hanging scroll;
painting
- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.314
- Description
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Painting, hanging scroll. Boat prostitute at Asazuma (Asazumabune) seated in shallow boat beneath hanging branches of willow gazing at full moon, dressed with gold court hat, court hunting robe and fan, and carrying small hand-drum. Ink, colour and gold on paper. Signed and sealed.
[Jap.Ptg.1495] -
[Jap.Ptg.1495, image (a)] -
[Jap.Ptg.1495, image (b)] -
[Jap.Ptg.1495, image (T)] -
[Jap.Ptg.1495, image (Ta)] -
- Production date
- 1818-1844
- Dimensions
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Height: 80 centimetres
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Width: 32.20 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Clark 1992
Until the Edo period Asazuma was an important port on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa. The prostitutes who worked there in boats were even celebrated in classical poetry. In the Genroku era (1688-1704) this was adapted as a subject for painting by Hanabusa Itcho (1652-1724), the renegade Kano painter, who portrayed an Asazuma prostitute seated in a shallow boat beneath the hanging branches of a willow gazing at the full moon, dressed in the costume of a 'shirabyoshi' dancer - gold court hat ('eboshi'), court hunting robe ('suikari') and fan - and carrying a small hand-drum ('ko-tsutsumi'). There is a tradition that the reason for Itcho's banishment to the island of Izu Miyakejima was that he had painted a picture parodying the habit of the fifth Shogun Tsunayoshi for playing the drum and singing 'nagauta' (recitative chanting) with his concubine Oden no kata in a boat on the lake in Fukiage Park. Itcho is supposed to have modified the subject into the prostitute from Asazuma after this incident, and certainly it was a popular theme for painters of the later Hanabusa school, as well as Ukiyo-e artists such as Harunobu, Eishi, Hokusai and, here, Hokuba.
At least five versions of the subject by Hokuba are known - two horizontal scrolls in which the prostitute is joined by an attendant in the prow of the boat (Ota 1985, no. 121; Nagoya 1987, no. 27) and two more vertical versions in which the prostitute admires her reflection and that of the full moon in the water (Idemitsu 1988, no. 142; Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts). Apart from the British Museum painting, which may be slightly earlier, the other four versions all date from Hokuba's last period of activity during the Tempo era (1830-44), when he used the signature Teisai (the Azabu painting is dated in his seventy-first year, 1841).
Literature:
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, no. 146.
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Asahi 1996
江戸時代以前の浅妻は、琵琶湖東岸の重要な港であった。舟に乗り身をひさぐ遊女は、和歌などでもとりあげられた。狩野派からの離脱者英一蝶（1652－1724）は、元禄年間（1688－1704）この遊女をとりあげ、金色烏帽子に水干姿で扇と小鼓を持つという白拍子の身なりをし、柳の下で浅舟に乗り満月を見つめる姿を描いた。一蝶が伊豆の三宅島に流された原因は、吹上御所の池に船を浮かべ愛妾お伝の方と鼓を打ち長唄を吟じたという、五代将軍綱吉の遊興ぶりを揶揄する作品を描いたからとも伝えられている。配流後の一蝶は浅妻舟図にこの主題をなぞらえたとも考えられる。確かに浅妻舟は一蝶以降の英派にしばしば描かれ、英之、北斎やこの北馬のような浮世絵師好みの主題ともなった。
北馬には、少なくとも5点の「浅妻舟図」が知られている。2点は横物で、船首に禿が乗っている（太田記念美術館『太田記念美術館所蔵 肉筆浮世絵名品展』図録 1985年 121図[。]『新撰浮世絵肉筆展』図録 名古屋松坂屋 1987年 27図）。2点の縦軸では、遊女は水に映る月影と自分の顔を眺めている（『出光美術館蔵品図録 肉筆浮世絵』1988年 142図と麻布美術工芸美術館寄託の別作品）。北馬71歳、天保12年（1841）の年記がある麻布美術工芸館寄託本を含め、4点は全て北馬晩年の蹄斎落款期（天保年間）の作であり、大英博物館本はこれらよりやや遡ると考えられる。
（竹内美砂子（名古屋市博物館））
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings belonging to Arthur Morrison was purchased by Sir William Gwynne-Evans, who presented it to the British Museum in 1913.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1913,0501,0.314
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1495 (Japanese Painting Number)
