立葵 [adapted title]
tachi-aoi
Hollyhock
タチアオイ
Edition I (only edition): | 楽山 | Raku-zan | + Seal C |
This is the only known Rakusan design which bears this signature and seal combination. This is also the only use of the unaccompanied 楽山, Raku-zan, signature in this series.
[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. 136-1 is the Fan Series design with fan shape 1 in the 136 Hollyhock theme. Like all other designs in this series, 136-1 was only produced in a single print run, and few copies are currently documented.
Theme History:The Fan Series and 36 Series prints of the 136 Hollyhock theme were distributed in mid 1935 in installment twelve (of twelve), making this theme the last one in both series. The series as originally announced would have seen this final installment published in December 1934. However, with previously documented delays the earliest month it could actually have been delivered is May 1935, and it may well have been even further delayed. Each of the woodblock prints in this theme would have been printed in the same month as their distribution.
Although the delivery documents for installment twelve remain to be discovered, the Fan Series delivery documents for installment ten from March 25, 1935 announced hollyhock designs as what would be expected to be theme 132 to appear the following month, April 1935, in installment eleven. However, all three of the announced themes for installment eleven were actually delayed and not published until installment twelve. After this rearrangement the Hollyhock theme ended up being published as theme 136. In the installment ten documents Rakusan used the title 立葵, tachi-aoi, 'hollyhock', which was intended both as the theme designation and the title of 36 Series design 136.
At least some of the hollyhock designs in the 136 Hollyhock theme were adapted from among sketches originally created in the late 1920s during the planning of design 13 in the earlier 100 Series (see below).
Description:The woodblock print of 136-1 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:
![]() 136-1 as originally drawn (reconstruction) |
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136-2 | 136-3 | 136-4 | 136-5 | 136 |
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13alt | 13 |