Paul Binnie

Scottish, b. 1967

A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Yoshitoshi's Ghosts
(Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Yoshitoshi no Bakemono)

the background printed with sumi ink bokashi of barenswirls, the series title cartouche in the upper right margin, the print title to the left with the first portion, Yoshitoshi no, in the style of Yoshitoshi's signature, and a grotesque Okame representing the bakemono, signed in gold kanji, Bin-ni, with artist's skull-shaped seal that forms the letters Binnie, numbered and signed in pencil on the bottom margin, 91/100 Paul Binnie, ca. May - July 2004

dai oban tate-e 16 7/8 by 11 3/4 in., 43 by 29.7 cm

The central tattoo on the figure's back is derived from Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's (1839-1892) Mount Yoshino midnight-moon -Iga no Tsubone (Yoshinoyama yowa no tsuki -Iga no Tsubone), 1886, from his series, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (Tsuki hyakushi). Binnie depicts the winged ghost with bloody embellishments, and playfully removes what was in Yoshitoshi's original design the title cartouche from the demon's hand and replaces it with the beauty Iga no Tsubone's severed head. On the figure's left hip, Binnie depicts the shrieking red demon of Yoshitoshi's 1889 Sadanobu Threatening a Demon in the Palace at Night (Sadanobu-ko yoru kyuchu ni kai o osoreshimu no zu) from the series New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts (Shinkei Sanjurokkaisen). Finally, rising from the censor's smoke is the ghost of Yugao, Genji's mysterious lover, from Yoshitoshi's 1886 The Yugao Chapter from the Tale of Genji (Genji Yugao no maki), which is also from the One Hundred Aspects of the Moon series.

Reference:
Paul Binnie: A Dialogue with the Past - The First 100 Japanese Prints, 2007, p. 118, no. 81

(inv. no. C-1601)

The numbered edition is sold out.