Uzume Dancing for the Goddess Amaterasu, from the series The Twelve Animals of the Zodiac (Jūnishi)
Artist: Yashima Gakutei (Japanese, ca. 1786–1855)
1825 (Year of the Rooster)
八島岳亭 「十二支」 舞う天宇受売命（天鈿女命）江戸時代 The art of dance in Japan can be traced to a mythical beginning in a tale from an eighth-century religious and historical chronicle known as the Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters. In the tale, the sun goddess Amaterasu, terrified by the violent behavior of her brother, seals herself and her light away in a cave, casting the world into darkness. The other gods attempt to lure her out but to no avail. The goddess Uzume, the subject of this print, performs a lewd dance, which finally entices the sun goddess from her cave. Uzume appears here much more conservatively dressed than described in the original tale, in a shiny white robe richly decorated in gauffrage and in red pant skirts of a miko, or Shinto shrine maiden. The print also makes prominent use of metallic pigments.
- Medium
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Surimono, shikishi-ban; polychrome woodblock print with metallic pigment, silver foil, and gauffrage
- Dimensions
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sheet: 8 7/16 × 7 5/16 in. (21.5 × 18.5 cm)
- Credit Line
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Gift of Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, B.A. 1970
- Accession Number
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2020.54.2
- Geography
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Associated place: Japan
- Culture
- Period
- Classification
- Disclaimer
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Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.
Provenance
Provenance
Possibly from in the collection of Lady Cecilia Rose (nee Cecilia Cathcart) (1857–1932), United Kingdom. Acquired by Joan B. Mirviss (dealer), New York; sold to Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, Koenigstein im Taunus, Germany, 2002 (on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2017–2020); given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2020Bibliography
- Sadako Ohki and Adam Haliburton, The Private World of Surimono: Japanese Prints from the Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian Collection (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2020), 55–57, no. 10, fig. 1
- Joan B. Mirviss and John T. Carpenter, Jewels of Japanese Printmaking: Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era 1804–1830 (Tokyo: Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 2000), 108–9, no. 60
Object copyright
Additional information
Object/Work type
Subject
Marks
On verso a writing "Lady Cecilia Rose".Inscriptions
amano to woakete shimenawa
yūtsuke·no
tareo no tori mo
hoshi utau koe Hōnensai Inafusa
maihime no
sama ya hinode no
haru tsuge te
hasode wo kaesu
hatsutori no koe Jōyōken Itomasa
Modern reading by Sadako Ohki and Adam Haliburton, 11-10-2017
Hōnensai Inafusa:
The gate of heaven is opened
and closed with a sacred rope,
to the cry of the cockerel,
tail draped with purifying cloth,
praising the emerging star.
Jōyōken Itomasa:
The appearance of a dancer:
heralding the spring dawn
and flapping feathered sleeves,
the cock cries its first,
invoking the start of the year.
Translation AH final.
天の戸を あけて志め縄 ゆふつけの
多連尾の鳥も 星う多ふ聲 豊年斎稲房
舞姫の さ満や日の出の 春つけて
羽袖を可へ春 初鶏の聲 常養軒糸正
Transcription by Sadako Ohki and Adam Haliburton, 11-10-2017
Signed
Gakutei 岳亭Technical metadata and APIs
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