実競色乃美名家見　三浦屋小紫　白井権八|The Lovers Miura-ya Komurasaki and Shirai Gonpachi.

Kitagawa Utamaro

probably 1797 · Woodblock print; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Tragic love stories taken from real life and dramatized were a staple of stage and print; the darkly romantic combination of desire and death was hugely popular in the eighteenth century. Hirai Gompachi was a warrior of the Tottori fief in western Japan who fled to Edo after committing a murder. He was apprehended and sentenced to death in 1679. His distraught lover, the courtesan Komurasaki, committed suicide at his grave.

Artist

Kitagawa Utamaro

Date

probably 1797

Medium

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1914