Kiku no kaori (The Fragrance of the Chrysanthemum)

 

Kajita Hanko

 

1902  

color woodcut kuchi-e (frontispiece) 

8 3/4 x 12 1/16" image and paper size 

stamped artist's signature and seal, lower right 

not stated 

 

JP 3318; Meech-Pekarik, Julia. The World of the Meiji Print: Impressions of a New Civilization. New York: Weatherhill, 1986, color pl. 39.;MetMuseum accession JP3318 

 

published 

Bungei Kurabu (Literary Club), Vol. 11, No. 13 

24868 

$250.00 

A delicately rendered scene of a beautiful woman, or bijin enjoying the scent of a white crysanthemum, carved and printed as the frontispiece - or "kuchi-e" - for Bungei Kurabu, a popular literary magazine that focused primarily fiction intended for young women of the Meiji era. Kuchi-e prints were meant to boost sales of the publications as they were the first image seen upon opening the magazine, and the works were often of a high caliber.

The Meiji period is often viewed as the demarcation between traditional and Western printmaking in Japan, as industrialization and Western influence rapidly changed the socioplitical landscape. Traditionalists, loyal to ukiyo-e and other, older styles, rejected this change as the market became flooded with quickly produced artwork that pandered to the tourism trade - or was simply different, as the popularity of lithography and photography rose. However, kuchi-e prints managed to remain of a quality that reflected traditional artistic values, even as some of the imagery incorporated modern fashions and other elements.

Because this image was one such kuchi-e print, and its purpose was intended for ease of transitory enjoyment, the paper shows the vestiges of use, with shallow handling creases throughout and the creases and binding holes from publication.