Description
The son of his father’s concubine, Shu Jusho (or Zhu Shouchang in the Chinese tale) lost his mother to the jealousy of his father’s main wife. When Shu Jusho was seven, his mother was expelled from the household. As he grew into adulthood, he assumed a powerful government position, but felt something was deeply lacking from his life. He began to long for his mother, whom he had not seen for more than 50 years. He set out to find her, braving the elements as he traveled all over the country, following clues about her whereabouts. By the time he found her, she was in her seventies. Shu Jusho brought her home to care for her for the rest of her life.
About the artist
Chikanobu Toyohara (also known as Chikanobu Yoshu) was a leading woodblock print artist of the Meiji Period. Born in Niigata prefecture as Naoyoshi Hashimoto, Chikanobu began his life as the son of samurai in the service of the Sakakibara clan. During the Meiji Restoration, he joined the shogitai, an elite samurai brigade in direct support of the waning Tokugawa Shogunate and fought bravely in the Battle of Ueno in 1868. Though captured in the fray, he was released unharmed. As the Shogunate fell, Chikanobu focused on a career in art.
Though trained in Kano school painting from an early age, Chikanobu shifted his attention to ukiyo-e around 1852. Chikanobu began his woodblock printmaking career under the tutelage of Utagawa School masters Kuniyoshi, Kunisada and Kunichika. Like many of his contemporaries, Chikanobu Toyohara worked as a newspaper illustrator as well as a print artist. By 1871, he had established himself as a leading print artist. He designed across all genres, from kabuki actors and beauties to military exploits of past and present. During the 1870s, Chikanobu captured Meiji Japan’s rapid modernization through kaika-e, or “enlightenment pictures.” Attuned to current events and public taste, he produced designs of both the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, an ill-fated insurrection against the Meiji government, and well as the 1882 Imo Incident in Korea. Chikanobu’s reflected his changing world not only through his subject matter, but also in his materials. Incorporating the purples and reds of imported aniline dyes, he achieved an element of subtlety and sophistication rarely seen in his era. By the 1880s, a wave of national nostalgia for a Japan past prompted designs exploring traditional Japanese culture, values, and heroes. Through explorations of female beauty, Chikanobu Toyohara personified moments in Japanese history through fashion, manners and customs. In 1912, he died of stomach cancer.