猫柳にふなと筋蝦 [adapted title]
nekoyanagi ni funa to suji-ebi
Pussywillow with Crucian Carp and Lake Prawn
ネコヤナギにフナとスジエビ
Edition I (only edition): | 楽山篁子生 | Raku-zan Kou-shi-sei | + Seal C |
[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. 125-1 is the Fan Series design with fan shape 1 in the 125 Pussywillow theme. Like all other designs in this series, 125-1 was only produced in a single print run, and few copies are currently documented. All of the Fan Series prints were originally distributed tipped into recessed wells of presentation sheets with the overall project title, 篁子生画選, Koushisei Gasen, embossed in their lower margins.
Theme History:On the Fan Series delivery folio for installment eight on November 22, 1934 Rakusan announced pussywillow designs as due to appear in installment nine the following month, December 1934. However, the delivery documents for installment nine have yet to be located, and it is not known if installment nine was actually distributed on time or was delayed. The publications of installment eight in November 1934 and of installment ten in March 1935 constrain the publication of installment nine to one of the three intervening months, December 1934, January 1935, or February 1935; and indicate that the other two of these months had no deliveries. The woodblock prints for installment nine would have been printed during the same month as their distribution.
In that Fan Series announcement Rakusan used the theme title 猫柳に鴫, nekoyanagi ni shigi, 'pussywillow and shorebird'. However, there are no shorebirds in any of the Fan Series designs, and this title is really only appropriate as the title of 36 Series design 125 published at the same time. The only subject common to all of the designs in this theme is the pussywillow, and therefore a more general theme title, 125 Pussywillow, is substituted here. Some of these pussywillow designs were adapted from sketches originally created during the planning of designs 83 and 86 in the preceding 100 Series (see below).
Description:The woodblock print of 125-1 was modeled closely on an actual-size original sumi sketch which although lost can be reconstructed by digitally reversing the image of the woodblock print:
![]() 125-1 as originally drawn (reconstruction) |
Crucian Carp, Carassius carassius, 鮒, ふな, フナ, funa, is an edible species of freshwater fish.
The small freshwater shrimp at lower left is probably Lake Prawn, Palaemon paucidens, 条蝦, 条蝦, スジエビ, suji-ebi, lit. 'striped shrimp', is an edible species found locally near Kyoto, especially in Lake Biwa. The same variety of shrimp is shown in 127-4 and possibly also in 108-5.
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125-2 | 125-3 | 125-4 | 125-5 | 125 |
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65 | 83 | 86 | 131-4 |
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29 | 135-1 |
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108-5 | 127-1 | 127-4 |