Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)

STUDIES - Shinji Tanaka: On Bertalan Székely's Japanese Woman, 1871

Kong (Jap. Son Gokú), the hero of a sixteenth-century Chinese novel called Xi you ji (Jap. Saiyú-ki). MTAKK Ms.939/1. fol.25. Copy based on a scene in vol. 8 (1818) of the Hokusai Manga. The woman (Jap. Szeirjó-sí) is the wife of the legendary ancient Chinese king Huang di (Jap. Kótei). The background of the original includes a shelf, probably containing silk cocoons. Reputedly, the queen was the originator of silkworm breeding. Székely made some changes to the fan held in the queen's hand, and added another sketch of it on the edge of the sheet. This fan is similar to the one seen in the Japanese Woman. MTAKK Ms.939/1. fol.26. Copy based on a scene in vol. 12 (1834) of the Hokusai Manga. Again, the woman is holding a fan in her hand. Apparently, Székely found the fan an important motif. He drew a peacock feather on the edge of the sheet. MTAKK Ms.939/1. fol.27. Copy based on a scene in vol. 5 (1816) of the Hokusai Manga. Székely omitted the figure of high priest Kakinomoto Kisojo, featured in the original. MTAKK Ms.939/1. fol.28. Copy based on a scene in vol. 12 of the Hokusai Manga. The woman is Yotaka, a street prostitute. She is holding a straw mat in her arms. Notation on the edge of the sheet: 'sechs Wandschirme in Gestalten der vergänglichen Welt von Dr. August Pfitzmayer 1847. Antique wollzeile Greif - Bermann Kärntner Straße - Kuppitsch Karoliner thor\ A. Pfitzmaier (1808-1887) was a Viennese Orientalist and polyglot. The book Székely's note refers to is a translation of Ukiyogata rokumai byobu (1821), a novel by Ryutei Tanehiko (1783-1842), a copy of which was obtained by the national library in Vienna through the mediation of Philipp Franz Siebolt (1796-1866). The book contains illustrations by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825). Székely did not make any copies of these illustrations. Wollzeile and Kärntner Straße are the names of streets in Vienna, presumably the location of the shops of antiquarians Greif and Bermann, selling, among other things, Japanese articles. The bookstore called Kuppitsch is still in business in Vienna; it sells woodcuts and prints of artworks. Its stock probably included Japanese woodblock prints in the nineteenth century, too." The Karoliner Tor no longer exists in Vienna; it may have been in one of the gates in the old Viennese city wall. The fact that Székely heard of these places at the time when he made copies of the scenes in the Manga suggests that the copies were executed in Vienna. MTAKK Ms.939/1. fol.29. Copy based on a scene in vol. 9 (1819) of the Hokusai Manga. In the original, Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), leader of the most powerful samurai clan in the twelfth century, seduces Tokiwa (?—?), the widow of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, head of the rival samurai clan. Here again, Székely was content to copy the female figure. Behind the woman, a stand resting on four feline legs appears. This kind of stand also features in other drawings done by Székely.