Taihei uzō (Scenes of the Great Peace)

US$2,280.00

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Taihei uzō ["Scenes of the Great Peace"]

[Ōnishi], Chinnen [illustrated by].

Edo [Tōkyō]: Kobayashi Shinbe, Ōsakaya Genbē, Bunsei 12 [1829]. 

An early printing of Ōnishi Chinnen's beautiful Azuma no teburi ("Customs of the Eastern Capital"), also known as Chinnen gafu ("Chinnen's album") and Taihei uzō ("Scenes of the Great Peace"), featuring twenty-five double-page scenes of daily life printed with light colour pigments. The copy in the Kislak Centre's Arthur Tress collection has been catalogued thus:

"[...] this is Chinnen’s best known work, and it chronicles the daily frenzy of urban life in the capital: manual laborers ply their trade, women engage in domestic chores, and a toy-seller hawks his wares near playing children. The scenes are rendered with a graphic, highly gestural line that was distinctive of artists trained under masters of the Shijō school. Chinnen was pupil to both Tani Bunchō and Watanabe Nangaku, who repopularized naturalism in their use of birds and flowers as subjects. Chinnen’s lively strokes add a sense of movement and immediacy to his subjects, as if the scenes were drawn from close proximity. The viewer of Chinnen’s work thus becomes like a voyeur, and enjoys the pleasure of gazing unhurriedly at a scene that would quickly pass in the street. This quality illustrates what Jack Hillier calls the peculiar “limpidity” of Chinnen’s drawings. (Hillier 769) 

[...]  In one scene, the border frame is broken when two children play hanetsuki, a badminton-like sport, and their birdie bounces beyond the border. Here, Chinnen visually communicates the interplay between the boundaries of the game and the boundaries of the artist’s print block. By doing so, he engages the reader in a bit of wordplay in a text that has virtually no words. As such, Azuma no teburi broaches the question of its audience. What sort of 19th c. reading public is assumed by the sociological, civic, whimsical themes of Chinnen’s picture book?" 

An important ehon by the Nanga/Shijō school painter Chinnen (1792-1851). 

One four-hole-bound (yotsumetoji) volume, complete, on double leaves, traditional East Asian binding style (fukurotoji). Original wrappers, worn and creased, with a few ink marks. Stencil-printed mica roundels to wrappers. Non-original handwritten daisen title panel to centre of upper wrapper. Large, mostly light, stains to leaves, predominantly to margins. Occasional ex-ownership stamps. A few small wormholes to preface. Thumbing, occasional marks and light waving internally. Binding re-sewn. [3], 26, [2] leaves. 27.9 x 18.6 cm.

References:

https://web.sas.upenn.edu/tressjapanese/onishi-chinnen-azuma-no-teburi-あつまの手ふり-or-taihei-uzo-太平有象-customs-of-the-eastern-capital-and/

Taihei uzō (Scenes of the Great Peace)
Price: $2,280.00 (USD)