ANONYMOUS ÔTSU-E

Subject: Tengu and elephant comparing noses

Date: Late 18th century

Media: Ink and color on paper

Format: Hanging scroll

Size: 13 x 9 1/2 in. (exclusive of mount)

Exhibited-Published: Ôtsu-e. Ôtsu City Museum of History, 1997, pl. 150

Provenance: Takatsu Kobunka Kaikan

Price: $ 12,800

Considered by some to represent the acme of folk painting, Ôtsu-e were called by the father of mingei, Yanagi Sôetsu (1889-61) “.. the painting of the people. Each line and each stroke follow the rules of their ancestors…a picture of how you observe the world and sketch an article.” Originating in the middle of the Edo period, Ôtsu-e were inexpensive, initially quasi-religious and then folk-themed paintings that were sold as souvenirs at roadside booths in the Oiwaka region near the town of Ôtsu on the Tôkaidô Road. As they were a commercial art form, most were created in rapid fashion, utilizing simple bold brushwork, a limited palette of bright fields of color and sometimes created with the aid of paper stencils and woodblocks.

In this extremely fine example, beautifully mounted and in fine condition, a tengu, in flight, compares his long nose with that of an elephant in an admonition against snobbishness. Tengu are mythical winged beings that are said to live in remote locations in Japan’s deeply forested mountains and are characterized by the extraordinary length of their noses. Elephants were not actually seen in Japan until 1729 when one was presented by Viet Nam (Annam). This subject of an elephant paired with a tengu is rather uncommon and there remain very few published comparable examples. A very similar one but in poor condition may be found in Ôtsu-e-sono rekishi to bi [Otsue—Its History and Beauty], Hamamatsu City Art Museum, 1985., plate (in the collection of the…. While otsu-e were produced in huge number, few remain in fine state today.

References:

Victor and Takako Hauge, Folk Traditions in Japanese Art Cleveland Museum of Art and Japan Foundation, 1978.

Hugo Munsterberg, Mingei: Folk Arts of Old Japan. Asia Society, 1965.

Muraoka and Okamura, Folk Arts and Crafts of Japan. Weatherhill-Heibonsha, 1973

Matthew Welch, Ôtsu-e: Japanese Folk Paintings from the Harriet and Edson Spencer Collection, (Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Japan Society, 1994.

Otsu-e. Ôtsu City Museum of History, 1997.