Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

When assembled, this model portrays a Shinto legend from the Kojiki, Japan's oldest chronicle, which dates back to the eighth century. The sun goddess Amatarasu was offended by her brother's bad behavior, so she hid herself away in a cave. As a result, the world was plunged into darkness, so all the gods gathered together to think of a plan to coax her out of hiding. Their attempts included getting roosters to crow in anticiaption of the sun's return and decorating a sasaki tree with a mirror, cloth, and curved jewel. One goddess, Uzume no Mikoto, began to dance. She got so caught up in daning that she fell into a trance and ended up stripping off her clothes, thereby causing all the other gods to laugh so loudly that Amaterasu peeked out of the cave to see what had happened. Upon doing so, she mistook her reflection in the mirror for a new goddess more radiant than herself and was stunned. The god Tajikarao, who had been hiding behind the cave's door, took this opportunity to finally pull Amaterasu out of the cave and restore the sun.

Scholars theorize that the cloth draped on the sasaki trees mentioned in this story later developed into the folded strips of paper often seen at Shinto rituals. Also, instruments played by the cut-out muscian figures are often associated with an early form of Japanese music called gigaku. By the time these prints were created, gagaku was primarly performed at the shogun's headquarters in Edo (modern day Tokyo) and at the imperial court in Kyoto. The use of these instruments lends a regal atmosphere to the print.

Upon hearing the word ukiyo-e, one often thinks of brghtly colored prints in art museums. However, not all prints were created to be looked at. In the case of kumiage-e, also called tatebanko, there were meant to be cut apart and pasted together into three-dimensional models. Kuniage-e are thought to have evolved from paper models that werre created to facilitate the construction of tea houses. Another theory is that they may have been linked to the production of uki-e, perspective prints, some of which may have been drawn from a three-dimensional paper model. Large kumiage-e models have been known to be composed of up to twelve sheets.

Since the arist must calculate how the pieces will fit together into a finshed product, kumiage-e were notoriously difficult to design. In addition to his acclaim as a book and artist,Katsushika Hokusai was also famous as a master of kumiage-e design. Unfortunately, since these prints were created to be cut apart, few example survive. if you look closely you'll see little circles. These circles come in pairs and indicate where the pieces should be pasted together ti create a model of the cave where the goddes Amaterasu is hiding. At the top left corner of the print is a small illustration that hints as the appearance of the finished model. Monica Ham