Bunrô (active c. 1800-1810) is known only by his geimei or art name. He was apparently a pupil of Ippitsusai Bunchô (active c. 1765-92), but later came under the influence of Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806).

Very few of Bunrô's prints have survived, mostly those in the Utamaro style and in aiban format. The image illustrated on the right is signed Bunrô ga and was published by Ezakiya Kichibei. It is clearly designed in the manner of Utamaro and depicts a young beauty standing behind a stylish young man dressed as a mendicant monk called a komusô ("priest of nothingness"). Behind him can be seen a large basket-shaped rush hat (tengai) and wooden flute (shakuhachi) as played by the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism. Komusô were closely associated with the samurai class and were treated with respect, receiving permission to travel freely and without obligation to reveal their faces hidden under rush hats. The dress of a komusô was, however, a convenient disguise used by common citizens for secret trysts or escape journeys. Thus the couple in this double portrait may be involved in an illicit relationship, either a samurai visiting a courtesan or a couple whose love is in conflict with family or societal obligations.

This impression is of particular interest because it shows a repair to the key block. A plug (called ireki or "inserting wood") was added to compensate for damage — two edges of the plug can be seen in the rush hat just to the right of the face of the male figure (see the illustration on the right).

Repairs of this kind were made when a print design was popular enough to justify the effort or when damages occurred early in the printing of an edition, making it necessary for the publisher to repair the block to recover his investment. Bunrô's impression happens to be a late one, as it shows general wear to the key block (that is, the key lines are not sharp and unbroken like those expected in an early impression).

Plugs were also used to make changes unrelated to block damage, but rather to deliberately change the faces or entire figures in a design. For example, publishers would update designs for new productions of kabuki plays by altering the physiognomies of the actors or the inscriptions related to roles or play titles. Privately issued erotic subjects were sometimes plugged with new figures or design elements to make the prints less explicit and thus more commercially viable. Popular courtesans from an earlier period had their faces replaced by their more current sisters, though these "portraits" represented not actual likenesses but revised idealizations drawn in a more up-to-date manner. © 1999-2001 by John Fiorillo

[Bunrô print provided by C. Uhlenbeck: Hotei Japanese Prints]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Keyes, Roger: Japanese Woodblock Prints: A Catalogue of the Mary A. Ainsworth Collection. Oberlin: Allen Memorial Art Museum, 1984, pp. 108-113.
• Schweitzer, Paul: "How did these girls lose their heads? Reissues of 18th century pillar prints with reengraved heads," in: Andon, Vol. 6, no. 24, 1986, pp. 104-106.