.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
published:
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 72.
Wakakuwa Midori, Kakusareta shisen: Ukiyo-e, yoga no josei rataizo (Hidden line of vision: The female nude in ukiyo-e and western painting), vol. 2 of Iwanami kindai Nihon no bijutsu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1997), no. 25.
A courtesan in dishabille clenches a sheaf of tissue paper between her teeth as she adjusts her hair. A few stray sheets of semi-transparent tissue drift suggestively to her feet. Judging by the stiff, jagged lines of the garments (reflecting ukiyo-e fashion of the late 1810s through 1820s) and the style of the signature--with the character "Toyo" rendered in a highly cursive zigzag manner--the painting is from the last stage of Toyokuni's career.
The poem, signed Ko (perhaps a courtesan's name), is a waka inscribed in archaic man'yogana (a mixture of cursively written Chinese characters used either phonetically or semantically), a rather unusual mode for an ukiyo-e painting of any period:
shirazaruya Just what happened
ause no makura during the tryst by pillow
ikanarishi I cannot recall, but asleep
nemidare-gami no my hair was tangled
toko no yamakaze by a tempest in the bedroom.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 72.
Wakakuwa Midori, Kakusareta shisen: Ukiyo-e, yoga no josei rataizo (Hidden line of vision: The female nude in ukiyo-e and western painting), vol. 2 of Iwanami kindai Nihon no bijutsu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1997), no. 25.
A courtesan in dishabille clenches a sheaf of tissue paper between her teeth as she adjusts her hair. A few stray sheets of semi-transparent tissue drift suggestively to her feet. Judging by the stiff, jagged lines of the garments (reflecting ukiyo-e fashion of the late 1810s through 1820s) and the style of the signature--with the character "Toyo" rendered in a highly cursive zigzag manner--the painting is from the last stage of Toyokuni's career.
The poem, signed Ko (perhaps a courtesan's name), is a waka inscribed in archaic man'yogana (a mixture of cursively written Chinese characters used either phonetically or semantically), a rather unusual mode for an ukiyo-e painting of any period:
shirazaruya Just what happened
ause no makura during the tryst by pillow
ikanarishi I cannot recall, but asleep
nemidare-gami no my hair was tangled
toko no yamakaze by a tempest in the bedroom.