Courtesan Reading a Love Letter

Artist Okumura Masanobu 奥村政信 (Japanese, 1686–1764)

Dateabout 1744

MediumWoodblock print (beni-e); ink on paper, with hand-applied color

DimensionsHashira-e; 64.6 x 15.8 cm (25 7/8 x 6 1/4 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection

Terms

Object number1901.70

Label TextOkumura Masanobu credited himself with the development and popularization of the pillar-print (hashira-e), formatted for hanging as painting substitutes in tokonoma alcoves or on house pillars. His pillar-prints were of different widths, published on 1/2, 1/3, or a 1/4 width of a sheet of thick tatenaga-bosho (ca. W 50-53 x H 70 cm.); this design is printed on a third of a sheet. The courtesan, seated on a wooden bench, is reading a "quarrel love-letter" (kuzetsu no fumi). She is dressed in a sheer summer kimono and high geta (wooden clogs). Her tate-hyogomage hair-style consists of an upright, twisted topknot steadied by a comb (kushi) and horizontal and ornamental hair-pins (kogai and kazari-kanzashi). Her sash is partly decorated with a checkered pattern (ichimatsu-moyo) which suggests that she is a fan of the kabuki actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu I (1722-62). The pattern became fashionable when the handsome Ichimatsu wore it while playing the role of the youth Kumenosuke (Nakamura Theatre, 1741); the actor continued to incorporate the design in his later stage costumes.

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