painting;
hanging scroll
- Museum number
- 1946,0209,0.44
- Description
-
Painting, hanging scroll. One from set of seven? Woman standing in front of clumps of cotton rose and courtesan flower, looking back at snow-covered peak of Mt Fuji and holding brush and paper to compose poem. Ink and colour on silk. Inscribed, signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1837-1844 (?)
- Dimensions
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Height: 36.50 centimetres
-
Width: 55.30 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Clark 1992
As the inscription next to the signature says, this is one from a set of seven paintings of women, and one wonders what the other subjects might have been. The woman stands in front of clumps of cotton rose ('fuyo') and the so-called courtesan flower ('ominaeshi'), with its crests of small golden blooms; both are flowers of autumn. She looks back at the already snow-covered graceful peak of Mt Fuji and is about to compose a poem describing the scene, and there may be a reference here to famous poets of the past who composed poems to the sacred mountain, such as Ariwara no Narihira in 'Tales of Ise' or the itinerant monk-poet Saigyo Hoshi. The shape of the eight protrusions on the peak of Mt Fuji was sometimes likened to the shape of an open cotton rose flower.
The form of signature and seals is similar to that in the well-known painting 'Courtesan Takao' (Freer Gallery of Art), dated by Narazaki ('us', vol. 16 (1981), no. 57) to the late Tempo era (1830-44).
Literature:
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, BW no. 42.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1946
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1946,0209,0.44
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.Add.226 (Japanese Painting Additional Number)
