Isoda Koryūsai (礒田 湖龍斎, 1735–1790)

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

Snow big deal, just made a snow rabbit

As a winter amusement during the Edo period in Japan, children often made snow sculptures—the two most popular types being the snow rabbit (yuki usagi) and the snow Daruma (yuki Daruma).

This hanging scroll transports a children’s outdoor pastime into an elegant interior setting where a woman, probably the boy’s mother, paints on the eyes of a snow rabbit he holds on a lacquer tray.

The seated woman wears an obi decorated with chrysanthemum flowers, while the standing younger woman has a kimono with summer hydrangeas—a reminder that people often wore garments with unseasonal references to distract from frigid or humid weather.

Instead of using berries to fashion the eyes of the snow rabbit, they are being painted on as if it were a Daruma figure, on which one eye is painted when setting a goal or making a wish.

Isoda Koryūsai (Japanese, 1735–ca. 1790). Painting the Eyes on a Snow Rabbit, ca. 1780. Edo period (1615–1868). Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In this Japanese name, the surname is Isoda.

Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyō

Isoda Koryūsai (礒田 湖龍斎, 1735–1790) was a Japanese ukiyo-e print designer and painter active from 1769 to 1790.

Life and career[edit]

Koryūsai was born in 1735 and worked as a samurai in the service of the Tsuchiya clan. He became a masterless rōnin after the death of the head of the clan and moved to Edo (modern Tokyo) where he settled near Ryōgoku Bridge in the Yagenbori area. He became a print designer there under the art name Haruhiro in 1769, at first making samurai-themed designs. The ukiyo-e print master Harunobu died in 1770, and about that time Koryūsai began making prints in a similar style of life in the pleasure districts.^[1]

Koryūsai was a prolific designer of individual prints and print series,^[1] most of which appeared between 1769 and 1881.^[2]

In 1782 Koryūsai applied for and received the Buddhist honour hokkyō ("Bridge of the Law")^[1] from the imperial court^[3] and thereafter used the title as part of his signature. His output slowed from this time, though he continued to design prints until his death in 1790.^[1]