Images

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=89289B69E3ECD11185290D24B26B9FF1E77A8B854E72B35B6C3385CD69A3809C&s=24247294&se=2103370014&v=1&f=%5Cd1689%5Cu250216896%5C1998.178_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=A7C35BAF7C896F59582C60FD61770C5BA6CB5BC3AB4FDB9AA72BF5B5035F98C3&s=24247294&se=2103370014&v=0&f=1998.178_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=8ACC215B5BE441A429C0773E24BC13F7691975330B334E12B8573F2CBB074923&s=24247294&se=2103370014&v=1&f=%5Cd2302%5Cu250223026%5C1998.178det01_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=8ACC215B5BE441A491441CD7D0DDFBD13C7406F4DB3A00BCE8E22B2B186D6A87&s=24247294&se=2103370014&v=1&f=%5Cd2310%5Cu250223100%5C1998.178det02_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=8ACC215B5BE441A4ED27DE07316A0ED105765BC6B5D8C19BADD643199E97DDAC&s=24247294&se=2103370014&v=1&f=%5Cd2318%5Cu250223180%5C1998.178det03_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=8ACC215B5BE441A41D7055C364AB5F7C03C16DECFA1B7EA38D59251D82FF698C&s=24247294&se=2103370014&v=1&f=%5Cd2325%5Cu250223254%5C1998.178det04_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=8ACC215B5BE441A4191929FDAA917DBFD89C0BB25CA4A2601FEEB96464F1E187&s=24247294&se=2103370014&v=1&f=%5Cd2332%5Cu250223326%5C1998.178det05_o2.jpg

Additional Views

Jul 27, 2021

Nov 27, 2017

Jul 27, 2021

Aug 3, 2021

Aug 4, 2021

Operating on Guan Yu's Arm

関羽割臂図

1840s

Katsushika Ōi 葛飾応為

(Japanese, c. 1800-after 1857)

Japan, Edo period

(1615-1868)

Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk

Mounted: 206.7 x 73.1 cm (81 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.); Painting: 140.2 x 68.3 cm (55 3/16 x 26 7/8 in.)

Kelvin Smith Fund 1998.178

Location

not on view

Did you know?

This is the largest surviving painting by the artist.

Description

Ukiyo-e artists’ subject matter extended to popular literature. Katsushika Ōi used color to great effect in her gruesome version of an episode from a 14th-century Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Ōi portrayed the passage in which legendary 3rd-century military leader Guan Yu undergoes a bone scraping to remove poisons received from an arrow wound. In this sensationalist portrayal, Guan Yu’s attendants cower at the sight of his bloody arm while he remains unflinchingly focused on his game. As a woman, Ōi was an outlier in her era, but her talent was allowed to shine due to collaboration with her father, Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), the famed designer of the print known as The Great Wave.

Artist biography

Katsushika Ōi

Artist Ōi was Hokusai's third daughter, and perhaps his most devoted student and a superb talent in her own right.

Inscriptions

Inscription

款記「應為栄女筆」

Inscription Translation

Signed: Brush of Ōi, the woman Ei

Inscription

「葛しか」白文方印

Inscription Translation

Sealed: Katsushika

Provenance

before 1998

Yamagata Hatsutaro

October 27, 1998

(Christie's New York, "An Important Collection of Japanese Ukiyo-e Paintings," 27 October 1998, lot 84, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1998–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Mainichi Shinbunsha 每日新聞社. Nikuhitsu ukiyoe meisakuten mokuroku [Catalogue of an exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting]. Tōkyō: Isetan, 1957. no. 94

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten: Orinpikku Tokyo taikai kinen [The exhibition of ukiyoe hand-paintings [sic]: In commemoration of the Tokyo Olympics].Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1964. no. 129

Shibui, Kiyoshi 渋井清, and Sadao Kikuchi 菊池貞夫. Nikuhitsu ukiyoe bijinga shūsei [肉筆浮世絵, 美人画集成 = Ukiyo-e paintings of beauties in Japanese collections]. Tōkyō: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1983. Reproduced: vol. 2, pl. 20

Azabu Museum of Art, and Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, eds. Azabu Bijutsukan shozō nikuhitsu ukiyoe meihin ten [麻布美術館所蔵肉筆浮世絵名品展 = Ukiyo-e painting masterpieces in the collection of the Azabu Museum of Art]. Tōkyō: Azabu Bijutsukan, 1988. Reproduced: pl. 79

Tazawa Hiroyoshi 田沢裕賀. "Azabu bijutsukan shozo nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Tenrankai annai" (Exhibition of ukiyo-e masterpieces in the Azabu Museum of Art: Exhibition news). Ukiyo-e geijutsu [浮世絵芸術 = Ukiyo-e Art] 94 (October 1988). Reproduced: title page

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten [肉筆浮世絵名品展 = Exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting]. Tōkyō: Itabashi Kuritsu Bijutsukan, 1989. Reproduced: pl. 51

Nakamura, Hideki 中村英樹. Hokusai mangekyō: porifonīteki shutai e [北斎万華鏡 : ポリフォニー的主体へ = Gazing at Hokusai's constellation: toward polyphonic vision]. Tōkyō: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1990. pp. 100, 101

Fister, Patricia. Kinsei no josei gakatachi: bijutsu to jendā [近世の女性画家たち: 美術とジェンダー = Japanese women artists of the kinsei era]. Kyōto-shi: Shibunkaku Shuppan, 1994. Reproduced: color pl. p. 228

Kobayashi, Tadashi 小林忠 and Shūgō. Asano 浅野秀剛 . Azabu bijutsu kōgeikan [麻布美術工芸館 = Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts]. vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan [Ukiyo-e paintings in Japanese collections]. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995. Reproduced: pl. 61

Kubota Kazuhiro 久保田一洋. "Hokusai musume: Oi Eijo ron" [A discussion of Hokusai's daughter Oi Eijo]. Ukiyo-e geijutsu [浮世絵芸術 = Ukiyo-e Art] 107 (September 1995). Reproduced: fig. 7

Christie's New York. An Important Collection of Japanese Ukiyo-e Paintings. 27 October 1998, lot 84. Reproduced: pp. 122–123, lot 84

Cleveland Museum of Art, “New Cleveland Indian Arrives at the CMA,” November 27, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org

Cunningham Michael R., "Family Legacy", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 39 no. 07, September Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4-5 archive.org

Gustafson, Eleanor H. "Museum accessions" The Magazine Antiques, December 1999, vol. CLVL no. 6. Reproduced: p. 778

Rousmaniere, Nicole Coolidge. Births and Rebirths in Japanese Art: Essays Celebrating the Inauguration of The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Leiden: Hotei, 2003. Reproduced: pl. 8

Finkel, Irving L., and Colin Mackenzie, editors. Asian Games: The Art of Contest. New York: Asia Society, 2004. p. 325

Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Reproduced: p. 116

Carpenter, John T. Hokusai and His Age: Ukiyo-e Painting, Printmaking and Book Illustration in Late Edo Japan. Amsterdam: Hotei, 2005. Reproduced: p. 102, n. 9

Meech-Pekarik, Julia, and John T. Carpenter. Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680-1860; [Issued in Connection with an Exhibition held Feb. 27 - May 4, 2008, Asia Society and Museum, New York, New York]. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008. Reproduced: p. 162, fig. 116

Clark, Timothy, Angus Lockyer, Ryoko Matsuba, Shūgō Asano, and Alfred Haft. Hokusai: beyond the great wave. New York, New York: Thames & Hudson in collaboration with the British Museum, 2017. Reproduced: p. 298, cat. no. 196

Paget, Rhiannon. Hokusai: 1760-1849. Köln: Taschen, 2018. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 49

Exhibition history

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten. Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, Japan (January 19–26, 1957).

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten: Orinpikku Tokyo taikai kinen [The exhibition of ukiyoe hand-paintings [sic]: In commemoration of the Tokyo Olympics]. Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, Japan (October 8–18, 1964).

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo [Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art]. Sendai City Museum, Sendai, Japan (June 11–July 17, 1988); Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (September 6–October 9, 1988); Sogo Museum, Yokohama, Japan (October 20–November 13, 1988).

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten [肉筆浮世絵名品展 = Exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting]. Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (April 8–May 7, 1989).

Japanese Gallery 103 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 20, 1998–March 15, 1999).

Japanese Gallery 121 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 4–August 11, 2000).

Asian Games: The Art of Contest. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 14, 2004-February 5, 2005); National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (February 26-May 15, 2005).

Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave. The British Museum, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (May 25-August 13, 2017); Abeno Harukas Art Museum, Osaka, Japan (October 6-November 19, 2017).

Japan's Floating World (Japanese art rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Operating on Guan Yu's Arm|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.178|author=Katsushika Ōi|year=1840s|access-date=02 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email [email protected].

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.

You are here:

Images

Operating on Guan Yu's Arm

Operating on Guan Yu's Arm

関羽割臂図

Katsushika Ōi 葛飾応為

Location

Download and Share

Did you know?

Description

Katsushika Ōi

Inscription

Inscription Translation

Inscription

Inscription Translation

Contact us