painting;
panel
- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.364
- Description
-
Painting, panel, originally from a pair of small six-panel screens?. Woman with semi-folded fan tucked into nape of kimono, hands in sleeves, about to stamp foot. Ink and colour on paper.
- Production date
- 1624-1644
- Dimensions
-
Height: 53.30 centimetres (c.)
-
Width: 30.80 centimetres (c.)
- Curator's comments
-
Clark 1992
Though now mounted on separate panels, these paintings probably originally formed two panels of a pair of small six-fold screens showing women in various movements of a fan dance. One woman, with open fan held delicately at the end of an outstretched arm, seems to move forward in some gently rhythmical line dance; the other has tucked a semi-folded fan into the nape of her kimono, drawn her hands into her sleeves, and is about to stamp her foot with gusto. Four pairs of six-fold screens with similar single figures of fan dancers on each panel are known in other collections (New Otani Art Museum, Boston Museum, Kyoto City Museum, Suntory Museum; illustrated in Kobayashi 1982, BW nos 1-30). They are thought to date from the Kan'ei era (1624-44), and come midway in the shift in interest from screens in the genre painting tradition showing large groups of figures in brothel interiors to hanging scrolls of single standing figures of courtesans (the so-called 'beauties of the Kambun era (1661-73)'; see nos 3, 4) that are the earliest Ukiyo-e paintings proper. Though their compositions are virtually identical with figures in the pairs of screens mentioned above, the British Museum pair does not share the gold-leaf backgrounds of all other known versions. The confident, flowing line quality and certain archaic details of the costume make it likely that they are among the oldest examples of paintings of the fan-dancer 'type'.
Literature:
Morrison, Arthur, 'The Painters of Japan', vol, 2 (1911), pl. VIII.
Narazaki Muneshige (ed.), 'Hizo ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), vol. 1 (Kodansha, 1987), no. 6, BW no. 1.
-
Asahi 1996
現在別々の板に貼られているが、制作当初は小振りの六曲一双屏風の一部であったと思われる。屏風の各面にはそれぞれ変化に富んだ動きで舞う女性が描かれていたようである。一方の女性は外側にのばした手にわずかに開いた扇を持ち、拍子にあわせて緩やかに前に踏み出そうとしているようにみえる。またもう一方の女性は半開きの扇を背に差し、両手を袖の中に入れて、足を踏み鳴らそうとするところである。
本作品に近似する六曲一双の舞妓図が他に4点知られている（ニューオータニ美術館本、ボストン美術館本、京都市美術館本、サントリー美術館本）（小林忠『寛永•寛文期の肉筆画－江戸の美人画』1982年 学習研究社 白黒1－30図）。これらは寛永年間頃から制作されたと思われ、遊郭室内の群像を描くそれまでの風俗図屏風から、初期浮世絵独特の一人立ちした遊女像（寛文美人図と呼ばれる•Nos 7、8参照）への変遷途上にあるものである。前述したいくつかの屏風作例はほぼ同一の構図で描かれているが、大英博物館本だけが金地を用いていない。的確で流麗な描線、衣装の細部に見られる古様は、本作品が舞妓図の中でも最も早い作例であることを示している。
（増渕鏡子（福島県立美術館））
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2008 Feb 18-2008 Jun 1, BM Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present'
2011 Jun- 2011 Oct, BM Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present'
- 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
- 1913,0501,0.364
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1361 (Japanese Painting Number)
