Untitled

Torii Kiyonaga

ca. 1781 · Woodblock print; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

A rainy morning outside the licensed pleasure quarters further delays a disheveled young man who nonchalantly brushes his teeth while his companion and her maids look on with barely concealed impatience. The inscription, "Forget not your parents' love; respect the virtue of filial piety," is in satiric contrast to the scene, which in other circumstances might indeed reflect a family at its morning routine. Torii Kiyonaga, the last influential artist of the Torii school, painted graceful, stylish figures in the late eighteenth century.

Artist

Torii Kiyonaga

Date

ca. 1781

Medium

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Estate of Samuel Isham, 1914