- Museum number
- 1918,0705,0.1-3
- Description
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Colour woodblock-print, top three sheets of six-sheet composition. Women and children on Ryogoku Bridge over the Sumida River enjoying the cool in summer, with parasols and fans. Signed, marked and inscribed.
- Production date
- 1795-1796 (ca.)
- Dimensions
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Height: 36.90 millimetres (centre)
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Height: 36.80 centimetres (left)
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Height: 36.80 centimetres (right)
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Width: 25.40 centimetres (centre)
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Width: 25.30 centimetres (left)
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Width: 25.30 centimetres (right)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Asano and Clark 1995
A scene of women enjoying the cool by the Sumida River in summer on top of and beneath Ryogoku Bridge. The view is facing downstream, past the pillars of the bridge, with Bakufu boat-houses on the left bank in the background and Shin'ohashi Bridge in the far distance. To pair triptychs on top and below in this manner is unprecedented, creating an unusually large composition. The figures on top of the bridge look to be a group of three maids from a samurai mansion, wearing head-cloths (age-boshi), and mothers and children. Beneath the bridge covered pleasure-boats (yane-bune) and fast ferries (choki-bune) jostle their prows. Common features of Ukiyo-e prints in general demonstrated here are the almost exclusive depiction of women and also the composition of each sheet so as to be worthy of individual appreciation.
Literature:
Shibui, Kiyoshi 渋井清, 'Ukiyo-e zuten, vol. 13: Utamaro' 「ウキヨエ図典13 歌麿」, Kazama Shobo, Tokyo, 1964, pls. 19-1-1, 19-1-2, 19-1-3.
‘Ukiyo-e taikei’「浮世絵大系」, gen. ed. Goto, Shigeki, vol. 5, Shueisha, Tokyo, 1976, black and white figs. 243- 245.
"Kitagawa Utamaro sakuhin mokuroku" 「喜多川歌麿作品目録」, 'Ukiyo-e shuka', 「浮世絵聚花」, vol. 3 (Bosuton Bijutsukan III ボストン美術館3), Shogakkan, Tokyo, 1978, pp. 235-254, pls. 299-1, 299-2, 299-3.
'Ukiyo-e shuka' 「浮世絵聚花」, vol. 6, Shogakkan, Tokyo, 1978-85, pls. 102-104.
Smith, Lawrence, ed., ‘Ukiyoe: Images of Unknown Japan’, BMP, London, 1988, no. 96.
Other impressions:
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The Art Institute of Chicago.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Tokyo National Museum 東京国立博物館.
Musée National des Art Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris (centre sheet only).
[Main text translated in Japanese below / 以下上記本文日本語訳]
浅野/クラーク 1995
両国橋の橋上橋下に展開する納涼の人々を描いた女性風俗画。隅田川の川上から川下を望んだもので、はるかに御船蔵や新大橋が見える。橋上の人々を三枚続にし、橋下の川面の描写の三枚続と上下に繋げるという、前例のない構想による大画面である。橋上は、揚幅子姿の御殿女中風の三人連れや、親子連れで賑わい、橋下は屋根舟や猪牙舟が群れ集う。女性中心であること、六枚をばらばらにしても鑑賞できるように構成していることなどは、浮世絵版画の常道である。
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Smith 1988
This is the top three sections of a composition of six sheets; the lower half showed the scene under the bridge. On the left are attendants of the great, in the centre townswomen, and on the right entertainers. The print is signed 'The brush of Utamaro'.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2010 22 Sep-14 Nov, Birmingham, Ikon Gallery, 'Kitagawa Utamaro'
2003 Oct-2004 Jan, London, Hayward Gallery, 'Saved! 100 Years of the National Art Collections Fund', no.15.
2011 Feb 14- Jun 13, BM Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present'
- Acquisition date
- 1918
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1918,0705,0.1-3