Toyokuni I | August, Obasute Rice Terraces, Sarashina Nunoyya
歌川豐国 Utagawa Toyokuni I(1769-1825)
未 田毎の月 奴能八さらしな
August, Obasute Rice Terraces, Sarashina Nunoyya
Ca. 1810-20s
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 37cm x 25.5cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych-Oban-tate-e | 37cm x 25.5cm x 3
早期版次；整体品相完好；中间联和右边联有轻微中间折痕；非常轻微的褪色和脏痕
Very early impression; slight centrefold on the middle and right sheet, slight fading and soiling, otherwise good condition
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每当满月升至天心，消散几丝薄云，长野县千曲市郊外的成顷梯田内，便总会有一畦倒映着满月的光辉。随着月亮于天上不断移动，它的身影也在一畦畦梯田中游走，胜景“田每之月”随即诞生。若观者能静下心来观赏一夜，便可在神游于空间与时间变幻的同时，体会到现实与精神的交汇。
作为极具日本特质的审美体验，“田每之月”自然成了浮世绘中的常客。在本作右联左上角的扇面上，就绘有一幅“田每之月”。但与实景不同，充满巧思的丰国在每一畦水田中都加上了满月，好似摄影中的多重曝光，为全画奠定了颇具超现实主义的浪漫基调。画面中，两位挥杵打制月见团子的美人有如表演歌舞伎打斗场面的资深役者，而最左联中那位以扇掩面的姑娘眉眼如画，似乎正定场亮相。当丰国将其最拿手的役者绘风格融入美人画时，一切都充满着无尽动感。与之相对，画面上方的一排扇面呈现着多种秋日景物：芒草、桔梗、胡枝子等秋草，旅雁与满月，以及指代着八月和“未”的山羊。但细细一算，传统秋七草的其余六草皆备，唯独抚子花不知去向。其实，三位“大和抚子”已在画中舞动多时。
经过查证资料后可以得知，本作应为始创于宽政三年（1791）的荞麦面屋——“更科布屋”的定制宣传之作。斗转星移，而今200余年已过，此店家仍在营业，一如“田每之月”般温暖着代代人心。
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Utagawa Toyokuni I(1769-1825)
The son of a dollmaker in Edo’s shiba district, Toyokuni was the first in a truly remarkable Ukiyoe lineage, with his designs and those of his students dominating the Utagawa school — and thus, the market for Japanese woodblock prints — for decades. His long list of students would eventually include Kunisada and Kuniyoshi.
His first works, as with so many artists in Japan, were illustrations in books, but he quickly demonstrated mastery of the bijin, or beautiful woman, print.
The leaders in this field were Utamaro and Kiyonaga, but soon after Toyokuni’s first bijin prints appeared in the 1790s, he’d developed his own style. Hollis Goodall, in Living for the Moment: Japanese Prints from the Barbara S. Bowman Collection, writes “he explored a less exaggerated figure length than those of Utamaro’s beauties, still longer and more robust than those of Kiyonaga, but showing greater angularity in pose and outline.”
In the end, Toyokuni produced 90 series and many hundreds more single-sheet designs. In his 30-year career he worked for more than 100 publishers, and also produced several paintings. His works live on, but perhaps even more so do the works of those he taught and encouraged.