Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-1
Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-2
Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-3
Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-4
Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-5
Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-1Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-2Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-3Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-4Anonymous painter. Late 19th century - image-5

Lot 214 Dα

Anonymous painter. Late 19th century

Auction 1203 - overview Cologne
11.06.2022, 11:00 - Asian Art
Estimate: 800 € - 1.200 €
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Anonymous painter. Late 19th century

Horizontal scroll. The Phallus Contest. Several continuous scenes starting with measuring and testing of the men' penis, continuing into a wild orgy with women, the exhausted men are resting and drinking and ending with courtiers and a woman receiving a prize with the empress behind a curtain. Ink on paper. Outside the Japanese title of the scroll: Genji inyo kasen no zu (The Battle of Genji yin and yang).
42.3 x 872.5 cm

This emaki-type where women are sexually stronger than men is the most popular among the three types of phallus contest emaki. Some were painted by Kawanabe Kyôsai, Kobayashi Eitaku and Takasaki Sôun. One very similar example to the present emaki is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and was painted by Hiroshige III . Many copies exist, the present scroll in a sketchy ink drawing manner is unsigned. Cf. Akiko Yano, Historiography of the "Phallic Contest" Handscroll in Japanese Art, in: Japan Review, no. 26 (2013).

Provenance

Estate of Günter Kauth (1946-2016), Frankfurt a. M.