About This Print
The top print shows a wasteful man being encouraged to spend his money at a geisha house, by eight bad souls (akudama) identified by the character 悪 (badness, vice) in the rounds of their faces. In the bottom five good souls (zendama) identified by the character ‘zen’ 善 (goodness, virtue) assist a frugal man who is eating at a small restaurant and giving alms to a beggar.
For the origin of these zendama and akudama figures please see the article on this site titled Representations of Good and Evil: Origins of Zendama and Akudama Figures in Japanese Prints.
About This Series
This series of prints was originally issued as a full size oban sheet containing the "badness" on top and the "goodness" on the bottom. It is not unusual for the sheets to have been cut into two chuban size prints. Each print in the series is numbered, this being number eight 八 out of a total of twelve 十二 full size oban prints.
The popularity of this twelve print 1872 series lead to the issuance by the same publisher Kōeidō in the next year, 1873, of a similar-themed 12 print series targeted at teaching daughters good from bad titled 娘教訓二面鏡 Musume kyōkun nimen kagami, variously translated as "Moral Lessons for Daughters About the Two Sides of Life" and "Two Sides of Educating Daughters". As shown below, the format of the prints in the two series were almost identical, the noticeable difference being the blue-colored (and on some prints, cyan-colored) background on the 1873 series.
Print two from the 1872 series
A Didactic Mirror of Good and Evil
教訓善悪鏡Print two from the 1873 series Moral Lessons for Daughters About the Two Sides of Life
娘教訓二面鏡
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #556 |
| Title or Description | No. 8 Wasteful Man and Frugal Man |
| Series | A Didactic Mirror of Good and Evil Kyōkun zen’aku kagami 教訓善悪鏡 [also seen translated as Mirror of Moral Lessons About Good and Evil] |
| Artist | Shōsai Ikkei (fl. 1860-late 1870s) |
| Signature | Shōsai Ikkei |
| Seal | no artist's seal |
| Publication Date |  (Aratame - Date Seal) Monkey 10 aratame 申十改 |
| Publisher |  seal reading: Tsutakichi han 蔦吉板 |
| Carver | |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | fair - trimmed into image on top and left side; wrinkling; backed; minor soiling and toning |
| Genre | ukiyo-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | two chuban size prints on an oban-size sheet. |
| H x W Paper | 13 1/2 x 9 1/8 in. (34.3 x 23.2 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 11.36790; Princeton University Library (12 sheets in bound volume) Call Number Pams / NR / Japanese / Box 2 71687527; Arizona State University The Melikian Collection L2011.008.125 (12 sheets in bound volume) |
last revision:
3/14/2020
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