大奥女中芝居見物図|Lady-in-Waiting at Edo Castle

Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川國芳

ca. 1854–60 (Ansei era) · Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk · Asian Art

A young woman, her cheeks flushed a faint pink, rests an arm on a low, single-panel wooden screen as she gazes intently at some activity in the distance. Her dark grey outer robe bears a design of green leaves and pink blossoms; the dark orange obi around her waist is decorated with repeated floral motifs. A bright red robe and white under robe are visible at her neck, and her high chignon is tied with white cloth ribbons and features a hairpin terminating in a gilded ornament in the shape of a cluster of cherry blossoms. From her costume, hairstyle and an old inscription on the storage box, we can identify her as one of the ladies-in-waiting based permanently in the women’s quarters (ōoku) of the Shogun’s castle in Edo. Her long, narrow oval face is typical of many of the Kuniyoshi’s depictions of women. In the manner of many ukiyo-e painters, from the late 17th century to the 19th, Kuniyoshi left the background blank, and here the figure and the screen fill almost the entire picture plane.

Artist

Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川國芳

Date

ca. 1854–60 (Ansei era)

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Sue Cassidy Clark, in honor of Barbara Brennan Ford, 2020