『春雨集』　摺物帖歌川国直画　元禄美人|Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: Genroku-style Courtesan

Utagawa Kuninao

probably 1810s · Privately published woodblock prints (surimono) mounted in an album; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Surimono are privately published woodblock prints, usually commissioned by individual poets or poetry groups as a form of New Year’s greeting card. The poems, most commonly kyōka (witty thirty-one syllable verse), inscribed on the prints usually include felicitous imagery connected with spring, which in the lunar calendar begins on the first day of the first month. Themes of surimono are often erudite, frequently alluding to Japanese literary classics in both texts and images. Though this print was created in the early nineteenth century, the artist has depicted a courtesan wearing styles popular a century before. The text above is a song by Ōishi Yoshio (Kuranosuke) extolling the beauty of courtesans of the pleasure quarters.

Artist

Utagawa Kuninao

Date

probably 1810s

Medium

Privately published woodblock prints (surimono) mounted in an album; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929