Ehon chūkyō 絵本忠経

FSC-GR-780.242

Commentary by Ann Yonemura

Posted November 2014

Ehon chūkyō, which illustrates examples of loyalty based on Chinese Confucian models, is one of three books derived from classical Chinese texts that were published with Hokusai’s designs in 1834–35. Ehon Kōkyō, illustrations of filial piety (see FSC-GR-780.221 and FSC-GR-780.243), and Ehon Senjimon, illustrations of the “Thousand Character Classic” (see FSC-GR-780.220), are also represented in the Pulverer collection.

The illustrations in Ehon chūkyō include both Chinese and Japanese scenes. The book opens with a large, imaginary portrait of Confucius resting his head on his hand as he contemplates the text he is writing. The portrait extends across to part of the facing page, where the frame of the window indicates that the viewer is looking into a study from outside. Hokusai’s portrayal of Confucius as a scholar at work contrasts with the officially sanctioned formal portraits that were hung for veneration in ceremonial halls. Other striking and unconventional illustrations include one of an army inundated by water that sweeps across two pages (Hillier 1980, p. 207). Detailed figure compositions in outdoor or architectural settings resemble Hokusai’s carefully considered single-sheet print series of the same period, especially Shiika shashinkyō (True mirror of Chinese and Japanese poems, circa 1833) and the incompletely published Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki (One hundred poets, one verse each, as explained by the nurse; circa 1835–36).

Selected reading:

Jack Hillier, The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration (London: Sotheby Parke-Bernet Publications; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 205–207.

Toda Kenji, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Illustrated Books in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago (1931; repr., Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2005), p. 261.

Copies in other collections:

Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Collection

National Institute of Japanese Literature

New York Public Library

Rijksmuseum vor Volkenkunde, Leiden (4595-4)

Ehon Chūkyō