Posted by John Fiorillo on May 29, 2001 at 00:55:42:
In Reply to: illustrated abridged biography of the founder by kuniyoshi posted by yeehwan on May 27, 2001 at 11:43:01:
Yeehwan,
I don't know about digitized images of the set 'Kôsô goichidai ryaku zu' ("Illustrated abbreviated biography of the Founder" [= Kôsô or Nichiren]), c. mid-1830s, but a complete set of all ten designs exists in the British Museum, London; the Baur Collection, Geneva, Switzerland has eight designs; the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, has all ten; and the Ainsworth Collection, Oberlin College, Ohio, also has all ten.
Your image ('Sashû Tsukahara setchû': "In the snow at Tsukahara on Sado Island") of Nichiren climbing the snowy slopes near a village by the shore of the island is known in at least two states plus two alternate editions of one of the states. There is still some debate over which is the earliest state, B. Robinson and J. Suzuki claiming that the earliest is the state with a horizon line; M. Forrer argues that this is incorrect based on the absence of the title as well as publishing and censor seals in the horizon-line state, whereas the state that includes the title and seals but has gradation printing leading up from the blue water to the snowy sky may indeed be earlier (it is known either with lightly shaded cliffs, darkly printed cliffs, or shading at the foot of the cliffs). Kuniyoshi's image is based partly on a design in the illustrated book 'Bunpô sansui gafu' ("Bunpô's book of landscape paintings") by Kawamura Bunpô in 1824.
Around 1850 Hokui, a pupil of Hokusai, also designed a few sheets based on Kuniyoshi's set.
John