KAWAMATA TSUNEMASA (fl. mid 18th century)*

COURTESAN ENJOYING THE FRAGRANCE OF INCENSE EDO PERIOD, HOREKI ERA (1751-64)

Details

KAWAMATA TSUNEMASA (fl. mid 18th century)*
Courtesan enjoying the fragrance of incense
Edo period, Horeki era (1751-64)
Signed Tsunemasa hitsu, sealed Tsunemasa
Hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on silk
15.1/8 x 20.7/8in. (38.4 x 53cm.)

Provenance

Takeoka Toyota, Kobe

Exhibited

Kyoto Imperial Museum, 1923

Takaoka City Museum, Toyama prefecture, 1963.5.1--19

"Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo/Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art," shown at the following venues:
Sendai City Museum, Sendai, 1988.6.11--7.17
Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, 1988.9.6--10.9
Sogo Museum, Yokohama, 1988.10.20--11.13

Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, Tokyo, "Edo no fashon, kaikan kinen ten, Part 1: Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e ni miru onnatachi no yosooi/'Fashion of Edo': Women's dress in Ukiyo-e Paintings," 1989.6.14--7.2

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992.11.15--1993.2.7

published:

Azabu Museum of Art, and Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, eds., Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo/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. 34.

Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, and Japan Institute of Arts and Crafts, eds., Edo no fashon, kaikan kinen ten, Part 1: 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. 33.

Dale Carolyn Gluckman, and Sharon Sadako Takeda, When Art Became Fashion: Kosode in Edo-period Japan, exh. cat. (New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992), cat. no. 199, color pl. p. 228.

"Kawamata Tsunemasa hitsu bijin monko zu" (Beauty listening to incense, by Kawamata Tsunemasa), Kokka 352 (September 1919), nn.

Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 34.

Kyoto Imperial Museum, ed., Tokubetsu tenran: Ukiyo-e shuei (Special exhibition: Collection of ukiyo-e), exh. cat. (Kyoto: Benrido, 1923), nn.

Narazaki Muneshige, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e 1: Kanbun--Horeki (Ukiyo-e painting 1: Kanbun era to Horeki era), Nihon no bijutsu 1, no. 248 (Tokyo: Shibundo, 1987), no. 109.

Ukiyo-e meisaku ten (Exhibition of ukiyo-e masterpieces), exh. cat. ([Takaoka]: Takaoka City Museum and Yomiuri Shimbunsha, 1963), nn.

Yoshida Teruji et al., eds., Hanga soshi jidai 1 (The formative period of ukiyo-e, 1), vol. 2 of Ukiyo-e taisei (Tokyo: Toho Shoin, 1931), no. 271.

Lot Essay

A courtesan enjoys the fragrance of incense from the small censer cupped in her hand while her young kamuro (child assistant) opens a paper incense wrapper to prepare another scent. The unsigned prose inscription provides a window into the courtesan's melancholy thoughts:
kaze ni yanagi no mi wa makasho ka
yo o ukikusa no koto o omou ni
waraute kanashiki hi o kurashikane
sumite ureshiki yo o oshimu rashi

I wonder if my world is to be rootless like waterweeds,
forever yielding, just as the willow gives way to wind,
while I pass sorrowful days in laughter,
and spend pleasureful nights embittered.

Waterweeds (ukigusa) symbolize the fundamental instability of personal relations, while the image of the wind-tossed willow refers to the courtesan, who must yield to her patron's advances.