Lot 1086: Attributed to Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795)

Attributed to Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795)
Jinbutsu seisha sohon (Exact sketches of human bodies)
Signed, dated and titled Jinbutsu seisha sohon heikan bannin aimirubeshi nenrei bankotsuho kouchi zen sankan Meiwa nana kanoe-tora fuyu (winter, 1770) Okyo oju and with kao (cursive monogram)
Three handscrolls; ink and color on paper
Vol.1: 12¼ x 388½in. (31 x 986.8cm.); vol.2: 12¼ x 458in. (31 x 1,163.3cm.); vol.3: 12¼ x 422¾in. (31 x 1,073.8cm.) (3)

Maruyama Okyo combined naturalism based on Western sources with traditional Japanese stylization. The images in these handscrolls represent his wide-ranging curiosity about the anatomy of the human body. Sexual organs, for example, are sketched in enlarged detail. Two of the three scrolls are intended to be viewed in tandem, as shown here, a curious innovation.

A well-known version of this set of three handscrolls, dated 1770, is in the Tenri University Library, Nara Prefecture. There is a copy by an Okyo pupil in the Richard Lane Collection in the Honolulu Academy of Arts. For the Tenri scrolls, see Tokubetsuten: Maruyama Okyo/Special Exhibition: Maruyama Okyo (Osaka: Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 2003), pl. 29.