About This Print

Source: Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School, Laura J. Mueller, Chazen Museum of Art in association with Hotei Publishing, 2007, p. 178-179.

"In this print from the series Famous Views of Modern Tokyo, Kyōsai collaborated with an unknown artist. [This "unknown artist" who signed this work 肉亭夏良写 Nikutei Karyō sha is now known to be Nikutei Karyō which was a pseudonym used by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) early on in his career.] The signature in the left side of the upper scene is currently the only clue to his or her identity.¹  Kyōsai's contribution on the bottom half of the print shows a comical scene from the entrance at the main hall at Asakusa Temple.  The entrance area at this specific temple that includes a pair of guardian gods called Niō is known as Okuyama.

Kyōsai provides a humorous commentary on a photography studio that opened in this area in 1870.  In Kyōsai's design, a photographer is positioned on a raised platform taking the portrait of one of the guardian gods, who is holding his standard ferocious pose.  The photographer's assistant stands attentively on the ladder below him.  The other god from the pair appears captivated by the scene as he leans over the main hall with his elbows resting on the rooftop and his hands tucked under his chin.  The visitors to the temple stand under the imposing god looking and pointing upward under his short garment worn around his waist.  The upper scene designed by the unknown Karyo [Nikutei Karyō, a pseudonym of Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915)], includes an entertaining episode of a Japanese man in Chinese costume playing a traditional Chinese instrument as a gray dog dances on his hind legs to the music.  The setting is the interior of a scholar's study complete with scrolls and brushes for writing and painting." 

Perhaps the comic relationship of the two scenes is that of the dog performing for the minstrel and the Niō posing/performing for the photographer. The inscription on the top panel mentions the Okuyama Florist Shop in Asakusa ( 浅草奥山花屋).

Depictions of Niōs as entities come to life are frequent and the 16th century sculptor Hidari Jingoro was said to be so skilled that he could make his sculptures come to life.  Hidari Jingoro was a favorite character of Kyōsai's, as in the below example of the collaborative print he did with Utagawa Kunisada I (1786–1865) titled The Actor Nakamura Utaemon IV as the Sculptor Hidari Jingoro Carving a Niō Statue, 1864.²