Amanda Quinn
The Speculations of the Rice Harvesters
The print “Hiratsuka: Rice Harvesters Resting” was done by Katsushika Hokusai. This paper will proceed to depict interesting details about Hokusai’s life, delve into the aesthetics of the print, and provide fascinating speculations about the print. These speculations, it should be noted, will be provided by myself and by Dr. Frank Chance, Associate Director, Center for East Asian Studies, at the University of Pennsylvania.
A little bit about Hokusai
Hokusai Lived from October or November of 1760 until May 10, 1849. He was born in Edo during the Horeki period. He is most known for his “36 views of Mt. Fuji” done in 1831. From this series, it is the “Fuji in Clear Weather” that provided him with fame. Like other print makers, he made prints of kabuki actors early in his life before he changed to landscapes and images of everyday life in the 1790’s. As was a common practice among ukiyo-e artists of this time, Hokusai was known by as many as 30 different names throughout his lifetime. He changed his name to Katsushika Hokusai in 1800, Katsushika referring to the part of Edo where he was born. I can speculate that this print was made sometime before 1800 and 1820 because it was in 1820 that Hokusai changed his name from Katsushika to Iitsu. Hokusai produced some of what can be considered the first manga in existence. He created 15 volumes of manga, many pictures were simple sketches of regular, everyday people. It is clear that he enjoyed drawing and painting scenes of everyday people, which perhaps is why he agreed to do the commission of the Harvesters.
The plaque provided in the museum says this about the print:
Two rice harvesters are taking a break next to their basket, one is smoking a kiseru (Japanese pipe) while the other holds his sickle; his pipe and tobacco pouch are lying on the ground. Hiratsuka is a town on the Tōkaidō; the print may be from a series linked to its stages.
Outside sources besides Dr. Chance had little to say as to the explanation as to why this print was produced. In numerous places however it does indicate the idea that this is part of a series but I have yet to find other prints that would be in this series or anyone else explaining what this series is and what is in it. There is plenty of information however about Hiratsuka and the Tōkaidō.
The Tōkaidō is an old route that ran from Edo to Kyoto and is still in existence today. It means “East Sea Route” and is called this because it travelled along the sea coast of eastern Honshū. It was once one of the most important routes during the Edo period. It has 53 stations along the route for travelers to stop and rest. There are several prints about this road and many about the stops along the way. I however do not believe that this print is a portrait of one of these stops as would be typically seen in ukiyo-e.
Hiratsuka is a city in Kanagawa, Japan, located between Tokyo and Mt. Fuji. It is a very small city with a population of only about 260,000 and was even smaller in the Edo period. It has a five mile coast line off of Sagami Bay. This is a very small town and would typically hold little interest and hence why there are so few prints about Hiratsuka. This then hints at the significance that this print specifically deals with this small town. Why the commissioner of the print wanted it to be of Hiratuska specifically I cannot possibly know.
What Dr. Chance told me
Dr. Frank Chance had rather fascinating speculations about this print. He can say with certainty that this print is a high quality print and printed with multiple print blocks. It is obvious that it is a high quality print because there are few places where the colors do not match up perfectly with the lines, and these areas are located in the smaller spaces of the print, such as the knees of the two men, so it makes sense that it would be difficult to make it line up perfectly in those areas. In the overall print however, one can easily see the beautiful colors, the gentle degradations of colors, and the care that was made to make this print look as perfectly as possible. In addition to the colors, it should also be noted that if a person were to look at the print form the side, they can see the texture that was purposefully made on the print in the background. This again indicates the care with which it was made and the high quality of it. Though it is a simple print, it has a smooth blend of colors that make the nature in the background look peaceful and the two humans in the front seem more realistic. The fact that the lines are not broken down within the print, shows not only that it was taken care of, but is another indication of the quality of the print.
Given that this print is a high quality and from Hokusai, Dr. Chance told me of an interesting rumor that has been spread about Hokusai. Since Hokusai started out as a woodblock carver before he was an artist that designed his own prints, there are stories that say he would sell his designs to the publisher and then go into the room where they would carve his design and tell them how to carve it properly until they kicked him out. They called him “gakyouji” which means “crazy man.” If this rumor is true, then it could also indicate why this print was printed so well and has the quality is possesses.
Since it is a print of high quality, Dr. Chance can also say with certainty, that this print was not publically sold. This means that it was not sold to the general public in stores. Instead, this print was printed as a direct request from someone to the publisher. This means that someone had gone to the publisher personally and paid them directly to print this specific print. It cannot be concluded how many of these prints were made. Since this print was made directly to the publisher, and since it is of higher quality, it is obvious then that this print was rather expensive to print. It is interesting to thing that such a small print and simple design could be expensive to print.
As for the reasons why this print was specifically requested, Dr. Chance provides the reasons why this might have happened. It should be noted first that my research yielded no answer to this question. I am relying solely on what Dr. Chance has told me, but what he said makes perfect sense and I am disinclined to refute it. He speculates that this print was made from a well known proverb that in English would translate to “Three times around, then have a smoke.” This is a print indicating that, true to the proverb, they were busy working all day in the rice fields and now are stopping to take a smoke and rest. Though it is possible that Hokusai made this print to show the lifestyle of the common people, it is more likely that this is a print that upon looking at it, a Japanese person from that time period would recognize this proverb and feel a connection to the print. I say this because Dr. Chance also speculates that this print was cut out into cards and handed out. This was a card that was supposed to hold meaning to those that received one.
Much of what I can come to know about this print is all from the brilliant speculations of Dr. Chance. Information about this print is difficult to find on the internet, but there is plenty about Hokusai. Hokusai took great pride in producing landscapes and scenes from everyday life and therefore would have greatly enjoyed producing this print. Dr. Chance speculates that this high quality print was privately commissioned and distributed as cards. He also thinks that the reason why this print specifically depicts men taking a break from working in the fields is due to a famous Japanese proverb about taking a break from work. It is clear that this print was made for the enjoyment of both Hokusai that the person who commissioned its making.
