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Item from the Mokuhankan Flea MarketThree Heads are Better than One Size: 21.0cm by 14.0cm (8.27 in by 5.51 in) | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [M] ? Designer: Kawanabe Kyosai Era: Recent | Currency: $ / £ / € Price: ¥ 7,000$ 55.00£ 42.50€ 49.75   Description: This is an unusual item in our Flea Market catalogue - a freshly made print, but not by us here at Mokuhankan. One of the traditional printers living and working in Tokyo for many years, Mr. Tsutomu Mitamura, has decided to try his hand at issuing some print reproductions himself. He is a huge fan of Kawanabe Kyosai's work, and has begun his publishing activities with a series of reproductions of some of Kyosai's yokai related designs. He arranged for one of the younger carvers in the traditional crafts association, Kayoko Suga, to do the carving, and did the printing himself. The designs he selected are all connected to ことわざ絵 (images based on proverbs). There are two depicted here. The lower one is basically literal - the group of three people can create an entire festival display by themselves (drum, flute and dancer). The upper image is a bit more contrived. The Japanese phrase is 提灯に釣鐘 (In a lantern is a bell ...), and refers to the situation we see in the image, where our heroic warrior has tried to balance a paper lantern and a bell, because ... you know ... they look basically the same shape ... --- The proverb “Three Heads are Better than Two” (lit. “if three people gather, the wisdom of Monju”) suggests that if three average people put their heads together, the wisdom of the bodhisattva Manjusri will well forth. Here Kyōsai illustrates a scene of three people performing a lion dance, with one playing the flute, the second playing a drum, and the third dancing. In the end, the lion head is removed to reveal the performer wearing a mask of the character Ofuku, symbolizing good fortune. The second proverb illustrated here, “Paper Lanterns to Temple Bells”, expresses a situation in which two things are ill matched and poorly balanced, and Kyōsai renders this with the renowned 12th century monk Benkei, who easily tossed the famed bell of the Miidera temple.      Browse thumbnail pages of various selections from the catalogue ... Mokuhankan Publications:general (102) kacho-e (26) landscape (54) bijin-ga (18) contemporary (16) senshafuda (2) yakusha-e (4) HangaClub (69) ebook (6) miscellaneous (4) 8 Cats (3) supplies (6) [ Also see our Annual Gift Page ] Partner Shops: Kawase Hasui prints (12) Yoshida family prints (48) Doi Hanga prints (54) Miyakodori prints (5) Numabe Mokuhan prints (3) Guest items (17) Mokuhankan Flea Market (All items) general (59) kacho-e (28) yakusha-e (13) landscape (111) bijin-ga (74) kuchi-e (0) contemporary (4) set (29) books (5) [ List of Recently sold items ] [ Flea Market Matsuri ] |
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