Posted by John Fiorillo on March 25, 1998 at 13:47:52:
In Reply to: Eisen print posted by Nils U. Bosshard on March 24, 1998 at 03:26:07:
: I have just aquired a print by Eisen showing a woman leaning with her back against wooden railings, with the title beside a vertical inset at the right top, showing blooming trees, and the title of the series in white (colourless) characters on black on the right. The information I got with the print was "Tosei shijuhachi guse".
: Can anyone translate this for me and tell me whether it is the title of the print or of the series?
: Thank you for your help!
FOLLOW-UP: I do not have a copy of your Eisen, but I can attempt a translation of the title because “tosei” and “guse” (= “kuse”) are very common characters found in ukiyo-e print or series titles. “Tosei” means modern, present day, present customs, contemporary, etc., while “kuse” means habit, manner, inclination, etc. I assume that the “shijuhachi” in your title represents the ordinal for “forty-eight” (= 4, 10, 8). So if there are no embedded puns and if the characters are standard ones, a reasonable translation of your title would be “Forty-eight Customs of the Present Day.”.