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Lot Essay
published:
Azabu Museum of Art, ed., Azabu bijutsukan: Shuzohin zuroku (Azabu Museum of Art: Catalogue of the collection) (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art, 1986), pl. 15.
Azabu Museum of Art, and Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, eds., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan/Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art, introduction by Kobayashi Tadashi, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art; Osaka: Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1988), pl. 47.
Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, and Japan Institute of Arts and Crafts, eds., Edo no fashon, kaikan kinen ten, Part I: Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e ni miru onnatachi no yosooi/"Fashion of Edo": Women's dress in Ukiyo-e Paintings, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, 1989), pl. 41.
Goto Shigeki, ed., Utamaro, vol. 5 of Ukiyo-e taikei (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1973), pl. 62.
Kikuchi Sadao, Utamaro II, vol. 5 of Ukiyo-e bijinga, yakusha-e (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1965), pl. 114.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 45, entry by Kobayashi Tadashi.
Nagata Seiji, Iki no bi, ukiyo-e (The beauty of chic, ukiyo-e), vol. 7 of Meiga to deau bijutsukan (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1992), color pl. p. 41.
Nakau Ei, ed., Ukiyo-e hyakunin hyakushu (Ukiyo-e--one hundred people, one hundred minds) (Tokyo: Sojusha Bijutsu Shuppan, 1984), p. 87.
Narazaki Muneshige, Utamaro, vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e, edited by Narazaki Muneshige (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1981), pl. 8.
Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten: Saki kaoru Edo no joseibi (Exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting: The blooming and fragrant beauty of Edo women), edited by Narazaki Muneshige, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1984), pl. 25.
Sekai no Utamaro ten: Bankokuhaku kaisai kinen (World exhibition of Utamaro: Commemoration of Expo), exh. cat. (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1970), pl. 72.
Shibui Kiyoshi, ed., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e bijinga shusei/Ukiyo-e Paintings of Beauties in Japanese Collections, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1983), Horeki pl. 18.
Utamaro: Tokushu 2 (Utamaro: Special edition 2), Ukiyo-e geijutsu/Ukiyo-e Art 7 (1964), p. 3.
Ukiyo-e meisaku ten/Exhibition of Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Celebration of the Winter Olympic Games at Sapporo, exh. cat. (Sapporo: Hokkaido Art Museum and Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, 1972), no. 13.
Utamaro ten (Utamaro exhibition), exh. cat. (Osaka: Japan Ukiyo-e Society, 1965), no. 177.
Yamanaka and Company, Jidai byobu ukiyo-e rimpa tenrankai (Exhibition of Rimpa and ukiyo-e screens), sales cat. (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu Kurabu [Tokyo Art Club], December 1933), no. 26.
Yoshida Teruji, Ukiyo-e jiten: teihon (Ukiyo-e dictionary: the standard book), vol. 1 (Tokyo: Gabundo, 1974), p. 284.
Three women sit in an implied interior setting. The central figure, wearing the most opulent clothing and hair ornaments, tunes a three-stringed shamisen. Her long sleeves and sartorial finery speak of youth--as well as wealth. Her companion at right has already finished tuning her instrument and sits with it at attention (rather like a concertmaster). She sports a more subdued, but no less chic, outfit, a garment whose pattern was dyed into the thread before it was woven into cloth (the technique of kasuri). The appealing combination of this geometric kasuri design and the wide obi with an undulating vegetal motif is found in woodblock prints of the day; it assuredly represents the latest Edo fashion. The fan in her hand informs us that the day is warm. The left-hand figure, her garments partially rolled back to the waist, wears a combination of stripes and a relatively simple tie-dyed summer yukata, which resembles a cotton bathrobe. She adjusts the binding for her coiffure that has become imperceptibly disarrayed from the hard work of carting in a water-filled bronze (suiban) containing a miniature garden of a decorative rock and water-living sweet-flag plants (shobo).
By these relatively simple means, Utamaro, that great master of the feminine realm, has given us an appealing narrative vignette of a muggy summer's day in Edo. It is thought that the painting represents a domestic scene rather than a brothel, and that the central beauty conforms to that universal archetype, the classic pampered middle-class daughter (hakoiri musume). The woman on the right, whose lips part slightly to reveal the blackened teeth of a matron, is probably the girl's mother. Although their faces are nearly identical, Utamaro has cleverly coded the age and social status of each figure by means of clothing, accoutrements, activity, and body-language: the two heavily-clad ladies of the house enjoy the benefit of an appealing summer object designed to make them feel cool, while the more earthy maidservant sweats to make this comfort possible. Other contrasts include the intrusion of masculine imagery--the phallus-shaped rock and the sweet-flag, which is traditionally put in the bath on Boy's Day--into the distaff domain.
According to Kobayashi Tadashi, one of Japan's leading experts on ukiyo-e, this widely-published work is one of the few paintings with Utamaro's signature that may be accepted as genuine. It seems somehow a wonderfully Utamaro-esque touch that the artist's seal, with its ascending and descending dragons, echoes the motif on the bronze container.
Azabu Museum of Art, ed., Azabu bijutsukan: Shuzohin zuroku (Azabu Museum of Art: Catalogue of the collection) (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art, 1986), pl. 15.
Azabu Museum of Art, and Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, eds., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan/Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art, introduction by Kobayashi Tadashi, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art; Osaka: Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1988), pl. 47.
Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, and Japan Institute of Arts and Crafts, eds., Edo no fashon, kaikan kinen ten, Part I: Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e ni miru onnatachi no yosooi/"Fashion of Edo": Women's dress in Ukiyo-e Paintings, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, 1989), pl. 41.
Goto Shigeki, ed., Utamaro, vol. 5 of Ukiyo-e taikei (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1973), pl. 62.
Kikuchi Sadao, Utamaro II, vol. 5 of Ukiyo-e bijinga, yakusha-e (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1965), pl. 114.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 45, entry by Kobayashi Tadashi.
Nagata Seiji, Iki no bi, ukiyo-e (The beauty of chic, ukiyo-e), vol. 7 of Meiga to deau bijutsukan (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1992), color pl. p. 41.
Nakau Ei, ed., Ukiyo-e hyakunin hyakushu (Ukiyo-e--one hundred people, one hundred minds) (Tokyo: Sojusha Bijutsu Shuppan, 1984), p. 87.
Narazaki Muneshige, Utamaro, vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e, edited by Narazaki Muneshige (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1981), pl. 8.
Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten: Saki kaoru Edo no joseibi (Exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting: The blooming and fragrant beauty of Edo women), edited by Narazaki Muneshige, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1984), pl. 25.
Sekai no Utamaro ten: Bankokuhaku kaisai kinen (World exhibition of Utamaro: Commemoration of Expo), exh. cat. (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1970), pl. 72.
Shibui Kiyoshi, ed., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e bijinga shusei/Ukiyo-e Paintings of Beauties in Japanese Collections, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1983), Horeki pl. 18.
Utamaro: Tokushu 2 (Utamaro: Special edition 2), Ukiyo-e geijutsu/Ukiyo-e Art 7 (1964), p. 3.
Ukiyo-e meisaku ten/Exhibition of Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Celebration of the Winter Olympic Games at Sapporo, exh. cat. (Sapporo: Hokkaido Art Museum and Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, 1972), no. 13.
Utamaro ten (Utamaro exhibition), exh. cat. (Osaka: Japan Ukiyo-e Society, 1965), no. 177.
Yamanaka and Company, Jidai byobu ukiyo-e rimpa tenrankai (Exhibition of Rimpa and ukiyo-e screens), sales cat. (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu Kurabu [Tokyo Art Club], December 1933), no. 26.
Yoshida Teruji, Ukiyo-e jiten: teihon (Ukiyo-e dictionary: the standard book), vol. 1 (Tokyo: Gabundo, 1974), p. 284.
Three women sit in an implied interior setting. The central figure, wearing the most opulent clothing and hair ornaments, tunes a three-stringed shamisen. Her long sleeves and sartorial finery speak of youth--as well as wealth. Her companion at right has already finished tuning her instrument and sits with it at attention (rather like a concertmaster). She sports a more subdued, but no less chic, outfit, a garment whose pattern was dyed into the thread before it was woven into cloth (the technique of kasuri). The appealing combination of this geometric kasuri design and the wide obi with an undulating vegetal motif is found in woodblock prints of the day; it assuredly represents the latest Edo fashion. The fan in her hand informs us that the day is warm. The left-hand figure, her garments partially rolled back to the waist, wears a combination of stripes and a relatively simple tie-dyed summer yukata, which resembles a cotton bathrobe. She adjusts the binding for her coiffure that has become imperceptibly disarrayed from the hard work of carting in a water-filled bronze (suiban) containing a miniature garden of a decorative rock and water-living sweet-flag plants (shobo).
By these relatively simple means, Utamaro, that great master of the feminine realm, has given us an appealing narrative vignette of a muggy summer's day in Edo. It is thought that the painting represents a domestic scene rather than a brothel, and that the central beauty conforms to that universal archetype, the classic pampered middle-class daughter (hakoiri musume). The woman on the right, whose lips part slightly to reveal the blackened teeth of a matron, is probably the girl's mother. Although their faces are nearly identical, Utamaro has cleverly coded the age and social status of each figure by means of clothing, accoutrements, activity, and body-language: the two heavily-clad ladies of the house enjoy the benefit of an appealing summer object designed to make them feel cool, while the more earthy maidservant sweats to make this comfort possible. Other contrasts include the intrusion of masculine imagery--the phallus-shaped rock and the sweet-flag, which is traditionally put in the bath on Boy's Day--into the distaff domain.
According to Kobayashi Tadashi, one of Japan's leading experts on ukiyo-e, this widely-published work is one of the few paintings with Utamaro's signature that may be accepted as genuine. It seems somehow a wonderfully Utamaro-esque touch that the artist's seal, with its ascending and descending dragons, echoes the motif on the bronze container.