Operating on Guan Yu's Arm
Katsushika Ōi (Japanese, c. 1800-after 1857)1840s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
Ukiyo-e artists’ subject matter extended to popular literature. Katsushika Ōi used color to great effect in her gruesome version of an episode from a 14th-century Chinese novel, <em>Romance of the Three Kingdoms.</em> Ōi portrayed the passage in which legendary 3rd-century military leader Guan Yu undergoes a bone scraping to remove poisons received from an arrow wound. In this sensationalist portrayal, Guan Yu’s attendants cower at the sight of his bloody arm while he remains unflinchingly focused on his game. As a woman, Ōi was an outlier in her era, but her talent was allowed to shine due to collaboration with her father, Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), the famed designer of the print known as <em>The</em> <em>Great Wave</em>.
- Title: Operating on Guan Yu's Arm
- Creator: Katsushika Ōi (Japanese, c. 1800-after 1857)
- Date Created: 1840s
- Physical Dimensions: Mounted: 206.7 x 73.1 cm (81 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.); Painting: 140.2 x 68.3 cm (55 3/16 x 26 7/8 in.)
- Provenance: Yamagata Hatsutaro, (Christie's New York, "An Important Collection of Japanese Ukiyo-e Paintings," 27 October 1998, lot 84, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.178
- Medium: hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
- Inscriptions: 款記「應為栄女筆」, 「葛しか」白文方印
- Fun Fact: This is the largest surviving painting by the artist.
- Department: Japanese Art
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615-1868)
- Credit Line: Kelvin Smith Fund
- Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
- Accession Number: 1998.178
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