[modernly supplied title]
石榴
zakuro
Pomegranate
ザクロ
Edition I (only edition): | 楽山篁子生 | Raku-zan Kou-shi-sei | + Seal B |
[For illustration of seals listed by seal code letter, see the Seals article.]
Series History and Definitions:Rakusan arranged the Fan Series prints into shared-subject groups typically consisting of one design in each of five different fan silhouette shapes. Each of these groups of Fan Series designs are united by a corresponding polychrome 36 Series design which defines the subject. Each shared-subject Fan Series group and its 36 Series design together comprise a theme (画題, gadai).
Rakusan did not include the Fan Series in his main sequence numbering. Therefore, the original number used for each of the 36 Series prints has been modified to identify the Fan Series members of its theme. The five different fan silhouette shapes have been here assigned arbitrary numbers 1 through 5. To indicate a fan design these shape designations are added to the 36 Series number separated by a hyphen. 112-4 is the Fan Series design with fan shape 4 in the 112 Pomegranate theme. Like all other designs in this series, 112-4 was only produced in a single print run, and few copies are currently documented.
Theme History:The individual designs in the 112 Pomegranate theme were completed in at least two stages. Two of the five fan designs and the 36 Series design 112 have seal C which indicates a carving date during the first half of 1934. Another fan design (112-3) has seal R which is a rare minor seal whose carving period has yet to be established. The other two fan designs (including 112-4) have seal B which indicates a later carving period closer to the time of publication.
In early 1934 when Rakusan did a major rearrangement of his themes, all three themes with fruit subjects (what became themes 110, 111, and 112) ended up as installment four. (They are also consecutive with theme 109, the only vegetable subject theme.)
In this project Rakusan openly experimented with mining an external source for some of his designs, Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Painting, 十竹斎書画譜, Jitchikusai Shogafu. Here abbreviated TBS, this very famous, historic, and influential design book was first printed in China in the 17th century. TBS has been reproduced and reprinted in both China and Japan many times since, and Rakusan would likely have used one of the later Japanese monochrome translations. (An article exploring all of Rakusan's adaptations from TBS is in preparation.)
Rakusan completed each of the three themes in installment four with a single design taken from TBS. 112-4, the TBS design in the 112 Pomegranate theme, is one of the later seal B designs; and it clearly is in a style different from all of the others in the theme.
At least some pomegranate designs were adapted from sketches originally created in the late 1920s during the planning of designs 18 and 78 of the earlier 100 Series (see below).
Description:![]() model for 112-4 (from TBS part 4 Fruit) [Harvard Art Museums: 1940.165.108] |
![]() 112-4 as originally drawn (reconstruction) |
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112-1 | 112-2 | 112-3 | 112-5 | 112 |
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18alt | 18 | 78 |