Description
Kawanabe Kyōsai repeated this large-scale composition with variations a number of times. In this version, a famous 15th-century courtesan known for wearing a robe with images of the Buddhist hells stands before a folding screen. Legend has it that she was abducted by bandits, and wore the garment to symbolize her belief that her suffering in her current life was punishment for sins committed in a former life. Here, in a parody depiction of the garment, the courtesan stands in for Benzaiten, the goddess of everything that flows, while the remaining members of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune appear on her outer robe. One of them reports sins to Enma, the King of Hell, who is writing out his judgments on the recently deceased.
Provenance
(Nathan Chaikin, Switzerland, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith); The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?–1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1985–)
Accession Number
1985.268
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and silver on silk
Dimensions
Image: 144.2 x 67.6 cm (56 3/4 x 26 5/8 in.); Overall: 233.7 x 92.1 cm (92 x 36 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Ink Silk Painting Gold Leaf Japanese
Background & Context
Background Story
Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889) was a Japanese painter known for the wildly inventive, satirical paintings that make him one of the most distinctive painters of the late Edo and early Meiji periods. Hell Courtesan from 1871-89 depicts the famous subject of the courtesan who visits Buddhist hell in the wildly inventive, satirical manner that distinguishes Kyosai's best work from the more conventional painting of his contemporaries. The Hell Courtesan legend—about a courtesan who was so moved by a Buddhist sermon that she visited hell to save lost souls—was one of Kyosai's favorite subjects, and the painting shows his ability to combine Buddhist religious subjects with the satirical humor that is his most distinctive contribution.
Cultural Impact
Hell Courtesan is important in the history of Japanese painting because it demonstrates the wildly inventive, satirical manner that Kyosai brought to painting as one of the most distinctive painters of the late Edo and early Meiji periods. Kyosai's wildly inventive, satirical paintings—combining Buddhist religious subjects with the satirical humor that is his most distinctive contribution—represent one of the most distinctive traditions in Japanese painting, and the 1871-89 painting shows this tradition at its most wildly inventive.
Why It Matters
Hell Courtesan is Kyosai's wildly inventive satire: the courtesan visiting hell rendered in the satirical manner of one of the most distinctive painters of the late Edo and early Meiji periods. The 1871-89 painting shows Kyosai's ability to combine Buddhist subjects with satirical humor that makes him one of the most distinctive painters in Japanese art.
