Bodaichū Kodaisō attended by the Physician Shini Andōzen, Utagawa Kuniyoshi

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Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Bodaichū Kodaisō attended by the Physician Shini Andōzen
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Bodaichū Kodaisō attended by the Physician Shini Andōzen
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Bodaichū Kodaisō attended by the Physician Shini Andōzen
circa 1827–1830, Edo period (1600–1868)
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
1797–1861
Bodaichū Kodaisō attended by the Physician Shini Andōzen, circa 1827–1830, Edo period (1600–1868)
Where object was made: Japan
Material/technique: color woodcut
Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 374.7 x 254 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 14 3/4 x 10 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in
Credit line: Gift of H. Lee Turner
Accession number: 1968.0001.074
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body
The heroine Botaichū Kodaisō sits reading while the doctor Shini Andōzen drains blood from an arrow wound on her arm. Bloodletting was commonly used during the Edo Period to treat such battle injuries: As shown here, the physician would expel blood trapped under skin at the site of the wound before treating and dressing it. The practice of bloodletting likely started in Egypt around 1000 BCE. Over the following centuries, it was adopted by the Greeks and Romans and subsequently spread around the world. Although specific bloodletting techniques varied through time and in different cultural contexts, many practitioners believed it could restore balance to the body.
Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body
The heroine Botaichū Kodaisō sits reading while the doctor Shini Andōzen drains blood from an arrow wound on her arm. Bloodletting was commonly used during the Edo Period to treat such battle injuries: As shown here, the physician would expel blood trapped under skin at the site of the wound before treating and dressing it. The practice of bloodletting likely started in Egypt around 1000 BCE. Over the following centuries, it was adopted by the Greeks and Romans and subsequently spread around the world. Although specific bloodletting techniques varied through time and in different cultural contexts, many practitioners believed it could restore balance to the body.
Exhibition Label: "Inspired by Japan," Mar-2003, Cori Sherman Kuniyoshi’s image of Botaichu Kodaiso shows the innkeeper heroine being treated by a doctor for an arrow wound. She displays her warrior-like stoicism by calmly reading a book propped on a stand while blood is being drained from her arm. This anecdote comes from the Suikoden, a Japanese translation of the late sixteenth-century Chinese Shuihu zhuan, or “Tales of the Water Margin,” telling of outlaws’ swash-buckling adventures. In this woodcut the patterns of textiles, furniture, walls, and floors are so dense as to make it a challenge to discern the contours of individual elements in the composition. The artist shows no concern for dimensional proportions or illusionistic space in this decorative scene.

Exhibitions

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body
Cassandra Mesick Braun, curator
2021
Inspired by Japan
Cori Sherman, curator
2003

Citations

The University of Kansas Museum of Art. The Register of the Museum of Art: Glimpses of Fugitive Pleasures -- Japanese prints in the museum collection. Introduction and catalogue by Carla M. Zainie 5, no. 2, Spring (1975):