mitate-e　見立絵

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Parody pictures. Also nise 擬, yatsushi 略絵, fuuryuu 風流. Analogues of Japanese and Chinese classical paintings or literature, historical facts or legendary events which were used by *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists to illustrate contemporary events or figures, serving as a pictorial simile. Generally the prints are recognized as mitate by the use of the term mitate in the title, but some leave it to the viewer to decipher. Mitate-e require considerable understanding of the classics to recognize the original subject matter and for this reason were often used as intellectual games, providing those privy to such information with a sense of belonging to a special intellectual group. The most popular Japanese mitate were taken from GENJI MONOGATARI 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji), ISE MONOGATARI 伊勢物語 (The Tales of Ise) and the CHUUSHINGURA 忠臣蔵. Popular Chinese-based mitate include *Kanzan Jittoku 寒山拾得, Eight Views of the Hsio and Hsiang *Shoushou Hakkei 瀟湘八景, Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove *chikurin shichiken 竹林七賢, and themes taken from the SUIKODEN 水滸伝 and SANGOKUSHI 三国志. An example of a mitate-e is Mitate Kikujidou 見立菊慈童 by Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木春信 (1725-70), one of the most elegant artists to produce mitate-e prints *Kikujidou 菊慈童 was a page to the Chinese Emperor Mu (Jp: Boku 穆) of the Zhou dynasty. He attained long life by virtue of his religion; another version has it that he drank the dew drops from the leaves and thereby obtained eternal youth. In Harunobu's print Kikujidou is represented by a young girl admiring chrysanthemum flowers by the banks of a stream. In itself, the print is attractive, but its creativity is enhanced if the background of the original Kikujidou tale is understood.

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