Chikanobu's Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety - The Chinese scholar Guo Jujing wrote the book "The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Devotion" during the Yuan Dynasty. Inspired by the loss of his own parents, he scoured history for examples of the most respectful and devoted children. Alluding to the famous stories of the twenty-four children and their extraordinary devotion to their parents and relatives, Chikanobu's series juxtaposes the paragon in the upper panel with a more modern equivalent below. The artist plays off the old stories, offering serious parallels as well as lighthearted and humorous contrasts in the modern versions.

No. 24, Huang Tingjian: Personally Scrubbing His Mother's Chamber Pot - Attractive scene of a young girl helping her mother wash her hands. The beauty holds her hands over an elegant lacquer basin filled with water as the child helpfully tilts a matching pitcher to pour water for her. The beauty wears a deep purple robe patterned with flowering vines and trimmed in red, over a delicately embossed white under robe. The paragon above shows the calligrapher and poet Huang Tingjian (Teiken in Japanese) cleaning his mother's chamber pot, emptying it over the side of a verandah. An honored scholar, he personally looked after his mother even though he had a house full of servants, because he felt it was his filial duty to care for her himself. A handsome design with rich color and wonderful detail in the household setting.

Artist - Chikanobu (1838 - 1912)

Image Size - 13 1/4" x 8 3/4" + margins as shown

Condition - With excellent color and detail as shown. Slight paper remnants on reverse from previous backing. Thinning at left edge, repaired, blends well. Slight soiling and rubbing. Please see photos for details. Good overall.