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The Prints

Print 1-1. Two Sages and an Onlooker

A watercolor by Seikan. Date unknown.

A scene from the Ranka tale: Immortals playing go as the woodcutter looks on.

Print 1-2. Immortals Playing Go

Ink on paper, unsigned, ca. mid-19th century.

A well executed painting by an artist of the Kano school, cut to be used for a folding fan.

Print 1-3. Immortals Playing Go

Ink on paper by Koreyama Hogen after Kano Naonobu, dated 1844.

An Immortal (or some sort of Taoist eccentric) urges a reluctant companion to sit down and try his skill. The note in the left margin reads, Copied by Koreyama Hogen on the 8th day of the 12th month of Tempo 15 (1844). Naonobu's dates are 1607-50, but I have not been able to identify Koreyama. `Hogen' is an honorific title awarded to artists in recognition of their achievements, much like a Ph.D. in the academic world. Professional painters made a practice of keeping sketchbooks for their own use and for their pupils. This deft little wash drawing appears to be a page from such a sketchbook.

Print 1-4. Go Sankei's Encounter with Two Immortals

Sumizuri woodblock print consisting of two oban panels, vertically joined, with colors added by hand, unsigned, published by Oideya ca. the 1720s.

This very rare print, in a style that antedates the Ukiyo-e school, was probably designed by an artist of the Osaka area. It depicts a scene from Act IV of Chikamatsu's play Kokusenya Kassen (The Battles of Coxinga), produced for the puppet theater in Osaka in 1715. The play was such a great hit that within a few years adaptations were being staged in all three of the kabuki theaters of Edo. Shown here is the Mountain of the Nine Immortals, where the action of the scene takes place. The craggy peaks, wreath of cloud, and vine-hung trees evoke the supernatural atmosphere surrounding many ancient legends about the game of go.

The Battles of Coxinga is a history play, fanciful in its details but based on fact, concerning the collapse of the Ming dynasty in 1644 and the effort to restore the rightful heir to the throne. The hero of the play is Kokusenya, known to European historians as Coxinga (1624-62). He was one of the most remarkable figures in a remarkable age. His mother was Japanese. His father, a wealthy Chinese trader whose head office was located in Hirado, now in Nagasaki Prefecture, was at one time Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Ming emperor. Kokusenya spent most of his life fighting the rebellious Tartars and their supporters, the Dutch. Near the end of his short but blazing career he conquered Formosa (now Taiwan), driving out its Dutch overlords and setting himself up as king. He was planning the invasion of the Philippine Islands when he died of a sudden fever. Many Ming loyalists fled to Japan, where they found considerable sympathy for their cause.

Act IV, Scene iii, of Chikamatsu's play is laid at the summit of the Mountain of the Nine Immortals (located in Hsing-hua-fu, China). The Ming emperor has recently been killed by Tartar rebels, and a loyal minister, Go Sankei (to use the names given by Chikamatsu), driven into hiding with the infant Crown Prince in his care, has wandered to this spot carrying the child in his arms. At this point Chikamatsu spins a wonderful fantasy, drawing on the Ranka legend of the woodcutter in order to evoke an atmosphere of awe and mystery. He weaves into the narrative a good deal of the traditional philosophy of the game:

As Go Sankei pauses a while, he notices two old men with shaggy eyebrows and white hair, seemingly in perfect harmony with the pine breeze, as friends who have lived together long years. They have put a go board on a rock before them and are utterly absorbed in their game, as the black and white stones form groups like herds of wild horses and diagonal lines like flights of geese over the 361 intersections. Their thoughts move freely, like a spider's thread in the air, and their bodies have become empty cocoons on a withered branch. This is the art of conversing by hand (`shudan', a classical term for go), far removed from the usages of this world. Go Sankei muses, `Can this be the pure world of Brahma?' He transfers the prince to a ledge in the rocks and, leaning his chin on a withered stump, gazes in fascination on the game, purified of the dust of worldly concern. Carried away, he cries out.

`Old gentlemen, I should like a word with you. I am interested to see you play the game of go. Is there some special pleasure to be found in this contest, played without the help of the Three Friends, music, poetry, and wine?'

One old man, not seeming to answer, speaks.

`If it looks like a go board to you, it is a go board, and for the eye that sees go stones, they are merely go stones. But there is a text that likens the world to a go board. For those who see with their minds, the center of the universe is here. From this vantage point, what will cloud our view of mountains, rivers, grasses, or trees of all China? The ninety intersections of each quarter of the board represent the ninety days of each of the four seasons. Together they come to 360. How foolish of you not to realize that we spend one day on each intersection!'

`Extraordinary!' says Go Sankei. `But why should you two oppose each other as your sole pleasure in heaven and earth?'

`If there were not both yin and yang,' the old man replies, `there would be no order in creation.'

Go Sankei: And the result of your contest?

Old Man: Does not the good and bad fortune of mankind depend on the chance of the moment?

Go Sankei: And the black and white?

Old Man: The night and the day.

Go Sankei: What are the rules of the game?

Old Man: The stratagems of war.

Go Sankei is then permitted to see momentous battles taking place in different parts of the empire, after which he is amazed to find that five years have passed as in a dream. The two old men reveal themselves to be the founder of the Ming dynasty and his chief councilor, then vanish, leaving their go board behind. Go Sankei will make good use of this board a little later in the scene.¹

Print 1-5. Confucius and Lao-tze Playing Go

A diptych by Suzuki Rinsho, Kubo Shunman, and Tsutsumi Tomei dated ca. 1800. Unpublished.

Confucius and Lao-tze are depicted playing go while the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, in the guise of a courtesan, looks on. To the right and left are a tortoise and a crane, signifying auspicious old age. The print thus pays tribute to the extreme antiquity and universality of the game.

Print 1-6. The Gods of Good Fortune Enjoying Go

A diptych by Toichi, published by Takeuchi Magohachi ca. 1850. Takeuchi was also an artist who used the name Toichi on his prints.

Fukurokuji, Daikoku, and Ebisu, the gods of long life, riches, and food, gather around a go board.

Print 1-7. Old Men Playing Go

A water color by Seikan. Late 19th century. Unpublished.

Two old men playing on a go board fashioned from the surface of a flat rock, a convention in pictures that conjures up images of Immortals.

Print 1-8. Old Men Playing Go

A watercolor by Gessen. Published by Yamaguchiya Tobei. Date unknown.

This picture is from a page of a Meiji-era book, illustrating the works of the artist Gessen (1741-1809).

Print 1-9. Old Men Playing Go

A page from Gahon Zuka (Treasures of Pictures) by Sadatoshi. Published in 1731. Publisher unidentified.

The title is shown by the character for Go in the upper right of this picture. The dignified old men bring to mind the Ranka scene.

Print 1-10. Yebisu Beer Advertisement

Print by Hozan published in 1900.

This print was commissioned by the brewery company Yebisu for one of its advertising campaigns. With its obvious reference to the Immortals legend, it is indicative of the sway this theme still had on the psyche of the Japanese public at the time Japan was entering the modern world.

A demon could be considered a kind of immortal, so I have included two prints of this type by Gyosai.

Print 1-11. Demons Playing Go

An original drawing by Gyosai for a hanging scroll, ca. 1880. Unpublished.

In this print two demons are playing go while another looks on. Shoki, the god of justice, is looking down from a large rock. Though appearing quite menacing and about to cut them down with his sword, he seems to hesitate in order to ponder the course of the game.

While Shoki symbolizes justice, the demons, emblematic of evil and outlaws, represent the outcasts of the world. In this print, however, Gyosai reverses the commonplace perception by recasting grim demons as weak human beings, putting Shoki in the position of one who threatens their peaceful world. The message that Gyosai seems to be conveying is that the demons are the common people, while Shoki is the Meiji government -- the abuser of authority.

Print 1-12. The Courtesan of Hell

Oban print by Gyosai from Volume Nine of Gyosai Rakuzu, titled Jigoku Tayu: Yume ni Miru Gaikotsu no Yuugi Zu (Skeletons Playing in a Nightmare). Published in 1874 by Sawamuraya Seikichi.

Gyosai often used the theme of Yama (`Emma' in Japanese), the judge of hell. Here, together with a throng of skeletons, she sits in repose amidst a bedlam of bones, hell-bent on various activities and gesticulating wildly. Hell in this picture seems to be quite a busy place, with the skeletons playing go (on the left), playing the samisen and koto (upper left), flower arranging (upper right), and engaging in bouts of sumo (Japanese wrestling), with the loser's bones dismembered and scattering. One might wonder what Gyosai was trying to suggest by presenting Yama wearing the garb of a thoughtful courtesan.

Note

1. The account given here of the career of Coxinga is compiled from Papinot, p. 301, and Keene, pp. 252-3, especially p. 179, with some silent emendations.