JAPANESE ART > UKIYO-E WOODBLOCK PRINTS > BRIDE AND NUPTIAL SAKE

Lot 00987
N.1 ukiyo-e woodblock print

Toyohara Chikanobu

BRIDE AND NUPTIAL SAKE

Year: 1897
Condition: good
Size: 25 x 35 cm

SOLD

Elegant woodblock print of vertical large oban (大判) format made by the artist Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延) and depicting a bride. The print is a reference to "San san kudo" (三々九度), literally "Three, three, nine times", the most important moment of the Shinto wedding ceremony, in which the bride and groom ritually share three cups of sake.

The work is taken from the "True Beauties" (真美人), a popular series of prints in which the artist interprets in his own way the general interest that was present in the Meiji Period (明治時代) in defining new canons of beauty, depicting various female figures, of all ages and ranks, engaged in different activities and suggesting to the observer the possibility of finding true beauty in each of them.

The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), produced in December 1897 by the publisher Akiyama Buemon (秋山武右衛門), despite the right signs of aging as well as the presence of two slight horizontal and vertical fold marks, is in overall good condition.

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