print
- Museum number
- 1945,1101,0.8
- Description
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Colour woodblock print. Lovers hunting for insects at night; young man, in striped brown kimono, placing small cage on ground and kneeling down to examine branch of flowering bushclover; his companion, dressed in elegant kimono with pattern of flowering morning glory, holding out lantern above his head. Signed.
- Production date
- 1767-1768 (c.)
- Dimensions
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Height: 26.10 centimetres
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Width: 19.40 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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The young woman holding a lantern exchanges amorous glances with her companion who searches for autumn insects amid the blossoming bushclover. The sky has been printed many times to achieve a rich, velvety black. There may be a reference to the insect-hunting scene in 'Tale of Genji', chapter 25. (Label copy, TTC 1998)
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Smith et al 1990
Against a jet-black night sky, lovers are shown hunting for insects. The young man, wearing a striped brown kimono, has placed a small cage ready on the ground beside him and is kneeling down to examine a branch of flowering bushclover ('hagi'). His companion, dressed in an elegant kimono with a pattern of flowering morning glory ('asagao'), holds out a lantern above his head. The black background must have been printed several times to achieve such intensity and creates a setting of gently enveloping stillness, as the lovers exchange an intimate glance. In many of Harunobu's prints there are conscious echoes of the world of courtly romance of the distant Heian period (794-1185), and this design too may be intended as an oblique reference to the insect-hunting scene in 'The Tale of Genji', chapter 25.
Techniques of full-colour printing were only a few years old when this print was issued. Yet the public must have been astonished and delighted by the sophistication of its colour harmonies and the delicacy of Harunobu's figures, with their small sweet faces and tiny gesturing hands.
FURTHER READING
Waterhouse, David, 'Harunobu and his Age', London, 1964.
See also:
Morrison, Arthur, 'Exhibition of Japanese Prints', Fine Art Society, London, 1910, no. 67.
Joly, Henri L., and Tomita, Kumasaku, 'Japanese Art and Handicraft', 2 vols, London, 1916, no. 21.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Tale of Genji (chapter 25?)
- Acquisition date
- 1945
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1945,1101,0.8