Sketches of the Life of the Great Priest

Sketches of the Life of the Great Priest (高祖御一代略図) (c. 1831) is a series of ten Japanese woodblock prints in ink and color on paper made by ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861). It was published by Iseya Rihei in 1835–1836. The prints, which are in the large, horizontal, multi-colored woodblock format, tell the story of Nichiren (1222–1282), a Japanese Buddhist priest, philosopher and founder of Nichiren Buddhism. The series is referred to by many names, the result of various English translations, with Illustrated Abridged Biography of the Founder one of the more popular titles.

In the Snow at Tsukahara, Sado Island is generally considered the greatest work in the entire series. Claude Monet, who was both fascinated with snowscapes and ukiyo-e, was known to own that specific print and used it to decorate his house at Giverny. The original ten prints are believed to have been used to illustrate Buddhist teaching materials and are part of an ancient illustrated literary tradition ascribed to Buddhist printmaking. It represents Kuniyoshi's eleventh major work since 1820, and somewhere around the 180–190th individual work, of a total of about 1000 works, some of which were variants, duplicates, or multiple individual works as part of a single series.

Background
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861) is best known for musha-e, a genre of ukiyo-e woodblock printing that depicts warriors from history and mythology. His late 1820s musha-e, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, is cited as the breakthrough work that established his name and contributed to his first major success. Before becoming a master of musha-e, Kuniyoshi tried his hand at 'yakusha-e (depictions of kabuki actors), but was unable to achieve any fame or notability in this genre. Secondarily, Kuniyoshi was known for bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) and for landscapes. The landscape genre in ukiyo-e became popular in the 1830s and 1840s, particularly as expressed in the style and work of Kuniyoshi's colleague Hiroshige (1797–1858), both of whom were students of the Utagawa school. Kuniyoshi's gō, or art name, "kuni", derives from a syllable of his master's gō, Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825). Kuniyoshi's landscapes in the 1830s and 1840s were partly influenced by his knowledge of European art and his collection of Western-style prints.

Kuniyoshi received a commission in 1831 for a new print series in remembrance of the 550-year anniversary of the death of Nichiren (1222–1282), the founder of Nichiren Buddhism. The finished prints were later used for Nichiren Buddhist religious materials. East Asian art historian Mary W. Baskett notes the long, ancient tradition of Buddhist printmaking, tracing woodblock printing traditions in Japan back to Buddhist devotional rituals. The custom of depicting the life of Nichiren in Japanese art was also already well established before Kuniyoshi began his new project. One popular example, The Life of the Priest Nichiren, was a woodblock print produced during the Tenna period (1611–1684), illustrating 17 events in Nichiren's life. It was likely used by religious adherents as a kind of reference work. Nichiren shonin chugwasan, a similar work depicting 89 images of Nichiren's life, was published in 1632. The theme continued during the subsequent Edo period, with another version illustrating 28 images from the life of Nichiren. During the Edo period, the need for printed religious materials increased in use for the purpose of teaching, with Kuniyoshi's work a notable example during this era, along with the older Illustrated Life of Kobo Daishi (early 17th century), depicting the life of Kūkai (774–835), founder of Shingon Buddhism, and the later Illustrated Life of Sakyamumi Buddha (1845) by Hokusai (1760–1849). After Kuniyoshi died, his ashes were interred at the Daisenji temple, a 16th-century Nichiren Buddhist temple in Kodaira, Tokyo.

Development
Instead of drawing upon the older styles of well known works depicting Nichiren, Kuniyoshi's Sketches of the Life of the Great Priest shows the influence of the Kishi school, particularly the work of Kawamura Bunpō (河村文鳳). (1779–1821) as found in his gafu (picture album), a landscape painting manual known as Bunpō sansui gafu (文鳳山水画) (A Book of Drawings of Landscapes by Bunpō). Kuniyoshi's new approach emphasized a connection between larger figures in the foreground against the background of the landscape. Sketches of the Life of the Great Priest was an example of this new perspective, using the historical figure of Nichiren to demonstrate Kuniyoshi's new technique. One of his most famous works from the series, In the Snow at Tsukahara, Sado Island, gave Kuniyoshi a distinctive look, what art historian Woldemar von Seidlitz (1850–1922) calls "a strength and grandeur of style that gives him a place perhaps even higher than Hiroshige".

Series
The prints in Kuniyoshi's Sketches of the Life of the Great Priest are listed in chronological order of the life of Nichiren. Kuniyoshi presents romanticized illustrations and legendary accounts of events in Nichiren's life. The title of the series appears on the right margin in red with the mark of the publisher Iseya Rihei (Ise-Ri Kinjudo), while the subtitle appears in black below it. The prints are signed 朝櫻楼 / 国芳画 (Chooro / Kuniyoshi ga).

Collections and exhibitions
The Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) acquired the complete set of prints from the Sketches of the Life of the Great Priest series for their collection from a bequest of 1,500 ukiyo-e woodblock prints by Mary A. Ainsworth in 1950. Individual, selected prints from the series have been exhibited in many different exhibitions at the museum (and have traveled abroad elsewhere). Notable exhibitions of selected prints from the series at the Allen Memorial Art Museum occurred in 1962 ("An American University Collection: Works of Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio"), 1979 ("Japanese Prints from the Ainsworth Collection"), 1989 ("Selections from the Ainsworth Collection"), 1995 ("Images of War: Ritual and Reality"), 2005 ("Visions of Turmoil and Tranquility: Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Collection"), in 2009 ("Starry Dome: Astronomy in Art and the Imagination"), in 2015 ("A Life in Prints: Mary A. Ainsworth and the Floating World"), 2016 ("Marking Time: Seasonal Imagery in Japanese Prints"), 2017 ("Lines of Descent: Masters and Students in the Utagawa School"), and in 2023 ("Variables: An Exercise in Close Looking").

Notes and references

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