• Songokū (Sun Wukong) blows his fur into the air (<i>Gokū fuku ke</i> - 悟空吹毛) above Jō and Uba (Jō kumi[suru] Uba, 尉與姥) from the series <i>Sketches by Yoshitoshi</i> (<i>Yoshitoshi ryakuga</i> - 芳年 略画)
Songokū (Sun Wukong) blows his fur into the air (<i>Gokū fuku ke</i> - 悟空吹毛) above Jō and Uba (Jō kumi[suru] Uba, 尉與姥) from the series <i>Sketches by Yoshitoshi</i> (<i>Yoshitoshi ryakuga</i> - 芳年 略画)
Songokū (Sun Wukong) blows his fur into the air (<i>Gokū fuku ke</i> - 悟空吹毛) above Jō and Uba (Jō kumi[suru] Uba, 尉與姥) from the series <i>Sketches by Yoshitoshi</i> (<i>Yoshitoshi ryakuga</i> - 芳年 略画)
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Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) (artist 04/30/1839 – 06/09/1892)

Songokū (Sun Wukong) blows his fur into the air (Gokū fuku ke - 悟空吹毛) above Jō and Uba (Jō kumi[suru] Uba, 尉與姥) from the series Sketches by Yoshitoshi (Yoshitoshi ryakuga - 芳年 略画)

Print

1882
Signed: Yoshitoshi (芳年)
Artist's seal: Taiso
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - top half only
Philadelphia Museum of Art - bottom only
Philadelphia Museum of Art - top only
Shizuoka Prefectural Central Library
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - bottom half only
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan) - bottom half only
Wellcome Collection (via Europeana) The monkey king Songokū, from the Chinese story "Journey to the West," creates an army by plucking out his fur and blowing it into the air - each hair becomes a new monkey-warrior. Jō and Uba represent longevity and marital harmony, immortalized in the Noh play "Takasago" in which the old man and aged woman's spirits come to reside in pine trees.

The series illustrates episodes from Japanese folklore and history in a light-hearted manner.

All of the prints are chūbans (printed in pairs on ōban sheets). They were published by Funazu Chūjirō (Marks 077). Sketches by Yoshitoshi (Yoshitoshi ryakuga - 芳年 略画) is how this series is popularly known, but there is no real title to this publication.

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There is another copy in the Shizuoka Prefectural Central Library. The Worcester Art Museum has a copy of only the top half of this sheet.

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The top half of the sheet is listed in Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892 by Eric van den Ing and Robert Schaap, #42:15, p. 127. The bottom half is listed at #42:16.
Funazu Chūjirō (船津忠次郎) (publisher)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
magicians (mahōtsukai - 魔法使い) (genre)