The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 22, 2024

Operating on Guan Yu's Arm

Operating on Guan Yu's Arm

1840s
(Japanese, c. 1800-after 1857)
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.)
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.
  • 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
  • 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
  • Japan's Floating World (Japanese art rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).
    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).
    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).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=Operating on Guan Yu's Arm|url=false|author=Katsushika Ōi|year=1840s|access-date=22 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.178