OBJECT LABELS CONTEMPLATIVE SPACE SECTION 4 SECTION 3 SECTION 1 SECTION 2 PLAN OF THE GALLERY SECTION 1 Travel Utagawa Toyokuni I The peak of Mt Fuji and procession of beauties around 1810 Women and children walk in what’s probably a wedding procession for a princess. Two women leading carry trunks covered with the character kotobuki (“happiness”). The inscription at top right reads “a procession of beauties with Fuji-foreheads”. Fuji-forehead refers to a graceful hairline shaped like Mount Fuji. This used to be a symbol of beauty. Cat. 1 Katsushika Hokusai Shinagawa 1801–04 This location overlooking Edo Bay was a popular spot for viewing the moon. This is Shinagawa, first post town on the Tōkaidō out of Edo City. The woman on the bench wears an agebōshi (cloth headgear to protect the hair from dirt and dust); an ox rests from pulling a cart. While travelling, heavy luggage could be deposited with handlers who would transport it via ox carts. Cat. 2 Katsushika Hokusai Fuji view plain in Owari province Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji around 1831 Hokusai searched for subjects that would produce an unusual effect when combined with the image of Mt Fuji. This print is one of his most iconic works in the series, which depicts the mountain from various locations in Japan. Owari is one of the western-most places from which Fuji is visible. The great symbol of eternity is amusingly reduced to a tiny triangle set within a large bottomless barrel. By framing Fuji like this, Hokusai creates an intimate dialogue between the iconic mountain and the sinewy man. The juxtaposition lends grandeur to his honest labour and existence. Cat. 3 Utagawa Hiroshige Seto River Shank’s Mare on the Tōkaidō Road late 1830s This print is based on the comic novel Shank’s Mare, published in serial format (1802–09). The story follows Yajirobē and Kitahachi on a journey of adventure and misadventure along the Tōkaidō. The novel was a phenomenal success and is credited with promoting the love of travel during the Edo period. Here they are at the Seto River, near Fujieda. During low tide, travellers could cross the river on foot or even hire porters to carry them across in a palanquin. Kitahachi falling in the river is not an episode in the book, so Hiroshige must have invented it. Cat. 6 Utagawa Hiroshige Fukuroi: Tea stall Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road around 1833 A simple stand sells tea on the outskirts of town at Fukuroi (Shizuoka Prefecture), 27th station on the Tōkaidō. To highlight its non-central location, Hiroshige added a boundary marker beside the stall and an official notice board opposite. The smoke from the fire was created with a technique called karazuri (“empty printing” or gauffrage), in which a carved woodblock is applied without pigment, so it embosses into the paper, but does not colour it. Cat. 10 Utagawa Hiroshige Yoshida: The Toyokawa River Bridge Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road around 1833 This print shows Yoshida, 34th station of the Tōkaidō. On the right is Yoshida Castle, with construction work in progress. The bridge, spanning 218 metres, was one of three great bridges along the Tōkaidō. Cat. 11 Utagawa Hiroshige View of Ōi River Collection of Rivers on the Tōkaidō Road around 1851 Different modes of ferrying services over the Ōi River can be seen in this print. A daimyō in his palanquin is ferried across by many bearers. All the women seem to be wearing dustcoats over their kimono, perhaps to prevent it from getting wet. Cat. 16 Utagawa Hiroshige Hot spring by the river in Hakone Collection of Rivers on the Tōkaidō Road around 1851 On the left, a woman carries her yukata (light kimono worn in summer or as a bathrobe), preparing to head to the hot spring. The woman on the right wears her yukata; she seems to have just finished her bath. In the early Edo period, people went to Hakone’s hot springs for its healing properties. Later it became a popular attraction, and even today, Hakone draws local and international tourists. In Hiroshige’s Travel Journal of Famous Spots, he mentions that he enjoyed his visit and time in the hot springs of Hakone. Cat. 17 Beauty Kitagawa Utamaro Hair dressing Scenery of Famous Places and Twelve Aspects of Beauties around 1801–03 The woman helping the younger one has a marumage hairstyle, common for married women. Some married women blackening their teeth; and after delivering a child, would shave their eyebrows. The older woman here has eyebrows, and her teeth are not blackened. Perhaps Utamaro was trying to emphasise the beauty of her youthfulness. Utamaro was the premier designer of bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women). His way of drawing the female face and form became a new style and had an iconic impact. celebrate both real and idealised women. At first bijin-ga featured high-ranking courtesans, but soon included historic figures, geisha, fictional characters, notable townswomen, and other everyday women. Cat. 20 Torii Kiyomine Boys Festival Elegant Five-Needled Pine 1804–18 We know this woman is a mother because her eyebrows are shaved, and her teeth are blackened. During the Edo period, white powder was applied not only to the face, but also on the neck and across the chest. Cat. 22 Utagawa Kuninao Summer around 1810 The character at the top, “summer”, hints this was part of a series depicting activities of the four seasons. Perhaps the artist was trying to draw attention to the beauty of the nape of the woman’s neck in the mirror’s reflection. Edo people often made use of the public bathhouses. But it took a long time to wash away oil commonly applied to hair, so sometimes hair washing was done in the garden. In early Edo, one washed hair only several times a year; by the mid-Edo period, it increased to once or twice per month. Cat. 24 Woman applying rouge to her lips Woman blackening her teeth Woman tweezing her eyebrows Utagawa Kunisada, aka Toyokuni III Mirrors of Modern Make-up early 1820s This series, with striking framing device of the mirror, is one of the most representative works of Kunisada. All three women wear tortoiseshell combs and hairpins. One tidies the rouge on her lips. Another is blackening her teeth. Her eyebrows are not shaved, which suggests that she is married but has not yet given birth. The other plucks her eyebrows. Her hair is set in the shimada-mage style and decorated with even more precious tortoiseshell combs and hairpins. This suggests she could be a high-ranked courtesan. Cats. 28, 29, 30 Keisai Eisen In front of a mirror: Woman dressing her hair around 1820 This woman is probably a courtesan, the young man likely her client. As his head is only partially shaven, he is a wakashū. He has not yet received his coming-of-age ceremony that marked the transition to adulthood. This print is in the genre of abuna-e (“risky pictures”) – alluring, but no explicit sex. Keisai Eisen specialised in bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) that portray the figures as more worldly than those by earlier artists, replacing their grace and elegance with an understated sensuality. Cat. 33 Utagawa Kunisada, aka Toyokuni III Parody of Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Actors Ichikawa Ichizō III, Nakamura Shikan IV, and Kawarazaki Gonjūrō I 1860 This triptych shows a kabuki parody of a scene from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Chinese novels were popular in Edo and frequently adapted into Japanese settings. Like courtesans and geisha, kabuki actors were also fashionistas and celebrities during the Edo period. With their flamboyant costumes and dramatic make-up for the roles they played, they captured the imagination of Edo people. Cat. 36 Cats Suzuki Harunobu Evening snow on the nurioke around 1767–68 In this print, Suzuki Harunobu is making a joke. The title, “Evening snow on the nurioke” (Nurioke no bosetsu), plays on “River and Sky in Evening snow” (Kōten bosetsu), a famous Japanese landscape painting that pays tribute to earlier Chinese paintings. This print belongs to the genre of mitate-e – parody pictures. Harunobu has replaced the natural scenery with a domestic scene. The woman smokes a pipe while pulling a bale of silk floss over a black lacquered stretcher tub called a nurioke. The white silk is likened to the snow of the original landscape print. To note further insider knowledge, the occupation of watatsumi – cotton or silk floss puller – had grey connotations in Edo society: some of these women also provided sexual services. The cat sleeping beside the woman is probably a domestic pet, because it wears a collar. Cat. 38 Utagawa Hiroshige Asakusa ricefields and Torinomachi Festival One Hundred Famous Views of Edo 1857 Hiroshige here presents the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter during the Torinomachi Festival, busiest day of the year. From the window of a brothel, however, the noise and activity must seem far away to this cat. In the distance, a festival procession is crossing the Asakusa ricefields. A courtesan’s things are casually arrayed in the room. The cat is probably a pet kept by the courtesan. Perhaps Hiroshige is trying to show us the feelings of a courtesan through the cat. Cat. 40 Utagawa Toyokuni I Actors Iwai Hanshirō V as Dote no Oroku and Aburaya Osome, and Matsumoto Koshiro V as Kimon no Kihei 1813 This print for a fan is based on a kabuki play about the love between Osome, daughter of an oil seller, and Hisamatsu, a young apprentice in the shop.