Kuniyoshi - The Twenty-four Chinese Paragons of Filial Piety

Kuniyoshi Utagawa

Tō Ei 董永 (Dong Yong), from the series "The Twenty-four Chinese Paragons of Filial Piety​​". This is print number 12 in the series.

He borrows coins to bury his father,
and a heavenly maiden meets him on the road.
She weaves silk to repay the lender.
Moved by his filial piety, everyone knows his name.

Tō Ei was separated from his mother when he was young. His family was poor, and he passed his days working for others, farming to earn wages. Because his father was crippled and could not stand, Tō Ei built a small cart, set his father on it, and parked it on the ridges between rice paddies so that he could tend to him there. The time came when his father died. Tō Ei wanted to arrange a funeral service, but because he had always been poor, he could not. Thus, he sold himself for a payment of ten kan, and he held the funeral rites. Later, when he set out for the master’s house, he encountered a beautiful woman on the road. Saying that she would be his wife, she went with him, and in a single month she wove three hundred bolts of tight silk. When she presented it to the master, he was so moved that he set Tō Ei free. After that, the woman said to Tō Ei, “I am a celestial weaver-woman. The Emperor of Heaven was moved by your filial piety, and he sent me here to repay your debt.” With that, she rose up into the sky.

The book entitled The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety was written by the Chinese scholar Guo Jujing during the Yuan Dynasty. His pen name was Yizi, and he is known in Japan as Kaku Kyokei. The book recounts the self-sacrificing behavior of twenty-four sons and daughters who go to extreme lengths to honor their parents, stepparents, grandparents, and in-laws. Many of the images in this series appear Western in style, rather than Japanese, and were probably copied from Italian prints.

Date: 1848 

Size: 10 1/4 x 7 1/4 in. (26 x 18.4 cm) 

Condition: Good color and impression, not backed, fold down center glue residue on back and repairs in center sky area as shown.

Genre: Ukiyo-e

Medium: Original Woodblock Print

https://woodblockprints.org/index.php/Detail/objects/281