By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer
July 10, 2008 04:00 am
—
CHAZY -- A discovery, a catalyst for an ambitious idea, is a dream realized in "Warriors & Entertainers," the debut exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints at the Alice T. Miner Museum.
The prints -- depicting actors, courtesans and warriors -- are "ukiyo-e," "pictures of the floating world," that represent Japanese urban art from the late 17th to late 19th centuries from Edo (modern Tokyo), Osaka, Kyôto and Nagoya.
Advised by Emma Hodge, a Chicago collector, Alice T. Miner acquired these prints in the mid-1920s. The collection was catalogued by Helen Gunsaulus, who, for many years, was curator of Japanese Prints at the Art Institute of Chicago.
How Hodge, Miner and Gunsaulus knew each other is not known nor is the extent of their intimacy. That is a beckoning lost history in the estimation of David B. Waterhouse, professor emeritus in the Department of East Asia Studies at the University of Toronto.
He selected the prints for the exhibition, co-curated by museum board members Marguerite Eisinger and Helen W. Allan, and wrote the exhibition catalogue essay "Warriors and Entertainers: The Alice T. Miner Collection of Japanese Prints."
INFORMED COLLECTOR
"There is a whole untold story there," Waterhouse said. "I looked at the history of Chicago and the history of women in Chicago and haven't gotten anywhere. No one has delved into it. I talked to a good friend in New York on the history of Americans collecting Japanese art, and she did not know about this woman, Emma Hodge, at all. I did write to the University of Chicago Library. She gave them some things. She collected American samplers and quilts, that sort of thing. She's a mysterious figure, and we don't know much about her husband, either."
It is quite evident by the collection that Hodge was an informed collector possessing excellent taste.
"It's a small collection, but there are one or two surprises in it," Waterhouse said. "I suppose the first thing that struck me is the early warrior prints, which you don't see every day of the week. I featured those and wrote my essay about them."
These include Torii Kiyotada's "Sasaki Shirô Takatsuna crossing the Uji River" (fl.c.1713 to later 1740s), which is an urshi-e or lacquer picture.
Waterhouse writes: "The Miner print, probably the left-hand sheet of a diptych, depicts Sasaki Shirô Takatsuna (?-1214) fording the Uji River outside Kyôto in 1180. Mounted on the chestnut horse Ikezuki, he reaches the other side ahead of his rival Kajiwara Kagesue (1162-1200), who would have been depicted on the black horse Surusumi. These horses had been assigned to them by Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-99). The story is told in full in Ch. 9 of the great military narrative Heike monogatari, Tale of the House of Taira,' which describes the epic struggle between the Minamota and Taira clans."
COLLABORATION
Waterhouse also selected several Surimono greeting prints -- "New Year flowers," by Kubo Shunman (1757-1820); and "Saitô Oniwakamaru subduing a giant carp" and "An auspicious day for taking one's first ride on a horse," by Totoya Hokkei (1780-1850).
"Some very attractive prints I left out of the essay and will be part of the exhibition. In the talk I'm giving, I'm focusing on prints not included in that essay. I've thrown in a few others as well from the reserve collection and prints with one or two comparable images I have pulled off the Internet. I hope it will be fun for people."
Waterhouse also threw in Utagawa Kuniyoshi's (1797-1861) "The station at Musa; with the warrior Miyamoto Musashi killing a giant bat."
It's a vibrant and fanciful take on the epic tale.
"It's a rare one and happens to be in good condition. It's a wild print, and there is some puzzle about the subject. I haven't been able to track down where the story comes from. It may be some Kabuki myth they invented."
For Eisinger, co-curating the exhibit was a collaborative endeavor with Allan as well as Steve Fesette, a Miner employee who transformed the former weaving room into a top-notch gallery space, and Amanda Palmer, museum director/curator.
"We had a great time," Eisinger said. "Amanda and her docents did the framing. It's really going to be a really special show. The catalogue was done by Mary Lou Beauharnois. Neal Keach took the photographs. It was combined effort with a lot of talented and hardworking people."
MUSEUM FIRST
The team also included former museum director Fred Smith, who began the initial research and took the prints for identification to Roger Keyes, a Rhode Island-based internationally recognized authority on Japanese art, and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Mass.
"From my point of view as a museum professional, that was a very important step the museum took to invest in conservation so we can protect and maintain the prints," Allan said. "That happened while Fred was there. Also Joan Burke (chair of the board) has been a driving force behind this."
The exhibition and catalogue are museum firsts.
"It's been a most interesting experience," Allan said. " We are exhibiting only a portion of the total collection."
In total, there are 120 prints; 35 will be on display.
The exhibition is beautiful in Burke's eyes.
"What excites me is that it's really the fruition of a long-standing dream of the museum board and people who have worked for the museum," she said. "Our goal is to really try to present to the community the depth, range and sophistication of the content of the collection. I don't know that that has been done well enough. The collection has much more variety and beauty than perhaps we have communicated."
rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
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