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FRONT COVER: Detail from Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864), Hachidanme,<br />
from the 1859 series Chûshingura E-kyôdai [Cat. No. 1/VIII]
While the culture <strong>of</strong> the courtesan and that <strong>of</strong> the geisha was ostensibly distinct and sharply<br />
drawn, geisha in the licensed quarters being forbidden from engaging sexually with the yûjo<br />
or courtesan’s customers, the line was always somewhat blurred, the basis <strong>of</strong> contemporary<br />
confusion over the scope and tone <strong>of</strong> the latter’s pr<strong>of</strong>ession. As one pithy senryû [epigram]<br />
author put it, writing about geisha <strong>of</strong> a disreputable quarter: ‘First will she spread ~ second,<br />
how’s her voice?’ Despite this ambiguity, however, the two worlds were divided and<br />
discrete, this delineation being markedly expressed in attire, manner, training, housing,<br />
governmental bureaucracy and general public perception. To a geisha, the high-ranking<br />
courtesans were vulgar, flashy, and obvious ~ their eroticism openly displayed in their<br />
overly-elaborate, brightly coloured attire and complicated hairstyles (such as their multiple<br />
use <strong>of</strong> kogai or hair pins). The geisha, on the other hand, strove for an understated elegance<br />
known as iki, a ‘cool’, restrained sense <strong>of</strong> style, which could only be truly appreciated by a<br />
customer who was iki himself.<br />
In the woodblock prints featured in the exhibition, oiran (a generic terms for the highest<br />
class <strong>of</strong> courtesan; lit. ‘castle toppler’, in reference to the ease at which they could rid an<br />
infatuated daimyô [lord] <strong>of</strong> his estates) predominate, depicted both as themselves and in a<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> roles, drawn principally from classical novel and epic. This conflation <strong>of</strong> famous<br />
courtesan with beloved literary archetype served to render what were, essentially, indentured<br />
entertainers and prostitutes, however artistically skilled, into figures <strong>of</strong> legend with no<br />
reference point to the <strong>of</strong>ten harsh, quotidian reality <strong>of</strong> the pleasure quarters, which, according<br />
to figures at the end <strong>of</strong> the nineteenth century were riddled with syphilis and gonorrhoea<br />
(over 9, 000 Yoshiwara women suffering from the former in 1893 alone) [De Becker: 1899,<br />
p. 360].<br />
Indeed, the mythologizing <strong>of</strong> the ‘flowers <strong>of</strong> the floating world’ rooted early and continues<br />
to flourish today~ the <strong>of</strong>ten far from romantic reality as adroitly masked as it was in the early<br />
modern era. Included in our exhibition is a Meiji-period image by an anonymous<br />
photographer, which poignantly counterweights that myth: a rare portrait <strong>of</strong> an Okami-san [a<br />
proprietress <strong>of</strong> a teahouse]. Her world weary, resigned expression recalling lines penned a<br />
century earlier by the renowned literati Ôta Nampo (1749-1823) on the insubstantial, shifting<br />
ground underpinning the floating world:<br />
Courtesans <strong>of</strong> the Five Streets <strong>of</strong> the Quarter,<br />
Ten years adrift on an ocean <strong>of</strong> troubles,<br />
Released at twenty-seven with misguided dreams<br />
Ah! This bitter mirage <strong>of</strong> the brothels!<br />
[Trans. T. Clark]<br />
EARLY JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
Anne Louise Avery<br />
The origins <strong>of</strong> photography in Japan can be traced to 1848, when a daguerreotype camera<br />
was imported by Ueno Shunnojo (1790-1851) through the island <strong>of</strong> Dejima, the Nagasaki<br />
enclave where Chinese and Dutch merchants were allowed to trade during the long period <strong>of</strong><br />
Japan’s ‘Seclusion Law’ or Sakoku (ca.1650-1854).<br />
It was within the scientific rather than artistic community that photography began to flourish.<br />
In 1853, a Dutch doctor and amateur photographer, Dr J. K. van den Broek, arrived to work<br />
at a Nagasaki hospital and started to instruct a number <strong>of</strong> Japanese in the daguerreotype and<br />
calotype techniques. His successor at the hospital in 1857, Dr J. L. C. Pompe van<br />
Meerdervoort, introduced the relatively new wet-plate process to two <strong>of</strong> his most talented<br />
chemistry students: Ueno Hikoma (1838-1904), Ueno Shunnojo’s son, who subsequently<br />
opened the first commercial photo studio in Japan in 1862, and Kyuichi Uchida who went on<br />
to take the first photographic portraits <strong>of</strong> the Meiji Emperor and Empress.
The earliest known authenticated images <strong>of</strong> a Japanese subject were a number <strong>of</strong><br />
daguerreotypes taken in the United States by the Baltimore photographer Harvey R. Marks<br />
(1821-1902) in 1851. Marks photographed some <strong>of</strong> the survivors from a Japanese shipwreck,<br />
who had been rescued and brought to San Francisco in 1851, notably 'Sam Patch' the cook.<br />
Sam Patch later returned in 1854 with Commodore Perry, whose intention was to force<br />
Japan to abandon her isolationist position and open up to trade with America. Perry’s <strong>of</strong>ficial<br />
photographer, Eliphalet Brown, Jr (1816-1886), took over 200 daguerreotypes <strong>of</strong> the<br />
expedition, photographing a number <strong>of</strong> Japanese women, including one courtesan. Few <strong>of</strong><br />
these pictures are extant.<br />
The success <strong>of</strong> Perry’s mission led to the arrival in 1856 <strong>of</strong> US consul Townsend Harris<br />
together with a Dutch interpreter, Henry Heusken. Heusken was also a photographer, and<br />
among his students was Renjo Shimooka (1823-1914), who opened a studio in Yokohama in<br />
1862. Russia had also sent naval expeditions in 1853 and 1854, including a daguerreotypist,<br />
Captain Aleksander Mozhaiskii in 1854.<br />
Subsequent to these visits, the US, Russia and other Western countries negotiated the<br />
establishment <strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> 'treaty ports', including Yokohama, Hakodate and Shimoda.<br />
Following an American, Orrin E. Freeman, and an Englishman, William Saunders, Felice<br />
Beato (ca. 1825-ca.1908) arrived in Yokohama in around 1862, with an impressive<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>essional record [Cat. No. 52; 53]. His reputation quickly grew, during the 1860s being<br />
considered the foremost Western photographer in Japan, until the sale <strong>of</strong> his studio to Baron<br />
von Stillfried in 1877, ending his sojourn in Japan. Commercial photography in Japan owed<br />
much to Beato, particularly in the relation to the practice <strong>of</strong> hand-colouring prints ~ a<br />
process which brought the art <strong>of</strong> photography closer to the traditions <strong>of</strong> ukiyo-e woodblock<br />
prints.<br />
His successor, Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Ratenicz (1839-1911), an Austrian aristocrat,<br />
was one <strong>of</strong> the leading photographers <strong>of</strong> the nineteenth century [Cat. No. 54]. Throughout<br />
the 1870s, he managed a series <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional studios in Yokohama, which was now firmly<br />
established as the premiere gateway for the Western tourist trade. As such, it supported and<br />
nurtured the rapid spread <strong>of</strong> commercial photography, the number <strong>of</strong> studios expanding<br />
rapidly. In the 1880s, the Yokohama shashin [‘Yokohama-style photograph’] entered its<br />
heyday: the shift from experimental dilettanteism to commercialism evident in the new<br />
production <strong>of</strong> souvenir photograph albums, replete with geisha, samurai, quaint peasantry<br />
and the omnipresent ‘Fujiyama’; sold to foreign tourists as virtual records <strong>of</strong> their<br />
experiences in the exotic and bewildering country.<br />
The tourist trade, however, was not the only marketplace in which the empiricism <strong>of</strong> early<br />
photography was utilised. From the 1870s to the mid-1880s, photographs <strong>of</strong> the inmates <strong>of</strong><br />
the Yoshiwara were displayed in frames outside <strong>of</strong> the respective brothels. Later, this<br />
practice was refined into the presentation <strong>of</strong> albums (mostly consisting <strong>of</strong> women from first<br />
and second-class houses) to prospective customers. Called Shashin mitate-chô (‘photograph<br />
albums to facilitate the selection <strong>of</strong> girls), one stated that ‘you can find any flower you desire<br />
if you go to the Yoshiwara. However, the practice <strong>of</strong> promenading…is too old a custom to<br />
be revived in these times, and so we have hit upon the plan <strong>of</strong> grouping a collection <strong>of</strong> belles<br />
in the space <strong>of</strong> a small photograph album…leaving our guests to select the flowers they<br />
fancy’ [From a photograph album <strong>of</strong> the Ohiko-rô].<br />
In this way, the Yokohama photograph entered the culture <strong>of</strong> the Floating World, its ability<br />
to objectively capture an image rendering it a dark modern successor to the idealised<br />
woodblocks still being printed in the Nihonbashi publishing houses: the shashin, literally<br />
meaning ‘truthful copy’, revealing the monetary sordidity <strong>of</strong> the pleasure districts in a way<br />
that the nishiki-e could never do.<br />
During this period, the principal and most prolific studios were those <strong>of</strong> Adolfo Farsari<br />
(1841-1898), whose reputation, according to Rudyard Kipling, extended ‘from Saigon even<br />
to America [Cat. No. 55],’ and the increasingly financially-successful Japanese photographic<br />
pioneers, led by Kimbei Kusakabe (1841-1934) [Cat. No. 51, 56, 57], Kazuma Ogawa<br />
(1860-1929) [Cat. No.: 58] and Kozaburo Tamamura (1856-1915).<br />
The ascendancy <strong>of</strong> Yokohama as a centre for photography began to wane at the close <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Meiji period (1868-1912), when advances in camera technology enabled amateurs affordably
I. Daiichinokan. Kiritsubo. [Chapter 1: The Paulownia Court]<br />
Date [Western]: 1858<br />
Date [Japanese]: Second Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 5<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga within a toshidama cartouche<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: uma ni/horse 2<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Uoya Eikichi<br />
Carver: Yokogawa Takejiro<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock with karazuri<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e diptych<br />
Condition: Very good; some light creasing; pristine colour with the fugitive purple<br />
intact<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £550<br />
II. Daishichinokan E-awase [Chapter 17: The Picture Contest]<br />
Date [Western]: 1858<br />
Date [Japanese]: Second Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 5<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga within a toshidama cartouche<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: uma ni/horse 2<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Uoya Eikichi<br />
Carver: Yokogawa Takejiro<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock with karazuri<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e diptych<br />
Condition: Excellent with fine karazuri; pristine colour with the fugitive purple intact<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £600<br />
III. Dainijûgonokan. Hotaru. [Chapter 25: Fireflies]<br />
Date [Western]: 1858<br />
Date [Japanese]: Seventh Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 5<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga within a toshidama cartouche<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: uma shichi/horse 7<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Wakasaya Yoichi<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print with karazuri<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e diptych<br />
Condition: Excellent with fine karazuri; pristine colour with the fugitive purple intact<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £600<br />
IV. Daisanjûnokan. Fujibakama. [Chapter 30: Purple Trousers]<br />
Date [Western]: 1858<br />
Date [Japanese]: Second Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 5<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga within a toshidama cartouche<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: uma ni/horse 2<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Uoya Eikichi<br />
Carver: Yokogawa Takejiro<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print with karazuri<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e diptych<br />
Condition: Excellent with fine karazuri; pristine colour with the fugitive purple intact
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £550<br />
V. Daiyonjûnikan. Niou no Miya. [Chapter 42: His Perfumed Highness]<br />
Date [Western]: 1859<br />
Date [Japanese]: Ansei 6<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga within a toshidama cartouche<br />
Censor/Zodiacal Date Seal: Combined aratame [‘examined’] and date seal [yagi<br />
ichi/goat 1]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Ebisu-ya Shôshichi<br />
Carver: Yokogawa Takejiro<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print with karazuri<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e diptych<br />
Condition: Excellent with fine karazuri; pristine colour with the fugitive purple intact<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £550<br />
3. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Blossom Viewing [Hanami]<br />
Series: Tôsei Genji [Modern Day Genji]<br />
Date [Western]: 1859<br />
Date [Japanese]: 10 th Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 6<br />
Censor/Date Seal: Combined aratame [‘examined] and zodiacal date seal [yagi jû/goat<br />
10]<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga within a toshidama cartouche<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Ki-ya Sojiro<br />
Carver: Kosen<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Excellent<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 15 x 9 3/4 inches<br />
Price [Framed]: £750<br />
This rare triptych, similarly drawing on the rambunctious Inaka Genji gôkan, depicts<br />
Mitsuuji [Genji] in elaborate cold weather attire watching an inebriated group <strong>of</strong> spring<br />
revellers frolic under the blossom, the court ladies accompanying him closely resembling a<br />
courtesan and her kamuro. Dominating the composition, his exaggerated stature recalls lines<br />
from ‘The Festival <strong>of</strong> the Cherry Blossoms’ [Hananoen], Chapter 8 <strong>of</strong> Genji monogatari,<br />
describing the prince at a hanami party: ‘Genji dressed himself with great care…He wore a<br />
robe <strong>of</strong> thin white Chinese damask with a red lining and under it a very long train <strong>of</strong><br />
magenta. Altogether, the dashing young prince, he added something new to the assembly<br />
that so cordially received him…He quite overwhelmed the blossoms, in a sense spoiling the<br />
party.’<br />
4. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Admiring Suzumushi [Bell Crickets] on a Summer Evening<br />
Date [Western]: 1860<br />
Date [Japanese]: Tenth month <strong>of</strong> Man-en 1/Ansei 7<br />
Signatures: Toyokuni-ga [middle and right-hand panels]; Kunihisa-ga [left-hand<br />
panel]<br />
Censor/Date Seal: Combined aratame-date seal [saru jû/monkey 10]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Moriya Jihei
6. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Yatsu koane tenen no zu [Eight Princesses from the Tales <strong>of</strong> the Dog Warriors]<br />
Series: Satomi Hakkenden Sôkanbi [The Final Chapter <strong>of</strong> the Tales <strong>of</strong> the Eight Dog<br />
Warriors from Satomi]<br />
Date [Western]: 1855<br />
Date [Japanese]: Twelfth Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 2<br />
Signature: oju Toyokuni-ga<br />
Censor Seal: aratame [‘examined’]<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: usagi jûni/hare 12<br />
Carver: Sashichi<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print with karazuri [‘blind printing’]<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Good; some creasing on left-hand sheet; fugitive purple intact<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Mounted]: £650<br />
A rare triptych depicting the usually neglected female characters from the Nansô Satomi<br />
Hakkenden by Takizawa Bakin (1767-1849), a series <strong>of</strong> 106 yomihon published between<br />
1814 and 1841. The tales, their complex plot-lines structured around bushi notions <strong>of</strong> heroic<br />
courage, duty, honour, filial piety, righteousness, and unflinching physical prowess,<br />
originally deriving from the Chinese novel Shuihuzhuan [The Water Margin; Japanese:<br />
Suikoden].<br />
The story begins with Satomi Yoshizane <strong>of</strong>fering his beloved daughter Fusehime to<br />
whomever can manage to kill his sworn enemy. In a strange twist <strong>of</strong> fate, Yatsufusa, his<br />
faithful dog, murders the odious man, returning with his severed head. Against her distraught<br />
father’s wishes, Fusehime subsequently accepts the hound as her husband, submitting to the<br />
winds <strong>of</strong> karma. Eventually a child is born to the unlikely pairing. After the birth, a vassal <strong>of</strong><br />
Yoshizane attempts to kill Yatsufusa, but, instead, his bullet strikes Fusehime who then<br />
commits suicide. On the moment <strong>of</strong> death, eight magical tei beads, each inscribed with a<br />
character signifying a Confucian virtue, fly up to the heavens and vanish. They are later<br />
discovered in the clutched hands <strong>of</strong> infant sons born to families whose names begin with inu,<br />
the kanji for dog.<br />
Once grown, these eight young ‘dog’ warriors, the spiritual <strong>of</strong>fspring <strong>of</strong> the tragic Fusehime,<br />
engage in numerous heroic exploits, eventually restoring the dispossessed Satomi family to<br />
power. The huge canvas painted by the loquacious Bakin ensured its popularity as rich<br />
source <strong>of</strong> imagery for ukiyo-e warrior prints [musha-e] and mitate-e. This work, a form <strong>of</strong><br />
gentle mitate-e, is interesting for its exclusive focus on the wives and daughters <strong>of</strong> the series;<br />
as usual, portrayed by famous tayû <strong>of</strong> the day.<br />
The grouping consists <strong>of</strong> the following characters: Shizuo-hime [1 st Princess, Shinbee's wife]<br />
Kinoto-hime [2 nd Princess, Sôsuke’s wife]; Hinaki-hime [3 rd Princess, Daikaku’s wife];<br />
Takeno-hime [4 th Princess, Dôsetsu’s wife]; Onami-hime [7 th Princess, Keno’s Wife]; Irotohime<br />
[8 th Princess, Kobungo’s wife]; and two Senior Ladies in Waiting [Rôjo].<br />
The byôbu decorated with auspicious cranes and the mass <strong>of</strong> plum blossom in the centre <strong>of</strong><br />
the composition indicates the early spring.<br />
7. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Cherry Trees at Night [Yozakura]<br />
Date [Western]: 1860<br />
Date [Japanese]: Second Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 7<br />
Censor/Date Seal: Combined aratame [‘examined’] and zodiacal date seal [saru<br />
ni/monkey 2]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Shimizu-ya Naôjirô<br />
School: Utagawa
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Excellent; slight wear at edges <strong>of</strong> sheets<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £875<br />
Almost identical in design to an earlier triptych <strong>of</strong> 1850, Viewing Plum Blossoms at Night<br />
[Okonomi yoru no umemi], this rare triptych is one <strong>of</strong> a series <strong>of</strong> works depicting hanami<br />
[blossom viewing] in the capital. In the Edo imagination, the beauty and brevity <strong>of</strong> the<br />
cherry blossom was synonymous with the transient pleasures <strong>of</strong>fered by the Floating World.<br />
Aside from the Shin Yoshiwara, where cherry trees were specially planted for the flowering<br />
season, four places were most frequented for hanami parties: Ueno, Gotenyama, Asukayama<br />
and the banks <strong>of</strong> the Sumidagawa [Sumida River]. The river was particularly popular for<br />
moonlit strolls among the fragrant blossoms, a picturesque theme frequently explored by<br />
ukiyo-e artists.<br />
The sakura fever that overtook Japan every spring was parodied in one famous geisha kouta<br />
[a short, lyrical song accompanied by the shamisen], popular in Kunisada’s day:<br />
Sakura sakura to O the cherry, the cherry,<br />
Hitobito ga When is it that folks<br />
Ukaretamau wa Frolic about under the blossom?<br />
Itsu no koto From the end <strong>of</strong> the Third Month<br />
Sangatsu sue To the middle <strong>of</strong> the Fourth,<br />
Kara shigatsu It’s nothing<br />
No nakareba kana but cherry blossom!<br />
Hanazakari<br />
8. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Kachô noriai genji [Prince Genji partnered with Birds and Flowers]<br />
Date [Western]: 1859<br />
Date [Japanese]: Eighth Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 6<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga within a toshidama cartouche<br />
Censor/Date Seal: Combined aratame [‘examined’] and zodiacal date seal [yagi<br />
hachi/goat 8]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Kaga-ya Kichiemon<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print with karazuri [‘blind printing’]<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Excellent<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £850<br />
The ‘modern’ Genji floats down a river on a yakatabune [palace boat] accompanied, as<br />
usual, by a coterie <strong>of</strong> ladies. Cherry trees in bloom represent the ‘partnership’ <strong>of</strong> the title and<br />
refer to the evanescent nature <strong>of</strong> such delightful entertainment. Contrasting with his party’s<br />
elegance, is a regular river barge, filled with lower-class, slightly rusticated entertainers who<br />
have obviously come from a spring matsuri. The costume being roughly shoved away for its<br />
inhabitant to smoke a pipe, is that <strong>of</strong> an oni or demon.<br />
Guardians <strong>of</strong> the entrance to hell, the horned, shaggy-haired and club-wielding oni, were<br />
usually considered a powerfully malevolent force. However, like the shape-shifting kitsune<br />
[fox], they were <strong>of</strong>ten capricious in their relationship with humanity ~ occasionally<br />
performing good deeds or <strong>of</strong>fering unexpected assistance. Such unpredictable fluxes <strong>of</strong> good<br />
and bad behaviour made appropriate obeisances necessary and every spring oni-odori<br />
[demon dances] would take place around the country. At the beginning <strong>of</strong> the second month
it was also traditional to cast dried beans [signifying prosperity] in a dwelling’s nooks and<br />
crannies to drive any resident recalcitrant oni away.<br />
9. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864) and Utagawa Hiroshige<br />
(1797-1858).<br />
Azuma Genji Yuki no Niwa [The Eastern Genji in the Snowy Garden]<br />
Date [Western]: 1854<br />
Date [Japanese]: Twelfth Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 1<br />
Signatures and Artist’s Inscriptions/Seals: Toyokuni-ga in a toshidama cartouche [left<br />
and right-hand sheets]; Yuki no kei oju [‘The Snow Scene on Request’]; Hiroshige-hitsu<br />
with Ichiryusai seal<br />
Censor Seal: Aratame [‘examined’]<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: tora jûni/tiger 12<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Moriji<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Excellent; particularly fine colour and bokashi<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £1, 650<br />
This collaborative design, showing Genji and Murasaki watching a group <strong>of</strong> maids building<br />
a yuki-usagi [snow rabbit], consists <strong>of</strong> a landscape background by Hiroshige, with figures by<br />
Kunisada. Although the genji mon forming the cartouche in the right-hand sheet is that <strong>of</strong><br />
Chapter 12 <strong>of</strong> Genji monogatari, the construction <strong>of</strong> a snow sculpture that forms the central<br />
motif <strong>of</strong> the work, seems to bear a closer relationship to an <strong>of</strong>t-depicted passage in Chapter<br />
20, Asagao [Morning Glory]:<br />
‘There was a heavy fall <strong>of</strong> snow. In the evening there were new flurries. The moon turned<br />
the deepest recesses <strong>of</strong> the garden into a gleaming white. The contrast between the snow on<br />
the bamboo and the snow on the pines was very beautiful...The flowerbeds were wasted, the<br />
brook seemed to send up a strangled cry, and the lake was frozen and somehow terrible. Into<br />
this austere scene, Genji sent little maidservants, telling them that they must make snowmen.<br />
Their dress was bright and their hair shone in the moonlight. The older ones were especially<br />
pretty…the fresh sheen <strong>of</strong> their hair black against the snow. The smaller ones quite lost<br />
themselves in the sport…It was all very charming.’ [Seidensticker, trans., 1976: p.357].<br />
In Japanese cosmology, the quasi-divine figure <strong>of</strong> the white rabbit was thought to embody<br />
the spirit <strong>of</strong> the moon; the god <strong>of</strong> the moon and the seasonal tides, Tsuki-Yomi, <strong>of</strong>ten<br />
depicted as riding a giant usagi. As such, the construction <strong>of</strong> a snow rabbit in the moonlit<br />
garden would have been particularly appropriate. That the maid servants are shown placing<br />
the final eye in the rabbit is <strong>of</strong> import, as its recalls the Buddhist eye-opening ceremony<br />
[kaigen], based on the tenet that a wooden or painted image can only embody its signified<br />
divinity when the eyes are painted in. Kaigen <strong>of</strong>ten drew huge crowds <strong>of</strong> people, in 752, for<br />
example, when a large bronze image <strong>of</strong> Roshana (Mahavairocana) was dedicated in the main<br />
hall <strong>of</strong> Todai-ji in Nara, the Buddha's eyes being painted in by an Indian monk, it was<br />
witnessed by roughly ten thousand priests and numerous foreign visitors.<br />
10. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Yukimi tsuki [Snow Viewing Month]<br />
Series: Genji Jûnikagetsu no uchi [The Twelve Months <strong>of</strong> Genji]<br />
Date [Western]: 1856<br />
Date [Japanese]: Seven Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 3<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga in a toshidama cartouche<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: tatsu shichi/dragon 7<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Fujioka-ya Keijirô<br />
School: Utagawa
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Excellent with especially fine colour and detailing<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £1, 650<br />
This important and rare work <strong>of</strong>fers a further reinterpretation <strong>of</strong> Chapter 20 <strong>of</strong> Genji<br />
monogatari, with the erection <strong>of</strong> a snow frog [yuki-kaeru] being substituted for the yukiusagi.<br />
Genji, surrounded by courtiers, points his kiseru [pipe] at the group energetically<br />
putting the finishing touches to the sculpture. Again, the moment is that <strong>of</strong> the placement <strong>of</strong><br />
the final eye, the ritualised awakening and ensouling <strong>of</strong> the image.<br />
In Japanese the word for "frog" and the verb for "to return" are pronounced the same way<br />
[kaeru], and, in the floating world, it became customary for a geisha or courtesan to fold and<br />
pin up an origami frog after entertaining a favourite patron, in the hope that he would return.<br />
A further semantic layer is <strong>of</strong>fered by the Zen notion that the characteristic squatting position<br />
<strong>of</strong> the frog was reminiscent <strong>of</strong> a monk’s meditation or zazen position; the Rinzai Zen master<br />
Sengai Gibbon (1750-1837), for example, executing numerous sumi-e sketches on that<br />
theme. Thus, as with most ukiyo-e, all is not quite as it seems ~ the playful snow frog<br />
actually being positioned in the apposite pose for the achievement <strong>of</strong> satori or<br />
enlightenment: the awareness <strong>of</strong> the transience <strong>of</strong> all things, a constant <strong>of</strong> both Genji and<br />
ukiyo culture, being conflated with the asobi [play] <strong>of</strong> Genji and companions in the snow. As<br />
one <strong>of</strong> Genji’s waka from Chapter 20 expresses, in the midst <strong>of</strong> pleasure, the sadness <strong>of</strong> this<br />
world <strong>of</strong> fragile appearances, the old sense <strong>of</strong> ukiyo, can suddenly intrude. Admiring the<br />
beauty <strong>of</strong> Murasaki against the backdrop <strong>of</strong> the snowy garden, his thoughts are interrupted<br />
by the call <strong>of</strong> a waterfowl: ‘A night <strong>of</strong> drifting snow and memories/Is broken by another note<br />
<strong>of</strong> sadness.’<br />
11. Utagawa Kunisada II (1823-1880)<br />
The Shin Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter<br />
Date [Western]: 1861<br />
Date [Japanese]: First Month <strong>of</strong> Man-en 2<br />
Signature: Kunisada-ga<br />
Censor/Zodiacal Date Seal: Combined aratame [‘examined’] and date seal [tori ichi/<br />
cock 1]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Chôkichiban [rare]<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 1/2 inches<br />
Condition: Good<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £850<br />
The Shin Yoshiwara [‘New Yoshiwara’] pleasure quarter represented the nexus <strong>of</strong> the<br />
floating world. It was named for the marshy reed plains near Nihonbashi where it was<br />
originally established, by Shouji Jin'emon (1576-1644), at the beginning <strong>of</strong> the seventeenth<br />
century, the only bakufu sanctioned prostitution zone in Edo. Almost immediately, however,<br />
the first kanji ‘reed’, was replaced by that for ‘happiness’, which shares the same reading;<br />
transfiguring the meaning to the more appropriate and appealing ‘Plain <strong>of</strong> Happiness’. In<br />
1657, a terrible fire swept through the enclosed district, and the quarter was moved to a new<br />
site by the Nihon-zutzumi dyke in the Asakusa district, thus adding the prefix Shin or ‘New’<br />
to the name. After its relocation, the quarter began to flourish; its initial five-street layout<br />
expanding to seven to accommodate the growing population, which, in its heyday in the<br />
early eighteenth century, numbered over 3000 courtesans and kamuro. In addition to the<br />
women, a daily carnival <strong>of</strong> brothel owners, shopkeepers, geisha, cooks, servants, attendants,
entertainers, musicians and ‘adventurers and intermediaries <strong>of</strong> every kind and description’<br />
plied the wards for trade [Turk, 1966: p.135].<br />
Despite the otherworldly isolation <strong>of</strong> the quarter and the emphasis on a client’s monetary<br />
assets rather than his rank, the Yoshiwara nevertheless developed an elaborate system <strong>of</strong><br />
precedence and etiquette as bewildering and stifling as that which dictated the ‘fixed’ world<br />
outside. This, together with the spiralling costs <strong>of</strong> hiring a high-class tayû or kôshi, led to the<br />
emergence <strong>of</strong> numerous okabasho or unlicensed, illegal pleasure districts where the average<br />
townsman could afford a more quotidian and unadorned form <strong>of</strong> prostitution.<br />
Indeed, by the end <strong>of</strong> the eighteenth century, the highest ranks <strong>of</strong> courtesan occupied such a<br />
super-elevated and financially unobtainable position that the grading system had to be<br />
changed ~ the lower yobidashi and chûsan classes moving to the top. [Clark, 1992: p.15]. As<br />
grand courtesans, they occupied houses known as ômagaki after the distinctive lattice<br />
windows at the entrance. Higher graded women were not expected to display themselves to<br />
attract clients, however, instead elegantly processing, retinue <strong>of</strong> kamuro in matching kimono<br />
trailing behind them, to an ochaya [‘teahouse’] to meet the prosperous customer who had<br />
ceremonially summoned them.<br />
Just such a procession can be seen in the right-hand sheet <strong>of</strong> Kunisada II’s triptych, which<br />
depicts nine <strong>of</strong> the most famous courtesans in the Shin Yoshiwara; the decorative cartouche<br />
containing their mon or device, name and a short poetic encomium.<br />
The pyramidal arrangement <strong>of</strong> buckets [in the centre sheet] was a safeguard against the everpresent<br />
danger <strong>of</strong> fires, so common they were known as ‘Flowers <strong>of</strong> Edo’.<br />
12. Utagawa Kunisada II (1823-1880)<br />
A Collection <strong>of</strong> Ôiran inside the Shin Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarters<br />
Date [Western]: 1861<br />
Date [Japanese]: First Month <strong>of</strong> Man-en 2<br />
Signature: Kunisada-ga<br />
Censor/Zodiacal Date Seal: Combined aratame [‘examined’] and date seal [tori ichi/<br />
cock 1]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Chôkichiban [rare]<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Condition: Good<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 1/2 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £850<br />
From the same series as the above triptych, the viewer’s perspective has now shifted to<br />
inside the Yoshiwara. Similarly acting as an idealistic advertisement for the exquisite and<br />
cultivated women on <strong>of</strong>fer, the work depicts a further set <strong>of</strong> nine courtesans, with their<br />
kamuro, languidly engaged in whiling away the time before their next assignations. In these<br />
types <strong>of</strong> unproblematic depictions, little was evoked, however, <strong>of</strong> the seamier and more<br />
pitiful side <strong>of</strong> the floating world.<br />
For the large numbers <strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>ten pre-pubescent peasant girls sold into prostitution by their<br />
impoverished families, the best they could hope for was to become apprenticed as attendants<br />
to one <strong>of</strong> the more successful and high-ranking women. In an almost identical pattern to<br />
geisha, they were trained for a number <strong>of</strong> years in etiquette and the fine arts, finally making<br />
their debut as shinzô (the equivalent to maiko), apprentice courtesans, in their later teens.<br />
Thereafter, the aim was to progress through the hierarchy as rapidly as possible, moving<br />
from heya-mochi (having their own room) and zashiki-mochi (having their own suite) to<br />
becoming a full courtesan with servants <strong>of</strong> their own. After the standard decade <strong>of</strong> indenture,<br />
however, the options became rather limited for most women, however beautiful or talented.<br />
Possibly the happiest outcome <strong>of</strong> one’s Yoshiwara career would be societal and financial<br />
redemption by a kind patron, either by becoming his mistress or by running a business<br />
backed by his gold. All too many former inmates, however, ended their careers in the less
Publisher’s Seal: Sadaoka<br />
School: Hokusai<br />
Method: Woodblock surimono; hôsho-gami; embossed background; extensive<br />
detailing in gold [rich brass] and silver [zinc-rich brass].<br />
Format: Shikishiban<br />
Dimensions: Each impression 8 x 7 1/2 inches<br />
Code: BH163<br />
I. Green cartouche, bright red detailing on fan. Some oxidation.<br />
Price [Mounted]: £490<br />
II. Gold cartouche, faded red detailing on fan. Some soiling and movement <strong>of</strong> colour.<br />
Price [Mounted]: £450<br />
The exquisitely elegant and iki [‘cool’] bijin depicted in the upper roundel is probably a<br />
portrait <strong>of</strong> a geisha who was a particular favourite <strong>of</strong> the kyôka poet. This would seem to be<br />
confirmed by the presence <strong>of</strong> a fanciful boat-shaped form <strong>of</strong> the character nao, the first kanji<br />
<strong>of</strong> the poet’s name, Naonari Asa-no-ya, both on her fan and on the poetry slip to the right <strong>of</strong><br />
the composition. Naonari’s verse alludes to the central emblem <strong>of</strong> the auspicious kujaku or<br />
peacock, a bird <strong>of</strong>ten invoked in New Year surimono. It reads 'Tori mo kite asobu hikage no<br />
nagaki o ni kogane iro masu tama no hatsuharu' [‘The bird come and plays, and the jewelled<br />
early spring gilds the long tails <strong>of</strong> the sunbeams]. Interestingly, there was also a well-known<br />
poetic association between the peacock and the Shin Yoshiwara. At the end <strong>of</strong> the paddyfields<br />
behind the quarter, there was situated an old row <strong>of</strong> houses known as the Kujakunagaya<br />
(nagaya being a long building with several separate residences). From this rather<br />
lowly spot, the brilliant spectacle <strong>of</strong> the pleasure quarters could be seen to great advantage ~<br />
the spot thus being compared to the humble body <strong>of</strong> a peacock, with the dazzling splendour<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Yoshiwara as its magnificent tail.<br />
The two impressions <strong>of</strong> Bijin to kujaku in the exhibition demonstrate both the variations in<br />
tone, colour and decoration possible within the small print run <strong>of</strong> the surimono, and the<br />
problems <strong>of</strong> pigment experimentation in terms <strong>of</strong> long-term preservation.<br />
19. Yanagawa Shigenobu (1786-1832)<br />
Ume [Plum Blossom]<br />
Series: Sanfukyûkaigô [Series <strong>of</strong> Three Ladies]<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1820s<br />
Date [Japanese]: Bunsei era<br />
Signature: Artist’s seal<br />
Carver: Tani Seikô [?]<br />
School: Hokusai<br />
Method: Woodblock surimono<br />
Format: Shikishiban<br />
Condition: Fading and rubbing, otherwise good<br />
Dimensions: 8 x 9 inches<br />
Code: BH162<br />
Price [Mounted]: £380<br />
Shigenobu was a pupil <strong>of</strong> Hokusai, whose daughter he married, subsequently becoming<br />
adopted into the family. After marital problems forced a separation, however, he returned to<br />
his own family in Honjo Yanagawa. From the 1810s, he designed approximately thirty<br />
surimono, mainly for the Tsuru-ren or ‘Crane Group’, and was active as an illustrator <strong>of</strong><br />
yomihon and kyôka poetry anthologies.<br />
Two kyôka verses decorate this shunkyô [Spring Season] surimono, the first, by Senyôtei<br />
Zenko, extols the beauty <strong>of</strong> the ume blossom. The bijin’s robes are decorated with various<br />
botanical motifs, including irises and wisteria.
Dimensions: 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Mounted]: £200<br />
This relatively rare erotic bijin-ga is one <strong>of</strong> a twelve-print soroimono matching oiran to the<br />
different signs <strong>of</strong> the zodiac and, by extension, to the months <strong>of</strong> the year. Here, representing<br />
the sign <strong>of</strong> the dog or inu, a courtesan is shown tying her koshimaki [lit. ‘hip wrap’ or ‘waist<br />
roll’]. In early modern Japan, women did not wear underclothing: the tight lines <strong>of</strong> the<br />
kosode being ruined by superfluous material. Comprising a two-yard length <strong>of</strong> thin silk, the<br />
koshimaki constituted the most intimate layer <strong>of</strong> clothing and was simply wrapped around<br />
the waist.<br />
23. Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) (1786-1864)<br />
The Meandering Stream Party [Kyokusui no en or Kyokusui-no-Utage]<br />
Date [Western]: 1852<br />
Date [Japanese]: Sixth Month <strong>of</strong> Kaei 5<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: ne roku/rat 6<br />
Nanushi Censor Seals: Murata [Murata Heiemon] & Muramatsu [Muramatsu<br />
Genroku]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Mori-ji<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Good, some wear at corners<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £500<br />
A mitate or parody <strong>of</strong> rantei kyokusui [Chinese: Lanting qushui] or ‘meandering stream and<br />
orchid pavilion’, a iconographical theme which referred to a gathering held in 353 by the<br />
famous Eastern Jin calligrapher Wang Xishi (Japanese: Ou Gishi [321-79]) at the Orchid<br />
Pavilion (Japanese: Rantei) in Guiji, Zhejiang. In order to celebrate the annual ‘Spring<br />
Purification Festival’ (held on the Third Day <strong>of</strong> the Third Month), Wang Xishi invited fortyone<br />
scholar-poets to engage in poetry and drinking while seated along the bank <strong>of</strong> a winding<br />
rivulet. As an elegant conceit, he arranged for servants to float cups <strong>of</strong> wine down the<br />
stream, and those guests who had not yet written a poem before a cup had passed by were<br />
required to imbibe a penalty cup. The next day, Wang assembled the surprisingly competent<br />
poems <strong>of</strong> his inebriated friends and wrote his famous Lanting jixu (Japanese: Rantei Shûjo)<br />
or ‘Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Compilation’, a melancholy discourse on the meaning <strong>of</strong><br />
life.<br />
The trope became extremely popular in Chinese painting, and was subsequently equally<br />
revered by the Japanese. According to both the Nihon shoki and archaeological remains, a<br />
meandering stream built <strong>of</strong> stones was constructed in the southeast corner <strong>of</strong> the eightcentury<br />
Heijô palace, presumably so that aristocrats could re-enact the ‘meandering stream<br />
party’ (kyokusui-no-en).<br />
Paintings <strong>of</strong> rantei kyokusui typically feature a number <strong>of</strong> erudite gentlemen seated beside a<br />
twisting stream. For Sinophile Japanese painters the theme was symbolic <strong>of</strong> refined scholarly<br />
pleasure and the humour in Kunisada’s work rests heavily on that perceived esoteric<br />
aestheticism.<br />
The triptych wittily and somewhat irreverently depicts one such re-enactment with a group<br />
<strong>of</strong> fashionable 1850s bijin (beautiful women) and an exquisitely dressed samurai carrying a<br />
pipe (probably a pictorial nod towards Prince Genji, although the text does not make this<br />
association explicit); the jovial vulgarity <strong>of</strong> the servants wading in the water possibly<br />
<strong>of</strong>fering an indication <strong>of</strong> Kunisada’s opinion <strong>of</strong> the pretentiousness <strong>of</strong> such gatherings.
Notable paintings <strong>of</strong> the theme include works by Kanô Sansetsu (1589/90-1651), Nakayama<br />
Kôyô (1717-80) and Yosa Buson (1716-84).<br />
24. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Scene from Hatsune [The First Warbler or The First Song], Chapter 23 <strong>of</strong> Genji<br />
monogatari [The Tale <strong>of</strong> Genji]<br />
Series: Genji gojûyon jô [Fifty-four Pictures <strong>of</strong> Genji]<br />
Date [Western]: 1852<br />
Date [Japanese]: Fifth Month <strong>of</strong> Kaei 5<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga<br />
Nanushi Censor Seal: Hama Yahei<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Sanoki<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Chûban<br />
Condition; Good, some wear and fading<br />
Dimensions: 9 3/4 x 7 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Mounted]: £175<br />
This very short chapter in the Genji monogatari centres around an exchange <strong>of</strong> New Year’s<br />
greetings between Genji and the ladies <strong>of</strong> the Rokujô Mansion: Lady Murasaki [Murasaki no<br />
Ue] the Akashi Lady [Akashi no Ue], the Lady <strong>of</strong> the Orange Blossoms [Hanachirusato], the<br />
Safflower Lady [Suetsumuhana], and the Lady <strong>of</strong> the Locust Shell [Utsusemi]. In the<br />
chapter, Genji receives felicitous New Year delicacies in ‘bearded baskets’ [higeko, baskets<br />
with the ends <strong>of</strong> the woven strands left untrimmed] and, as depicted here, a warbler [uguisu]<br />
on an artificial pine branch, sent by the Akashi Lady, with whom he has a daughter, the<br />
future Akashi Empress [lower left]. Attached to the branch is a letter with a melancholy<br />
poem telling <strong>of</strong> her loneliness. Hatsune motifs are a constant <strong>of</strong> Japanese iconography,<br />
particularly within the decorative arts, because <strong>of</strong> their perceived auspicious symbolism.<br />
25. Utagawa Kunisada [Utagawa Toyokuni III] (1786-1864)<br />
Tori no koku [The ‘Hour’ <strong>of</strong> the Cock: 5 to 7 pm]<br />
Cartouche: A Group <strong>of</strong> Edoites by Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900)<br />
Series: Shunyu jûniji [Twelve Hours <strong>of</strong> Spring Pleasure]<br />
Date [Western]: 1856<br />
Date [Japanese]: Third Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 3<br />
Signature: Toyokuni-ga<br />
Censor Seal: aratame [‘examined’]<br />
Zodiacal Date Seal: tatsu san/dragon 3<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Yamaguchiya Tobei<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock<br />
Format: Single sheet ôban tate-e<br />
Condition: Excellent<br />
Dimensions: 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Mounted]: £375<br />
In Edo-period Japan, time was not measured in equal units, like the occidental hour. Instead,<br />
a day was split into day and night time, in accordance with sunrise and sunset, and then<br />
subsequently sub-divided into a further six segments, which, apart from at the two<br />
equinoxes, were unequal. The twelve ‘hours’ thus produced corresponded to the zodiacal<br />
animals used in calendrical numeration,<br />
Kunisada’s 1856 series explores and contrasts a courtesan’s day with that <strong>of</strong> the generic Edo<br />
chônin [townsmen], the latter being depicted in dinner-time scramble within a separate
Censor Seal: Kiwame [‘approved]<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Eikyudo (also known as Yamamoto-ya Heikichi)<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Single sheet ôban tate-e<br />
Condition: Excellent with fine detailing<br />
Dimensions: 15 x 9 3/4 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £600<br />
A courtesan surrounded by the aki-no-nanakusa or ‘Seven Plants <strong>of</strong> Autumn’, the boundary<br />
between her kosode and obi rendered deliberately faint, thus suggesting that she too<br />
represent a seasonal bloom. The plants consisted <strong>of</strong> hagi [bushclover], susuki [pampas<br />
grass], kikyô [Chinese bellflower], kuzu [arrowroot] ominaeshi [maidenflower], nadeshiko<br />
[pinks or wild carnations] and fujibakama [boneset].<br />
First mentioned collectively in a poem by Yamanoue no Okura (ca. 660-733) from the<br />
eighth-century Man’yôshû [ca. 750], they were <strong>of</strong>ten contrasted with the ‘Seven Grasses <strong>of</strong><br />
Spring’ or haru-no-nanakusa. According to De Becker [1899: p.226], yûjo <strong>of</strong> the Yoshiwara<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten set out artificial representations <strong>of</strong> the aki-no-nanakusa in their rooms, the displays<br />
intending to evoke autumnal fields, thus setting a wistful seasonal atmosphere for their<br />
customers.<br />
28. Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867)<br />
Flirting in the Street <strong>of</strong> Fabric Shops, Odemmachô Quarter<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1840s<br />
Date [Japanese]: Tempô era<br />
Signature: Kikugawa Eizen-hitsu<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Aizuri-e woodblock<br />
Format: Single sheet ôban tate-e<br />
Condition: Good, some fading and slight rubbing on corners<br />
Dimensions: 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £480<br />
The fabric sellers’ quarter in Edo was centred on Momendana [‘The Great Post Station’], as<br />
the First Street in the Odenmachô was popularly known. Situated next to the Nihonbashi<br />
[‘The Bridge <strong>of</strong> Japan’], the departure point for journeys along the Tôkaidô and the hub <strong>of</strong><br />
mercantile Edo, Momendana had been associated with textiles from the Genroku period. By<br />
Eisen’s day, First Street boasted around fifty wholesale stores, stretching in an unbroken line<br />
on either side <strong>of</strong> the road, each business identifiable only by curtains [noren] emblazoned<br />
with the trader’s name.<br />
In Eisen’s print, possibly once part <strong>of</strong> a triptych, a cross-section <strong>of</strong> Shitamachi [‘Low City’]<br />
life bustles along the Momendana: a townswoman selects rolls <strong>of</strong> material from an eager<br />
salesman, a beauty dressed in a seasonal iris-patterned kosode (indicating the Fifth Month),<br />
flanked by her maids, flirts with a handsome samurai, holding a fan picked up at the latest<br />
kabuki performance, and, surveying the scene, a wealthy merchant’s wife is transported in a<br />
kago [palanquin] by half-stripped bearers, sweating in the summer heat. As one proverb had<br />
it: 'The person who rides in the kago, the men who bear it; pain in the lower back, pain in the<br />
shoulders.'<br />
The distinctive aizuri technique, which entailed repeated printings in multiple shadings <strong>of</strong><br />
blue, was devised in 1842 to circumvent the draconian governmental sumptuary reforms.<br />
Aside from banning the colourful nishiki-e or ‘brocade’ prints, they also forbad the portrayal<br />
<strong>of</strong> yûjo, geisha and other demimondaines, which explains Eisen’s choice <strong>of</strong> a quotidian street<br />
scene ~ the beauty and iki <strong>of</strong> the women merely hinting at the models’ nightime occupations.
29. Keisai Eisen (1790-1848)<br />
A Courtesan Composing the First Letter <strong>of</strong> the New Year<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1830s<br />
Date [Japanese]: Tempô era<br />
Signature: Hokutei [?]<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Woodblock surimono with karazuri and laquering<br />
Format: Shikishiban<br />
Condition: Some fading and rubbing<br />
Dimensions: 8 x 7 1/4 inches [20 x 18 cm]<br />
Code: BH158<br />
Price [Mounted]: £475<br />
This saitan surimono depicts an elaborately dressed courtesan, writing brush in one hand,<br />
struggling with a winding scroll, on which she has begun to compose her first love letter <strong>of</strong><br />
the New Year. A lacquered suzuribako [‘writing box’] with ink stone and brushes lies at her<br />
feet. The child, oblivious to her travails, has made an origami bird, in imitation <strong>of</strong> those<br />
decorating the kosode hanging at the edge <strong>of</strong> the composition. The kyôka verse is by<br />
Henfukuan.<br />
30. Keisai Eisen (1790-1848)<br />
Courtesan by the Sumida River<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1830<br />
Date [Japanese]: Tempô era<br />
Signature: Eisen-ga<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Sanoya Kihei<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Woodblock print<br />
Format: Single sheet ôban tate-e<br />
Condition: Creasing, wormage, staining and general wear; particularly extensive in<br />
lower right corner<br />
Dimensions: 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Mounted]: £120<br />
Similar in composition to Eisen’s earlier series Tosei Goban Shima (Five Islands <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Present Day), this bijin-ga shows a courtesan at the edge <strong>of</strong> the Sumida-gawa [Sumida<br />
River] in Edo. The overhanging pine is probably the Shubi-no-Matsu [‘The Successful<br />
Conclusion Pine’], one <strong>of</strong> the famous pines <strong>of</strong> Edo, prolifically depicted within Edo meishoe<br />
[‘Pictures <strong>of</strong> Famous Places in Edo’]. It entered the city’s fertile imagination for having a<br />
shape like a dragon, its wide branches spreading out over the river below. Its unusual name<br />
came from its association with returning visitors from the Shin Yoshiwara pleasure district,<br />
located further down the river. In the early hours <strong>of</strong> the morning, it became the custom to<br />
stop by the pine and relate the events <strong>of</strong> the night passed in the ‘green quarters’ - a more<br />
literary group <strong>of</strong> returnees perhaps even devising a suitable poem or epigram on their<br />
romantic adventures. In a layering <strong>of</strong> meaning typical to Ukiyo-e, the matsu imagery may<br />
also relate to the courtesan’s green house: the Matsu-ya being a principal brothel in the<br />
Yoshiwara district.
31. Keisai Eisen (1790-1848)<br />
Fukurokuju with Two Oiran<br />
Date [Western]: 1822 or 1834<br />
Date [Japanese]: Busei/Tempô eras<br />
Signature: Eisen-ga<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Woodblock surimono with gauffrage and detailing in gold<br />
Format: Shikishiban<br />
Condition: Good, some fading<br />
Dimensions: 8 x 9 inches<br />
Code: BH170<br />
Price [Mounted]: £500<br />
This New Year saitan surimono conveys greetings for the Year <strong>of</strong> the Horse [uma], which<br />
is alluded to by the pattern on the right-hand bijin’s kosode and by the miniature hobbyhorse<br />
in her lap. Seated benignly between the two oiran [courtesans] is the god <strong>of</strong> wisdom,<br />
felicitous long life and popularity, Fukurokuji, one <strong>of</strong> the Shichifukujin [Seven Lucky<br />
Gods], who were closely associated with the Shôgatsu [New Year] celebrations. Eisen has<br />
depicted him according to the traditional formula, as a smiling old gentleman, short in<br />
stature with a high forehead (indicating his intelligence) and bushy whiskers, carrying a<br />
hand-scroll tied to a flat fan. Although beloved in Japan, Fukurokuji was originally a<br />
Chinese deity thought to be an embodiment <strong>of</strong> the South Pole stars.<br />
Kyôka verses by, from right to left, Tôkatei Toyû, Senkakutei Hyakunin and Kyôkatei,<br />
surround the figures, elegantly alluding to the New Year.<br />
32. Utagawa Kuniyasu (1794-1832)<br />
Cherry Blossom in the Shin Yoshiwara Pleasure District at the Height <strong>of</strong> its Prosperity<br />
[Tôto Yoshiwara Zensei]<br />
Date [Western]: ca.1830<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Tempô 1<br />
Signature: Kuniyasu-ga<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Tsuru-ya Kiemon<br />
Censor Seal: Kiwame [‘approved’]<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych<br />
Condition: Reasonable, some evidence <strong>of</strong> block wear<br />
Dimensions: Each sheet 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £500<br />
Kuniyasu Utagawa was born in Edo and trained as a pupil <strong>of</strong> Toyokuni I. He is particularly<br />
known for his surimono and his bijin-ga.<br />
In Kuniyasu’s vibrant print, the Shin Yoshiwara’s most coveted courtesans, surrounded by<br />
admirers, are seen promenading along the famous Naka-no-chô [‘Middle Street’] during<br />
the annual cherry-blossom festival held in the first week <strong>of</strong> the third month [roughly, the<br />
beginning <strong>of</strong> April]. At the centre <strong>of</strong> the composition, surrounded by a bamboo fence, is<br />
the quarter’s famous cherry tree, depicted in numerous ukiyo-e works and replete with<br />
symbolism relating to the transient nature <strong>of</strong> a courtesan’s life. Indeed, the association <strong>of</strong><br />
the courtesan to the sakura or cherry blossom was such that inscribed on the Ômon [‘great<br />
gateway’] <strong>of</strong> the quarter was the following line: “A Dream <strong>of</strong> Spring-tide when the streets<br />
are full <strong>of</strong> cherry blossom’. An allusion to a Chinese poem immortalizing a womanizing<br />
emperor, it recalled the hundreds <strong>of</strong> verses penned in Edo and Meiji periods comparing the<br />
Yoshiwara beauties to blossom: ‘Cherries <strong>of</strong> the night which bloom luxuriantly,” praises
one, another dramatically describes the ‘Dream <strong>of</strong> Spring, in a town inhabited by beautiful<br />
and voluptuous women to whom their lovers cleave as the commingling blossoms <strong>of</strong> the<br />
cherry bond together’ [See De Becker, 1899, 1971: pp.19-20].<br />
33. Andô Hiroshige (1797-1858)<br />
Tamagawa zutsumi no hana [Cherry Trees in Bloom along the Embankment <strong>of</strong> the Tama<br />
River]<br />
Series: Meisho Edo Hyakkei [A Hundred Famous Views <strong>of</strong> Edo]<br />
Series Number: 42 <strong>of</strong> 120 [inc. Title Page and a replacement print by Hiroshige II]<br />
Date [Western]: 1856<br />
Date [Japanese]: Second Month <strong>of</strong> Ansei 3<br />
Signature: Hiroshige-ga<br />
Publisher’s Seal: Uoya Eikichi<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print<br />
Format: Single sheet ôban tate-e<br />
Condition: Good impression; some creasing and rubbing<br />
Dimensions: 15 x 10 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Mounted]: £550<br />
Located in the district <strong>of</strong> Shinjuku, in the western fringes <strong>of</strong> Edo (modern Tôkyô), the<br />
Tamagawa was a twenty-mile-long canal that supplied a major part <strong>of</strong> the city’s population<br />
with drinking water [Uspensky, 1997: p.102]. In the 1850s, the canal banks were studded<br />
with the grand properties <strong>of</strong> daimyô, juxtaposed with inns, shops, eating-houses and various<br />
open air amusements ~ a fluid conflation <strong>of</strong> fixed and floating worlds, which owed<br />
something to the liminal situation <strong>of</strong> this border ward, placed right on the edges <strong>of</strong> the<br />
capital.<br />
To the left <strong>of</strong> the image is the entrance to the mansion <strong>of</strong> the Naito clan, who had originally<br />
owned the entire Shinjuku estate and who inadvertently transformed its fortunes. Having<br />
granted land to six retainers, an equivalent number <strong>of</strong> mansions were built, prompting the<br />
name Rokkenmachi or ‘The Six-House Quarter’ [Ibid]. In the Genroku period (1688-1704),<br />
a group <strong>of</strong> wealthy merchants applied to the landowners for permission to open inns and tea<br />
houses along the canal; a successful bid which transformed the watery neighbourhood into a<br />
little floating world known as Naito-Shinjuku, ‘The New Houses on the Naito Estate.’ It<br />
subsequently developed into one <strong>of</strong> the most popular ‘play’ [asobi] zones in Edo, a<br />
distinction which it retains today. To the right <strong>of</strong> the composition, directly facing the<br />
venerable Naito complex, a group <strong>of</strong> meshimori no onna can be seen, enjoyed the fresh river<br />
breezes on a veranda <strong>of</strong> a tea shop. Representing another layer <strong>of</strong> the mizu-shôbai or ‘water<br />
trade’, meshimori ostensibly acted solely as hostesses or entertainers, in reality, however,<br />
they <strong>of</strong>fered a more approachable and affordable service than their sisters in the licensed<br />
quarters to the east.<br />
34. Utagawa Sadakage (fl. ca. 1820s-1830s)<br />
Courtesan from the Sôrôkan [House <strong>of</strong> the Blue Waves] drinking warm sake<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1820s<br />
Date [Japanese]: Bunsei era<br />
Signature: Gokotei Sadakage-ga<br />
School: Utagawa<br />
Method: Woodblock surimono with gauffrage and detailing in silver.<br />
Format: Shikishiban<br />
Dimensions: 8 x 9 inches<br />
Condition: Excellent with slight colour-fading<br />
Code: BH169<br />
Price [Mounted]: £450
One <strong>of</strong> a series <strong>of</strong> three small portraits <strong>of</strong> maiko wearing the same furisode kimono, possibly<br />
indicating their allegiance to the same okiya [Cat. No.: 44-47]. These extremely young girls<br />
would have been in the first or second years <strong>of</strong> training, their makeup [note the application<br />
<strong>of</strong> a small circle <strong>of</strong> crimson safflower petal lipstick to the lower lip], attire, and hairstyles all<br />
appropriate to maiko at the outset <strong>of</strong> their careers.<br />
44. Anonymous Photographer<br />
Portrait <strong>of</strong> a Seated Maiko [Maiko no kaojashin]<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Meiji 13<br />
Method: Silver print<br />
Dimensions: 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches<br />
Code: AD28<br />
Price [Framed]: £140<br />
45. Anonymous Photographer<br />
Portrait <strong>of</strong> a Maiko [Maiko no kaojashin]<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Meiji 13<br />
Method: Silver print<br />
Dimensions: 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches<br />
Code: AD26<br />
Price [Framed]: £140<br />
46. Anonymous Photographer<br />
Portrait <strong>of</strong> a Geisha [Geisha no kaojashin]<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Meiji 13<br />
Method: Silver print<br />
Dimensions: 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches<br />
Code: AD35<br />
Price [Framed]: £140<br />
A portrait <strong>of</strong> a young geisha wearing a formal black five-crested tomesode kimono, patterned<br />
with the mon <strong>of</strong> her oki-ya.<br />
47. Anonymous Photographer<br />
Portrait <strong>of</strong> Two Maiko Studying an Album <strong>of</strong> Photographs<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Meiji 13<br />
Method: Silver print<br />
Dimensions: 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches<br />
Code: AD29<br />
Price [Framed]: £140<br />
Two senior maiko with <strong>of</strong>uku hairstyles. wearing elaborate furisode-style kimono, adopt the<br />
established pose <strong>of</strong> examining a picture book.<br />
From the front, the <strong>of</strong>uku style resembles the wareshinobu coiffure, worn at a maiko’s debut.<br />
At the back, however, the forms diverge, with the kanoko (red spotted silk ribbon, evoking<br />
the markings <strong>of</strong> a young deer) <strong>of</strong> the wareshinobu, being replaced by a tegarami. [a piece <strong>of</strong><br />
silk material] The triangular tegarami, is pinned rather than woven to the bottom <strong>of</strong> the mage<br />
[bun]: the final effect being that <strong>of</strong> a split peach or momoware, the alternative name <strong>of</strong> the<br />
hairstyle. Traditionally, the adoption <strong>of</strong> the <strong>of</strong>uku signified the sexual transition <strong>of</strong> the maiko,<br />
either through the ritualized passage <strong>of</strong> the mizuage [loss <strong>of</strong> virginity] or the formal<br />
attentions <strong>of</strong> a patron or danna.
48. Anonymous Photographer<br />
Gaicha de Yokohama<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1875-78<br />
Date [Japanese]: Meiji period<br />
Method: Hand-tinted albumen print<br />
Dimensions: 8 x 5 3/4 inches<br />
Condition: Slight, restored tear in lower centre<br />
Code: AD33<br />
Price [Framed]: £190<br />
One <strong>of</strong> two photographs in the exhibition from a nineteenth-century French album [see also,<br />
Cat. No. 49, below], this depicts a geisha and a maiko, probably sisters from the same okiya,<br />
in a tatami-matted room, re-enacting the preparations for a zashiki [‘a banquet room’; used<br />
as a term for an engagement]. The kneeling geisha is assisting her onêsan in tying her heavy<br />
obi [sash].<br />
During the Edo period, while the form <strong>of</strong> the kimono scarcely changed, the obi appeared in a<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> ties and widths, marking trends in fashion and denoting one’s place in both fixed<br />
and floating world hierarchies. It appears that the weave evolved as well, shifting in around<br />
1800, from the pliant fabric evident in prints by, for example, Harunobu (ca.1724-1770), to<br />
the stiff, elaborate, ‘tapestry’ cloth favoured by Kunisada’s bjin [see, for example, Cat. No.:<br />
1-3]. From this point onwards, it came to dominate a woman’s ensemble, so much so that, as<br />
Dalby [1983: p.297] puts it ‘the kimono [became] merely a backdrop for the obi.’<br />
Thus, for the contemporary art historian, the pattern, colour and arrangement <strong>of</strong> the obi is<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the key iconographical elements used in determining the societal and pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
positioning <strong>of</strong> its wearer. High-ranking yûjo characteristically tied their obi at the front in the<br />
style <strong>of</strong> married women, to visually suggest that they were ‘married’ to their clients for the<br />
night. The less salubrious explanation being that having the unwieldy obi front-tied,<br />
facilitated expeditious dressing and undressing.<br />
49. Anonymous Photographer<br />
Kamisan de Tokio<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1875-78<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Meiji 8-11<br />
Method: Albumen print<br />
Dimensions: 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches<br />
Code: AD34<br />
Price [Framed]: £400<br />
An extremely rare portrait study <strong>of</strong> a Okami-san or mistress <strong>of</strong> an ochaya [teahouse],<br />
wearing a formal black five-crested tomesode. Okami-san were retired geisha who, although<br />
still occasionally attending banquets, performing and entertaining clients, presided over the<br />
complex administration <strong>of</strong> the flower and willow world.<br />
In the latter half <strong>of</strong> the nineteenth century, the most famous and exclusive hanamachi in<br />
Tôkyô were located in Shimbashi and Asakusa. The former, in particular, being a nerve<br />
centre for the increasingly influential militarists in the Meiji government ~ their celebrations<br />
and parties played out within the teahouses <strong>of</strong> the quarter. Thus, the ostensibly dowdy and<br />
commonplace okamisan depicted in this unusually intimate photograph, would have been<br />
privy to, and in some respects orchestrated, some <strong>of</strong> the most important political gatherings<br />
<strong>of</strong> the age.<br />
50. Anonymous Japanese Photographer<br />
A Study <strong>of</strong> a Maiko in an Garden<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880s<br />
Date [Japanese]: Meiji period<br />
Method: Albumen print
Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches<br />
Code: AD32<br />
Price [Framed]: £320<br />
A rare naturalistic outdoor study <strong>of</strong> a senior maiko, or possibly a debuting geisha, wearing<br />
lacquered okubo [high clogs]. Their distinctive sound, resonating throughout the floating<br />
world, entered the Japanese language as the onomatopoeia koppori or pokkuri.<br />
51. Anonymous Photographer, possibly Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934)<br />
On Snowing [Geisha in a Two-passenger Jinrikisha]<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880-5<br />
Date [Japanese]: Meiji period<br />
Method: Hand-tinted albumen print<br />
Dimensions: 7 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches [Image]<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £170<br />
The jinrikisha [lit. man-powered vehicle] or rickshaw first appeared in Tôkyô in 1870. An<br />
invention variously ascribed to Jonathan Goble, an American Baptist missionary, and to<br />
Izumi Yosuke, Suzuki Tokujiro, and Takayama Kosuke, the group <strong>of</strong> enterprising Japanese<br />
townsmen who obtained the first manufacturing license, the jinrikisha quickly replaced the<br />
kago [palanquin] as the transportation <strong>of</strong> choice for the urban masses <strong>of</strong> the Meiji period.<br />
According to a contemporary report in the Shinbun Zasshi newspaper, its rise in popularity<br />
was such that by 1872, only two years after the first passengers were gingerly stepping into<br />
the early prototypes, over 40, 000 were plying their trade in the capital’s streets.<br />
From its inception, it was constructed in one- and two-passenger versions, the latter swiftly<br />
becoming identified with trysts and romantic intimacy, inspiring popular songs such as<br />
Ainori Horokake (‘Beneath a Hood for Two’) and Hoppeta Ottsuke (‘Cheek Pressed to<br />
Cheek’). As such, it became a mainstay <strong>of</strong> early photographer’s studios: here, two young<br />
geisha pose amidst a carefully constructed winter scene.<br />
52. Felice Beato (ca. 1825-ca.1908)<br />
Japonais dans son intérier [Geisha holding an ebony kiseru [pipe], surrounded by the<br />
symbols <strong>of</strong> her art ~ shamisen, koto and tea kettle]<br />
Date [Western]: ca.1880-1883<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Meiji 13-16<br />
Method: Hand-tinted albumen silver photograph<br />
Studio Location: Yokohama<br />
Dimensions: 10 x 7 3/4 inches [Image]<br />
Code: AD1<br />
Price [Mounted]: £480<br />
Felice Beato was arguably the most important foreign figure working in the field <strong>of</strong> Japanese<br />
photography in the late nineteenth century. One <strong>of</strong> the originators <strong>of</strong> photojournalism, he<br />
travelled to India in 1857, taking what are retrospectively considered to be the definitive<br />
images <strong>of</strong> the Indian Mutiny, and then to East Asia in 1860, becoming the first Western<br />
photographer to work in China, as he followed and recorded the British army during the<br />
Second Opium War. Previously he had worked as an assistant to James Robertson, whose<br />
body <strong>of</strong> work in the Crimea, to which Beato contributed, is generally defined as the first<br />
distinct example <strong>of</strong> objective war photojournalism.<br />
Beato was probably born in Corfu, then a Venetian territory, but at some point he and his<br />
brother Antonio (or Antoine) Beato (ca.1830-ca.1903), both became British citizens. This<br />
was a period when Britain welcomed political exiles and many Italian nationalists, such as<br />
the Rossetti family, were living and working in London. Antonio Beato was also a keen<br />
photographer and the two brothers worked together on a number <strong>of</strong> occasions, signing their<br />
collaborative works Felice Antonio Beato; later problematizing the identification <strong>of</strong>
photographs taken at the same time in different locations. For the majority <strong>of</strong> his working<br />
life, however, Antonio resided in Egypt, running a flourishing studio specializing in the<br />
photography <strong>of</strong> antiquities.<br />
Beato arrived in Japan in around 1862, living in Yokohama from 1863 to 1884. He initially<br />
joined Charles Wirgman, an ex-patriot since 1861; the two forming a partnership entitled<br />
‘Beato & Wirgman, Artists and Photographers’ during the years 1864–1867. A trained<br />
watercolourist, Wirgman developed a technique <strong>of</strong> adding colour washes to his albumen<br />
prints; a technical advance which greatly contributed to the popularity <strong>of</strong> the partners’<br />
oeuvre, particularly amongst Occidental collectors already enamoured <strong>of</strong> the sophisticated<br />
colouring present in woodblock prints. Before long, the studio was inundated with work<br />
and, to satisfy demand, Beato began to employ Japanese Ukiyo-e colourists. Organized as a<br />
production line, they could complete 20 or 30 high-quality prints a day, a number which was<br />
quickly absorbed by the gaijin travellers, merchants and who flocked to Beato’s emporium.<br />
Beato's Japanese photographs include bijin portraits, genre works, landscapes, cityscapes<br />
and, consciously recalling Hiroshige and Hokusai, a number <strong>of</strong> meisho-e documenting the<br />
scenery and sites along the Tôkaidô.<br />
Despite his large output, Beato's images are remarkable not only for their quality, but for<br />
their rarity as photographic views <strong>of</strong> a lost Japan at the brink <strong>of</strong> cataclysmic change.<br />
53. Felice Beato (ca. 1825-ca.1908)<br />
Portrait <strong>of</strong> a Geisha<br />
Date [Western]: 1863<br />
Date [Japanese]: Bunkyû 3<br />
Method: Hand-coloured albumen print<br />
Code: AD36<br />
Price [Framed]: £2, 300<br />
This extremely rare photograph was made just after Beato arrived in Yokohama, and was<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the first albumen prints to be hand-coloured using the method devised by Beato’s<br />
partner, Wirgman. One <strong>of</strong> the earliest extant photographs <strong>of</strong> a geisha; it represents a<br />
historical artefact <strong>of</strong> great import, <strong>of</strong>fering us an unprecedented vignette <strong>of</strong> the Edo<br />
demimondaine.<br />
54. Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Ratenicz (1839-1911)<br />
Geisha playing a Shamisen<br />
Date [Western]: 1875<br />
Date [Japanese]: Meiji 8<br />
Method: Hand-tinted albumen silver photograph<br />
Studio Location:<br />
Dimensions: 9 1/2 x 8 inches [Image]<br />
References: Hugh Cortazzi & Terry Bennett, Japan Caught in Time (New York:<br />
Weatherhill, 1995)<br />
Code: AD2<br />
Price [Mounted]: £220<br />
Born in Chomutov, now in the Czech Republic, Stillfried moved to Yokohama in the early<br />
1870s, where he established a photographic studio entitled ‘Stillfried & Co.’ which traded<br />
under that name until 1875. In that year, Stillfried began to collaborate with another<br />
photographer named Hermann Andersen, <strong>of</strong> whom little is known. The studio was<br />
subsequently renamed ‘Stillfried & Andersen’ or the ‘Japan Photographic Association’,<br />
successfully as operating as a joint enterprise until 1885. In 1877, the partners purchased the<br />
stock <strong>of</strong> Felice Beato and moved into his larger studio. While based in Japan, the peripatetic<br />
Stillfried also made a number <strong>of</strong> working trips to Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Greece, later<br />
producing a collection <strong>of</strong> important images <strong>of</strong> Mexico [see Luke Gartlan, Remembering<br />
Imperial Mexico: Baron Stillfried's Photographs <strong>of</strong> Miramar Castle (1885)'2003].
A figure <strong>of</strong> import in the development <strong>of</strong> Japanese photography, Stillfried widened the arena<br />
<strong>of</strong> imagery considered suitable for photographic treatment; his subjects ranging from<br />
marketable portraits <strong>of</strong> geisha and courtesans to the sensitive documentation <strong>of</strong> unusual<br />
medical ailments [such as, for example, his study <strong>of</strong> Elephantiasis, ca. 1870s]. He also<br />
provided training for many Japanese artists, most notably Kusakabe Kimbei, to whom he<br />
sold the majority <strong>of</strong> his stock upon his departure from Japan in 1886.<br />
In the Japanese imagination, the three-stringed shamisen was one <strong>of</strong> the iconic<br />
accoutrements <strong>of</strong> the Flower and Willow trade. Introduced from China via Korea in the<br />
1560s, within a century it had become the principal instrument <strong>of</strong> the newly emerged figure<br />
<strong>of</strong> the geisha. As Dalby [1983; 2000: p. 259] points out, ‘Whenever one heard a shamisen,<br />
one heard the music <strong>of</strong> the city-dwelling merchant class…the upper classes did not play (and<br />
were not supposed to listen to) the plaintive and sentimental lyrics that went with shamisen<br />
tunes.’ As the quintessential sound <strong>of</strong> the Floating World, the instrument was frequently<br />
subject to governmental bans, but nevertheless was played and enjoyed everywhere, as such<br />
becoming the most necessitous attribute <strong>of</strong> a working geisha. As an old geisha saying had it:<br />
Sanbon ga areba, taberareru [‘If you’ve got three strings, you can eat’].<br />
55. Adolfo Farsari (1841-1898)<br />
Three Maiko posing on an Engawa [veranda].<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1885<br />
Date [Japanese]: ca. Meiji 18<br />
Method: Hand-tinted albumen print<br />
Dimensions: 10 x 8 inches [Image]<br />
References: Tony Bennett, Early Japanese Images, (Tôkyô: Charles E.Tuttle, 1995)<br />
Code: JO/AD24<br />
Price [Mounted]: £225<br />
Adolfo Farsari was born in the town <strong>of</strong> Vicenza, then part <strong>of</strong> the Austro-Hungarian Empire.<br />
A fervent abolitionist, he travelled to America in 1863, enlisting in the Union army as a<br />
cavalry soldier during the Civil War. He moved to Yokohama in 1877 to set up trading as a<br />
tobacco merchant, but soon became fascinated by the aesthetic and financial possibilities <strong>of</strong><br />
photography. In 1885, he bought the Japan Photographic Association studio from Baron von<br />
Stillfried, a transaction that included not only valuable negatives by the Baron and Beato, but<br />
also fifteen skilled colourists. However, this initial good fortune was marred by a devastating<br />
fire which destroyed his entire stock. Nevertheless, it was quickly reproduced by the stoic<br />
Farsari in a matter <strong>of</strong> months and, bolstered by the popularity <strong>of</strong> the ‘Yokohama Shashin’<br />
culture, his business continued to flourish. He subsequently moved his studio to the original<br />
location <strong>of</strong> the Yokohama Photographic Company. The resultant A. Farsari & Company<br />
would eventually become one <strong>of</strong> Japan’s largest photography studios, with, at one point,<br />
over forty Japanese artists associated with the business. When Fasari eventually returned to<br />
Italy in 1890, his studios continued to trade until 1917, becoming the last Western-owned<br />
photographic house in Japan.<br />
To his contemporaries, Fasari was known principally for his extraordinary use <strong>of</strong> naturalistic<br />
colour, Rudyard Kipling noting this aspect <strong>of</strong> Farsari's work in 1889 when he advised his<br />
readers:<br />
‘Though expensive and perhaps you end up penniless, unless you are already penniless, in<br />
Japan you have to buy photographs and the best are from the Farsari & Co. studio, known<br />
from Saigon to America. Farsari is a nice and eccentric chap; he has the soul <strong>of</strong> an artist and<br />
these are qualities to pay for but his stuff is worth the price. A coloured photo makes you<br />
think <strong>of</strong> a horror and it normally is so, however Farsari knows how to colour well and can<br />
reproduce the light tones <strong>of</strong> that beautiful country. From over the bridge on the ship I was<br />
laughing at his red and blue hills but once I reached there I realized that what he had painted<br />
was real.’ [Quoted in Hugh Cortezzi, Kipling’s Japan, p.102]
56. Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934)<br />
A Rainy Night [I]<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880s [Image produced ca. 1870s]<br />
Date [Japanese]: Meiji period<br />
Method: Hand tinted albumen photograph<br />
Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 7 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £200<br />
Born to a family <strong>of</strong> textile merchants in K<strong>of</strong>u, Yamanashi Prefecture in 1841, Kusakabe<br />
Kimbei (pr<strong>of</strong>essionally known by his given name, Kimbei, considered easier for his foreign<br />
clients to pronounce than Kusakabe) became one <strong>of</strong> the most accomplished and<br />
commercially successful Japanese photographers <strong>of</strong> his time.<br />
At the age <strong>of</strong> 17 or 18, he moved to Yokohama, where, in 1863, he became an assistant,<br />
possibly a colourist, in the Beato’s studio. The Venetian’s influence upon the young Kimbei<br />
seems to have been extremely beneficial and within a relatively short period <strong>of</strong> time, the<br />
latter became skilled enough to begin an apprenticeship in the 1870s with the equally<br />
admired von Stillfried.<br />
After a number <strong>of</strong> years, Kimbei established his own studio on Benten-dori in Yokohama,<br />
which operated until 1881. He later moved to Honchô, also in Yokohama, where he opened<br />
‘Kimbei Photo Studio.’ His increased commercial success also enabled him to open branch<br />
studios in both Yokohama and Tôkyô and a retail shop in Ginza.<br />
After von Stillfried left Japan in 1883, Kimbei acquired his collection <strong>of</strong> glass plate<br />
negatives, which also comprised a number <strong>of</strong> plates by Beato, purchased with his studio in<br />
1877. Kimbei subsequently reprinted the work <strong>of</strong> his mentors along with his own<br />
photographs; <strong>of</strong>ten including them in mixed albums destined for the tourist and export trade,<br />
disseminating his constructed vision <strong>of</strong> Japan to a fascinated West, eager for images <strong>of</strong> the<br />
newly-accessible country.<br />
The import <strong>of</strong> Kusakabe Kimbei lies in his conflation <strong>of</strong> elements <strong>of</strong> both the Western<br />
psychological or anthropological approach, and the highly codified Japanese aesthetic. In<br />
this way, despite the wistful nostalgia and tourist-trade pandering that colours a great deal <strong>of</strong><br />
his oeuvre, particularly within his choice <strong>of</strong> studio subjects, he nevertheless managed to<br />
develop a vibrant, symbiotic genre, which set the focus <strong>of</strong> Japanese photography for many<br />
decades to come.<br />
Aside from photograph albums, he also produced collotype prints and lantern slides,<br />
primarily for the export market and his became one <strong>of</strong> the first Japanese-owned studios to<br />
import and sell photography equipment and supplies.<br />
Kimbei retired from photography in 1914 and took up Japanese painting in his later years.<br />
He died in Hyôgo Prefecture in 1934.<br />
This studio photograph represents one <strong>of</strong> two included in the exhibition [Cat. No: 57] from a<br />
series <strong>of</strong> women and children posing with amagusa [umbrellas] in various studio sets. Here,<br />
a bijin wearing an okoso-zukin [hood] and holding a paper hand lantern poses against an<br />
elaborate Fuji-dominated backdrop, possibly designed by Farsari.<br />
57. Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934)<br />
A Rainy Night [II]<br />
Date [Western]: ca. 1880s [Image produced ca. 1870s]<br />
Date [Japanese]: Meiji period<br />
Method: Hand tinted albumen photograph<br />
Negative Number: 1057<br />
Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 7 inches<br />
Code: SOX<br />
Price [Framed]: £200<br />
A woman struggles with an amagusa against an imaginary rainstorm. The similarity <strong>of</strong> this<br />
pose to those <strong>of</strong> figures in haku'u [‘sudden shower’] woodblock prints such as Hiroshige’s A
GLOSSARY<br />
asobi: ‘Play’: from the verb asobu<br />
bakufu: Military government, dominated in the Edo period (1615-1868) by the Tokugawa<br />
family<br />
bijin: A beautiful woman<br />
bijin-ga: Pictures <strong>of</strong> beautiful women<br />
chatate onna: Literally, ‘tea-brewing women’: waitresses<br />
chônin: Literally, ‘town dweller’: townsmen, <strong>of</strong> the merchant or artisan classes<br />
danna: A patron <strong>of</strong> a geisha<br />
desho: A geisha’s most formal kimono<br />
Edo-jidai: The Edo or Tokugawa period (1615-1868)<br />
enkai: A banquet<br />
eri: A stiff decorative collar<br />
erikae o suru: ‘To turn one’s collar’: the figurative expression marking the change from<br />
maiko to geisha.<br />
furisode: The ‘swinging-sleeve’ kimono worn by unmarried girls and, by extension, maiko<br />
ga: ‘drawn by’<br />
gei: Art<br />
geiko: The Kyôto term for geisha<br />
Genji mon: Codified patterns or devices relating to separate chapters <strong>of</strong> the Genji<br />
monogatari<br />
Genji monogatari: ‘The Tale <strong>of</strong> Genji,’ a novel written in the beginning <strong>of</strong> the eleventh<br />
century by a female writer, Murasaki Shikibu (978-1016)<br />
geta: Wooden sandals<br />
giri: Honour, obligation, duty<br />
hanadai: Literally, ‘flower money’: a geisha’s wages<br />
haori: A jacket worn over kimono<br />
hashi-jôro: Lower-ranking courtesan, originally second-grade<br />
hitsu: ‘From the brush <strong>of</strong>’<br />
hôkan: Comedians who entertained pleasure-quarter women and their clients<br />
iki: Chic or cool; stylishness<br />
Kabuki: Popular theatre which began in the seventeenth century<br />
kamuro: Young female pages<br />
Kanô: Official school <strong>of</strong> painting, in attendance to the Tokugawa shogunate<br />
karyûkai: ‘The flower and willow world’, a term for geisha culture and society<br />
kiseru: A long-stemmed pipe<br />
kitsune: foxes, associated with the agricultural deity, Inari<br />
kôshi-jôro: High-ranking courtesan, just under tayû in grade<br />
koto: Thirteen-stringed ‘harp’<br />
kyôka: Literally ‘crazy verse’. Thirty-one syllable comic or parodic poetry<br />
Miyako: Kyôto, the Imperial Capital.<br />
magaki: Lattice work used in the facades <strong>of</strong> Yoshiwara green houses<br />
maiko: Apprentice Kyôto geisha, now used generically<br />
mizu shôbai: Literally, ‘The Water Trade,’ used to describe the multifarious businesses<br />
involved in the pleasure or entertainment industries that are subject to fluctuations <strong>of</strong> income<br />
or personnel [See Dalby: 2000, p.341]<br />
mon: A crest or insignia, traditionally associated with high-ranking families, they were<br />
adopted by floating world actors and courtesans<br />
monogatari: Story or tale<br />
nishiki-e: ‘Brocade picture’: full colour woodblock print, perfected in the latter half <strong>of</strong> the<br />
eighteenth century<br />
ochaya: A teahouse<br />
ôban: The most common large size <strong>of</strong> woodblock print<br />
obi: Decorative sash worn with a kimono.<br />
okami-san: Proprietress <strong>of</strong> a teahouse<br />
okâsan: ‘Mother’: name used by geisha for teahouse managers
okiya: A geisha house<br />
oiran: Literally, ‘castle-topplers’: the general term for the highest-ranking and most<br />
desirable courtesans<br />
rônin: Literally ‘wave men’: masterless samurai<br />
sakura: Cherry blossom<br />
seirô: A ‘green house’ or brothel<br />
senryû: An epigrammatic seventeen-syllable verse<br />
seppuku: A form <strong>of</strong> ritual suicide through disembowelment<br />
shamisen [samisen]: Three-stringed ‘banjo’ widely played by popular entertainments,<br />
particularly geisha<br />
shinzô: The equivalent to senior maiko in the hierachy <strong>of</strong> the courtesan: grown-up female<br />
attendants<br />
shokudai: Candlestick or candlestand<br />
shushoku [teshoku]: A portable candlestick<br />
soroimono: A set <strong>of</strong> ukiyo-e prints published in a series with a common title<br />
surimono: De luxe, small edition woodblock prints, <strong>of</strong>ten commissioned by poetry clubs.<br />
tate-e: Aprint in horizontal/portrait format. Yoko-e stands for an ukiyo-e print in landscape<br />
format<br />
tayû: Highest-ranking courtesan in a brothel; now used generically as an equivalent to oiran<br />
ukiyo: The ‘floating world’<br />
ukiyo-e: Pictures <strong>of</strong> the ‘floating world’<br />
yobidashi: Highest-ranking courtesan, replacing tayû, when they priced themselves out <strong>of</strong><br />
the competitive market<br />
yarite: Older women who acted as chaperones to oiran<br />
Yoshiwara: The principal licensed pleasure quarter in Edo. Renamed Shin [New] Yoshiwara<br />
in 1857<br />
yûjo: A ‘woman <strong>of</strong> pleasure’ or prostitute<br />
zashiki: A banquet room or an engagement with a client<br />
Edo or Tokugawa Period (1615-1868)<br />
An'ei (1772-1781)<br />
Tenmei (1781-1789)<br />
Kansei (1789-1801)<br />
Kyôwa (1801-1804)<br />
Bunka 1804-1818)<br />
Bunsei (1818-1830)<br />
Tenpô (1830-1844)<br />
Kôka (1844-1848)<br />
Kaei (1848-1854)<br />
Ansei (1854-1860)<br />
Man'en (1860-1861)<br />
Bunkyû (1861-1864)<br />
Genji (1864-1865)<br />
Keiô (1865-1868)<br />
Meiji (1868-1912)<br />
Taishô (1912-1926)<br />
JAPANESE ERA NAMES
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY<br />
Aihara, Kyoko. Geisha: A Living Tradition (London: Carlton Books, 2000)<br />
Bowie, Theodore. Art <strong>of</strong> the Surimono (Indiana University Press, 1979)<br />
De Becker, J. E. The Nightless City, or The History <strong>of</strong> the Yoshiwara Yûkaku (Charles E.<br />
Tuttle, Tokyo, 1971).<br />
Chamberlain, Basil Hall. Japanese Things; Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with<br />
Japan (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971)<br />
Clark, Timothy. Ukiyo-e Paintings in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1992)<br />
Dalby, Liza. Geisha (London: Vintage, 2000)<br />
Dower, John W. The Elements <strong>of</strong> Japanese Design (Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1971)<br />
Downer, Lesley. Women <strong>of</strong> the Pleasure Quarters (London: Broadway Books, 2001)<br />
Fujimoto, T. The Nightside <strong>of</strong> Japan (London: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd, 1914)<br />
Halford, Aubrey and Giovanna M. The Kabuki Handbook (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1956)<br />
Hibbett, Howard. The Floating World in Japanese Literature (Tokyo: Charles A. Tuttle,<br />
1959)<br />
Iwasaki, Mineko. Geisha, A Life (Atria Books, 2002)<br />
Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World (Secaucus: Chartwell Books, 1978)<br />
Perkins, P. D. The Geisha <strong>of</strong> Pontochô (Tokyo: Tokyo News Service, 1954)<br />
Scott, A. C. The Flower and Willow World (London: Orion Press, 1960)<br />
Screech, Timon. Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700-1820 (Honolulu:<br />
University <strong>of</strong> Hawaii Press, 1999)<br />
------. The Lens Within the Heart: The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later<br />
Edo Japan (Honolulu: University <strong>of</strong> Hawaii Press, 2002)<br />
------. Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760-1829<br />
(Reaktion Books, 2002)<br />
Segawa Seigle, Cecilia. Yoshiwara: The Glittering World <strong>of</strong> the Japanese Courtesan<br />
(Honolulu: University <strong>of</strong> Hawaii Press, 1993)<br />
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale <strong>of</strong> Genji [Trans. Edward G. Seidensticker] (London: Penguin,<br />
1976)<br />
Smith, Lawrence. Ukyo-e: Images <strong>of</strong> Unknown Japan (London: British Museum, 1988)<br />
Uspensky, Mikhail. Hiroshige: One Hundred Views <strong>of</strong> Edo (London: Parkstone, 1997)