Gathering of Otsu-e Subjects (late 1800s): Art, History and Details

Gathering of Otsu-e Subjects (late 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Shibata Zeshin (Japanese, 1807–1891).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This lively scene captures a gathering of stock figures from Otsu-e, or "Otsu paintings." Otsu-e were folk paintings made as souvenirs for travelers passing through the station of Otsu along the Tokaido, the route stretching from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto. Parodies of standard ukiyo-e compositions featuring Otsu-e subjects were popular in woodblock prints of the 19th century. Shibata Zeshin, an artist whose career spanned the transition from the Edo period (1615–1868) to the Meiji period (1868–1912), was fond of depicting urban culture and the pastimes of commoners, aware that they were slipping away in the face of Japan’s modernization. This composition would have appealed to the witty sensibilities of city denizens.

Object facts

• Title: Gathering of Otsu-e Subjects
• Date: late 1800s
• Creator attribution: Shibata Zeshin (Japanese, 1807–1891)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Eight-panel folding screen; ink and color on hemp
• Dimensions: Image: 101 x 396 cm (39 3/4 x 155 7/8 in.); Overall: 170 x 336 cm (66 15/16 x 132 5/16 in.); Closed: 170 x 11.7 x 61.6 cm (66 15/16 x 4 5/8 x 24 1/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1982.9

A detail from the museum

Shibata Zeshin was not only famous in the realm of painting but also in the world of lacquer design.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 1 (January 1983): 3–55.
• Cunningham, Michael R. “Byōbu: The Art of the Japanese Screen.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 7 (September 1984): 223–232.
• Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.