- Book: “Album of Comic Images by Itchô”
- Itchô kyôgashû 一蝶狂画集
- 1888
- Signature: no
- Medium: album page, printed, ink and colors on paper
Hanabusa Itchô is the earliest master presented in this exhibition. He developed a broad profile as an artist and proved his originality by going beyond the more formalistic compositions of his time, not least by adding poetry and calligraphy to his pictures. He was one of the first Japanese artists to imbue his works with many meanings. For this he had to pay a price: twelve years of exile on a far-away island. His offense was to add irony to depictions of the shôgun’s concubines.
The work “Elegant Four Sleepers” reveals his Buddhist sources of inspiration. The sleepers take a nap with a tiger. The motif is well-known in the Chinese prototype for Japanese Zen Buddhism. It represents a state of ultimate tranquility.
