Suit of Armor with a Large Radish, from the series Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa) Artist: Totoya Hokkei (Japanese, 1780–1850)

ca. 1831

Asian Art

By appointment, Duffy Study Room

魚屋北渓　「徒然草」　江戸時代


This perplexing print brings together a huge white daikon radish, a suit of armor, and a long sword. The series title offers the key to decoding the imagery, which refers to a story in the famous anthology Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa), written by the priest Yoshida Kenkō in about 1330. An opening paragraph from the sixty-eighth section of the text is written on the open book page in the print. It tells of a man in charge of a constabulary, akin to a police chief, who ate two seared daikon radishes daily. One day, enemy forces attacked the man at home. To his amazement, two unknown soldiers suddenly appeared and bravely fended off the enemy. With a grateful heart, he inquired about the soldiers’ identities and learned that they were the two daikon that he ate every day.

Medium

Surimono, shikishi-ban; polychrome woodblock print with gold and silver pigment and gauffrage

Dimensions

sheet: 7 7/8 × 7 1/16 in. (20 × 18 cm)

Credit Line

Promised gift of Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, B.A. 1970

Loan number

ILE2017.30.103

Geography

Japan

Culture

Japanese

Period

Edo period (1615–1868)

Classification

Prints

Disclaimer

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
Joan B. Mirviss (dealer), New York; sold to Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, Koenigstein im Taunus, Germany, 2003 (on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2017–present)
Bibliography
  • 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), 116–18, no. 29, ill
  • 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), 100–101, no. 51
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

color woodcuts, surimono

Inscriptions

Today, we break it open \r\nAnd from their armor we know\r\nThese great roots of the earth\r\nWith the merit of warriors\r\nNot split between two masters\r\n \r\nTranslation: McKee, Cornell Univ. Schoff Collection, pl. 28, p. 97.\r\nOther references: Ota, Jewels, p.100 (cat.no. 51); Mirviss, Explanatory text.\r\n\r\nPoet: Jushitsu Morozane 寿室諸実\r\n\r\n介ふ飛らく　具足尓そし流　土おほ祢　\r\nふ多ま多ならぬ　武士のいさをハ　\r\n\r\nkyou hiraku/ gusoku ni zo shiru/ tsuchi o'o-ne/ futamata naranu/ bushi no isao wa\r\n\r\nToday, we break it open \r\nAnd from their armor we know\r\nThese great roots of the earth\r\nWith the merit of warriors\r\nNot split between two masters\r\n　　　\r\nTranslation: McKee, Cornell Univ. Schoff Collection, pl. 28, p. 97.\r\nOther references: Ota, Jewels, p.100 (cat.no. 51); Mirviss, Explanatory text.\r\n

Signed

Hokkei [魚屋北渓]

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