Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806)
Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806)

Ogi uri, uchiwa uri, mugi tsuki (Folding fan seller, round fan seller, barley pounder), from the series Seiro niwaka onna geisha no bu (Female geisha section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka festival)

Details
Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806)
Ogi uri, uchiwa uri, mugi tsuki (Folding fan seller, round fan seller, barley pounder), from the series Seiro niwaka onna geisha no bu (Female geisha section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka festival)
Silver mica ground, signed Utamaro ga and published by Tsuruya Kiemon--very good impression, faded, creased, soiled, restorations, lightly backed
oban tate-e: 38.2 x 25.2cm.

Lot Essay

As Asano Shugo and Timothy Clark explain, the series depicts the female geisha who performed in the Yoshiwara Niwaka festival. Each design has three half-length figures arranged like a Buddhist triad, set against a background of printed dark grey mica. Four prints are known in the series. There are several series of "Yoshiwara Niwaka" prints in aiban format issued by the same publisher.
On this print, the geisha in the center is dressed in the costume of a farm woman with a large pestle for pounding barley; the woman on the right is a seller of folding fans; and the woman on the left, a seller of round fans, hanging from a bamboo pole over her shoulder. On the fan held by the folding fan seller are the characters "Mina", which must be the geisha's name.

Other impressions are held by the Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection; The Japan Ukiyoe Museum, Matsumoto; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Nelson Gallery of Art-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; Tokyo National Museum.

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