘关张三人仍未能得见诸葛亮，而是见到了其弟诸葛均与岳父黄承彦。等到第三次拜谒时，他们才与草堂高卧的诸葛亮成功会面，此时，已是春日。
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Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892)
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi may have lived for only 53 years, a short lifespan even in Edo times, but the history he witnessed and the myriad styles he embraced could have easily filled twice that many decades. Beginning as a more-or-less classic Ukiyo-e artist of the Utagawa school, in the waning days of the Shogunate, he developed a style that was both in-sync with Western styles and utterly his own. He was there as Japan metamorphized from a feudal land to a nascent modern society, and he managed to capture that elusive moment in time in more than 2000 woodblock prints for more than 50 publishers.
You could say he was the last great Ukiyo-e artist, and perhaps the first great post-Ukiyo-e artist. His fantastical designs ranged from history – often with buckets of blood – to bijin (beautiful women) to landscapes. He depicted people from a variety of angles and gave them intricate, and often grotesque, facial characteristics, a far cry from the simple, stereotypical visages common to Japanese woodblock prints. And he could have fun. One of his last great series, 1888’s “32 Aspects of Women,” humorously shows women through various realms of Japanese culture, and depicts very specifics moods and sensations – for example, “Cool,” “Thirsty” and “Itchy.” My favorite? “Disagreeable: Habits of a young woman of Nagoya in the Ansei era.” Ha! What a pill she looks like.
Yoshitoshi was born into a merchant family in 1839. He was an early student of Kuniyoshi, who gave him his name. Many of his warrior designs, especially the earlier ones, show a clear debt to the master, with all manner of high energy action filling his oban-size prints. He became known as a “war artist” specializing in bloody designs in the 1860s. He did numerous warrior, folklore and history series’ during this period.
But those were not his only genres. He also contributed to the epic “Processional Tokaido,” in which most of the great Ukiyo-e artists and publishers of the time combined forces to depict the Shogun’s journey to Kyoto to pay respects to the Emperor, and did his share of “Yokohama-e,” prints depicting the newly arrived Westerners.
He was tormented by a mysterious mental disorder – some say that’s what sparked such a violent imagination – and had numerous marriages and amorous affairs. He stopped working for a period, and when he came back called himself Taiso – resurrection. By the 1880’s his talent reached it’s zenith, with his epic “100 Aspects of the Moon,” and other series. His drawings and color schemes became more elaborate and more, well, his. They switched easily between bold and blunt and delicate and sensitive (and back again). Still suffering from mental illness, he died in 1892.
Partial citation: Marks, Andreas, Japanese Woodblock Prints, Artists, Publishers and Masterworks (Tuttle; 2010).