Kiyochika: Couple Clashing over a Letter; the syllable "Ro"

Artist: Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915)
Title: The Syllable R0  Series: An Alphabet Soup of Moral Issues (Kyôiku iroha dango)  Date: 1897

The syllable “Ro”, from the series known as “An Alphabet Soup of Moral Issues” (Kyôiku iroha dango), also translated as “ABCs of Education”. The title of this print may translate as “Seeing is Believing”, or “Proof is Better than Arguments” or even “The Proof is in the Pudding”. Without translating the background text, the visual story would suggest that a wife has discovered her husband’s misbehavior through written proof; she holds a letter or document in her left hand and grabs the  man’s collar with her right. The man’s left hand looks comically crooked, like the wrist was broken when the woman wrested the document from his hand. 

The series illustrates didactic poetry in the order of the iroha syllabary, with the accompanying text by Koppi Dôjin (Nishimori Takeki), one of the main comic writers for the Kiyochika-illustrated Marumaru Chinbun. Smith notes that there are 21 prints, but the album in the National Diet Library contains only 18. One may guess that the primary subject is the Meiji Government’s ongoing policies of education reform.

Condition: Very good impression, color and condition. Area of thinning in right upper corner. 
Dimensions: ôban (37.5 x 25.2 cm)  Signature: Kiyochika

SKU: KYC495