Art and Information

Camels and Poems

5) Here, you have combinations of text and image used to very different ends, both from the early modern period. The captions provide detailed information on the contents. What is the mood of each? How do text and image work together in each to make that impression on you?

Two geisha (itinerant musicians) are shown strolling in the countryside, with the roof of Benten Shintô shrine in the distance. The backdrop is the rising sun—the give-away that this is a New Year’s print—seen over distant mountains and a calm bay. One woman stoops to empty the ashes from her pipe, while the other draws her kimono closely about her. A poem lies just above the rising sun in the top left register of the morning sky.
Katsushika Hokusai
Sunrise at Benten Shrine, Suzaki Cape
koban surimono (privately published) color woodblock print (nishiki e) on paper
5 3/16 in x 7 3/16 in (13.18 cm x 18.26 cm);5 1/4 in x 7 1/4 in (13.34 cm x 18.41 cm);8 9/16 in x 11 1/8 in (21.75 cm x 28.26 cm);14 5/16 in x 19 3/8 in (36.35 cm x 49.21 cm)
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker
This double-leaf print depicts two camels and accompanying foreign trainers or performers in fringed clothing, with ballooning pants and dark boots.  Some of the performers play instruments, while others tend to the camels.  Above both pages is writing by calligrapher Santô Kyôden describing the camels and their tour of Japan around 1821.
Utagawa Kuniyasu
Camel
color woodblock print on paper
14 15/16 in. x 10 1/4 in. ( 38 cm x 26 cm )
Museum purchase for the Paul Leroy Grigaut Memorial Collection
This double-leaf print depicts two camels and accompanying foreign trainers or performers in fringed clothing, with ballooning pants and dark boots.  Some of the performers play instruments, while others tend to the camels.  Above both pages is writing by calligrapher Santô Kyôden describing the camels and their tour of Japan around 1821.
Utagawa Kuniyasu
Camel
color woodblock print on paper
14 15/16 in. x 10 1/4 in. ( 38 cm x 26 cm )
Museum purchase for the Paul Leroy Grigaut Memorial Collection

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Part of 1 Learning Collection

Seal Script
<p>Chinese origins</p>

Bronze
<p>Writing as Decoration</p>

Sutras
<p>Religious texts&nbsp;</p>

Classical Japanese vs. Classical Chinese
<p>medium <i>and </i>message</p>

Art and Information
<p>Camels and Poems</p>

Classical Women Writers Anew
<p>Playing with text and image</p>

Poems and Paintings
<p>One last look at text and image in a different m...

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August 24, 2020 6:17 p.m.

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