This guest blog has been written by Mariko Hirabayashi, an independent art historian from Japan, who, in 2023, earned PhD in History of Art. Her 2022 thesis, Charles Ricketts and Japan. British Japonisme of the Second Generation from the 1880s to the 1930s, is a well informed study of the relations between Ricketts and Japan and highlights several new discoveries. Hirabayashi studied Japanese history at the Keio University (Tokyo) and British art history at the University of York. Her current research focuses on British Japonisme, specifically the art interaction and collection between Britain and Japan from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. This blog examines the Ricketts and Shannon collection of Hokusai prints.
Hokusai in the Ricketts and Shannon Collection
Japan ended its national isolation in the mid-nineteenth century, which led to an increase in trade between Britain and Japan. Britain imported various Japanese artefacts, and at the same time, the trend of Japonisme, which brought inspiration to Western artists, came to Britain. In the 1880s, it gradually became easier for people in Britain to acquire Japanese artefacts at auctions and galleries.
Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon also had an interest in Japanese art. They collected more than 300 Japanese artworks. Their Japanese art collection was bequeathed to the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum after their deaths. It includes ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints, drawings, and paintings. The collection contains artefacts by artists from the Edo period, such as Kitagawa Utamaro and Suzuki Harunobu, and it includes many of Katsushika Hokusai's works. Hokusai's artworks account for over 30% of the entire Ricketts and Shannon Japanese art collection. Regarding Hokusai, Ricketts commented that he was one of the greatest artists in the world and that he astonished all European countries (Noguchi, 1916, p. 194). He also stated that as a 'contemporary of Goya and Turner, Hokusai acted not only as an example in his own country but as a stimulus upon the art of Europe' (Ricketts, 1911, p. 29)
Ricketts and Shannon already possessed Japanese artefacts at the end of the 1880s, and they decorated their house, the Vale, with ukiyo-e prints by Hokusai (Ricketts, 1932, p. 33). In the 1890s, they enthusiastically began collecting Japanese art. In 1897, they purchased Hokusai's book, Suikoden at the Captain Francis Brinkley sale, and Ricketts described the acquisition as 'one of the great hauls of our lives' (Charles Shannon's Diary, 18 November 1897; Ricketts, 1939, p. 22).
 |
Katsushika Hokusai, Preparatory Drawing Album for the 'Ehon Suikoden',
(c.1828) [Collection The British Museum] |
Suikoden [Tales of the Water Margin] is a Chinese novel written during the Ming dynasty. It was translated into Japanese, and it became popular in Japan in the nineteenth century. Hokusai produced many illustrations of Suikoden. Hokusai's Suikoden book, which Ricketts and Shannon acquired at Brinkley sale, is currently in the British Museum collection. In the book, 53 drawings are pasted on mounts decorated with gold leaf. Ricketts paid attention to Hokusai's figure depiction in the drawings and believed Hokusai's ability equalled Rembrandt's (Noguchi, 1916, p. 195). At present, compared to Hokusai's ukiyo-e prints, few of his drawings exist because they have been lost or destroyed, for example by fire. Therefore, this Suikoden book in the Ricketts and Shannon collection is an important work in which to observe Hokusai's brushwork.
 |
Katsushika Hokusai, 'Sakyô no dayû Michimasa' from the series of
One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse (c.1835)
[Collection Fitzwilliam Museum] |
In the Ricketts and Shannon Japanese art collection, Sakyô no dayû Michimasa from the series of One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse, which is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum collection, is another of Hokusai's rare artworks. Sakyô no dayû Michimasa is a preparatory drawing for ukiyo-e prints, and it depicts a Heian Period aristocrat, Fujiwara no Michimasa. Preparatory drawings normally did not survive because they were lost during the printing process. However, One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse is an incomplete ukiyo-e print series. Therefore, more than 60 preparatory drawings of the series were not used for printing, and they still exist. After the bequest of Sakyô no dayû Michimasa to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1937, this drawing was forgotten for a long time before it was rediscovered in the 1990s (Morse, 1996, pp. 16, 20-22, 134-135, 215).
 |
Katsushika Hokusai, 'Kōka Mon’in no Bettō', from the series of
One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse
(late 1830s) [Collection The British Museum] |
The Ricketts and Shannon collection contains another Hokusai preparatory drawing, Kōka Mon’in no Bettō from the same series as Sakyô no dayû Michimasa. This drawing is currently in the British Museum collection.
In the 1900s and 1910s, Ricketts and Shannon actively collected Japanese artefacts. In fact, around 1910, there was an increase in opportunities to encounter Japanese artworks, especially ukiyo-e prints at auctions. For example, in a letter to Sydney Cockerell dated 11 August 1913, Ricketts wrote that the number of Japanese artworks in the Ricketts and Shannon collection had almost doubled in 1912.
Ultimately, Ricketts and Shannon became some of the most notable Japanese art collectors in Britain, their Japanese art collection exceeding 300 works. Considering the contents of their collection, it is notable that most of the Hokusai works are ukiyo-e prints, many of which are iconic. Hokusai created several ukiyo-e print series, the most famous of which is Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (early 1830s), containing 46 different prints. (At first, Hokusai created 36 different prints, as the series title reflects. After the release of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, this series became very popular, and Hokusai added ten additional prints to the series.) In the Ricketts and Shannon collection, there are 45 different works, including one of the most spectacular prints in this series, The Great Wave.
 |
Katsushika Hokusai, 'Under the Wave off Kanagawa' from the series of
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1831) [Collection The British Museum] |
Except for Clear Day with a Southern Breeze, the Ricketts and Shannon collection contains almost all the prints of this series. Moreover, the collection includes all the prints of Hokusai's other ukiyo-e print series: Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces; Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces; and Snow, Flower and Moon (1830s).
 |
Katsushika Hokusai, 'The Waterfall where Yoshitsune Washed his Horse in Yoshino, Yamato Province' from the series of Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (c.1833) [Collection The British Museum] |
Specifically, Tour of Waterfalls and Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges are masterpieces of landscape ukiyo-e prints. This way of collecting shows the collectors' intention to complete Hokusai's great ukiyo-e print series. In addition, the contents of their collection align with Ricketts's opinion: 'Turner's faculties of invention were immense, but as a designer of landscape, he was surpassed by Hokusai, his contemporary, who was also a great figure draughtsman' (Ricketts, 1911, p. 5).
 |
Katsushika Hokusai, 'Suspension Bridge on the Border between Hida and Etchū Provinces'
from the series of Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces (c.1834)
[Collection The British Museum] |
After Ricketts and Shannon passed away, their Hokusai collection, which contained prominent works, was exhibited not only in Britain but also in Japan. In recent years, as part of international touring exhibitions of the British Museum, two exhibitions have been held in Japan: Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave at the Abeno Harukas Art Museum in 2017, and Hokusai from the British Museum at the Suntory Museum of Art in 2022. These two exhibitions showed Kōka Mon’in no Bettō and ukiyo-e prints from the series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces, and Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces.
Ricketts and Shannon's Hokusai collection contains high-quality artefacts, and it has been making an important contribution to Japanese art collecting in Britain for a long time.
Mariko Hirabayashi
References:
- Peter Morse, Hokusai: Hyakunin-isshu Uba ga Etoki, trans. Takashina Erika. Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten, 1996
- Noguchi Yonejiro, Ōshū Bundan Insho-ki. Tokyo, Hakujitsusha, 1916.
- Charles Ricketts, A Century of Art, 1810-1910. London, Carfax and Co., 1911.
- Charles Ricketts, Oscar Wilde: Recollections. London, Nonesuch Press, 1932.
- [Charles Ricketts], Self-Portrait Taken from the Letters & Journals of Charles Ricketts, R.A. Collected and Compiled by T. Sturge Moore. Edited by Cecil Lewis. London, Peter Davies, 1939.
- Charles Shannon's Diary, British Library: Ricketts and Shannon Papers Vol. XXVI, 1898, Add MS 58110.
See also:
Mariko Hirabayashi, Charles Ricketts and Japan. British Japonisme of the Second Generation from the 1880s to the 1930s. PhD Thesis, University of York, 2022. [Online at WhiteRose.]
