JAPANESE ART > FUKKOKU WOODBLOCK PRINTS > TAKASHIMA OHISA OBSERVING HER COIFFURE

Lot 00479
N.1 fukkoku woodblock print

Kitagawa Utamaro

TAKASHIMA OHISA OBSERVING HER COIFFURE

Year: 2000 ca.
Condition: very good
Size: 26,5 x 39,5 cm

SOLD

Charming woodblock print of the bijin-ga (美人画) type made by the famous artist Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿) and depicting the young Takashima Ohisa (高嶋おひさ) who in the evening, crouched in front of the makeup chest and wearing an informal dress, observes her coiffure doing awasekagami (合わせ鏡), ie using two mirrors held against each other.

This work was printed for the first time around 1795 by the publisher Matsumura Tatsuemon (松村辰右衛門) and in the upper left part we could originally see two riddles that, once solved, suggested the woman's name and age. In subsequent editions, however, these rebuses were censored because they were considered illegal and replaced with the current iris (アヤメ) flowers.

The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙) is presented here in a fine edition of the early 21st century made, as we read in the seal on the lower right, by the prestigious Watanabe Woodcut Prints (渡辺木版) in Tokyo and is in very good condition.

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