• Handpuppet made from a Bucket (樽人形): Woman of the Enpō Era [1673-81] (<i>Taru ningyō, Enpō koro fujin</i> - 延宝頃婦人) from the series <i>Thirty-six Elegant Selections</i> (<i>Sanjūroku kasen</i> - 三十六佳撰)
Handpuppet made from a Bucket (樽人形): Woman of the Enpō Era [1673-81] (<i>Taru ningyō, Enpō koro fujin</i> - 延宝頃婦人) from the series <i>Thirty-six Elegant Selections</i> (<i>Sanjūroku kasen</i> - 三十六佳撰)
Handpuppet made from a Bucket (樽人形): Woman of the Enpō Era [1673-81] (<i>Taru ningyō, Enpō koro fujin</i> - 延宝頃婦人) from the series <i>Thirty-six Elegant Selections</i> (<i>Sanjūroku kasen</i> - 三十六佳撰)
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Mizuno Toshikata (水野年方) (artist 1866 – 1908)

Handpuppet made from a Bucket (樽人形): Woman of the Enpō Era [1673-81] (Taru ningyō, Enpō koro fujin - 延宝頃婦人) from the series Thirty-six Elegant Selections (Sanjūroku kasen - 三十六佳撰)

Print

1892
9.25 in x 14.125 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Toshikata (年方)
Publisher: Akiyama Buemon
秋山武右衛門
Date: Meiji 25 (1892)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - dated 1893
British Museum - dated 1894
Tokyo Metropolitan Library
Rhode Island School of Design - Hōchū print after Kōrin showing plovers flying over waves
Cleveland Museum of Art
Honolulu Museum of Art
National Gallery, Prague This is number 20 of the series.

The text along the left side reads partially: "日本橋区室町三丁目九番地　秋山武右衛門 秋山　武右衛門".

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The deep blue, almost black, and white privacy curtain which the two stooping men have lifted to watch the performer with her puppet is decorated with plovers flying above waves. We have added a link to an early 19th century print in the Rhode Island School of Design showing this same motif, the nami to chidori (浪に千鳥).

The white cartouche in the upper left is highly embossed with a waves pattern.

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The curatorial files at the Cleveland Museum of Art say: "Each of the prints in the series Thirty-six Elegant Selections features a woman from a different time period, as befits an artist who was interested in history painting. Most of the prints are set in the Edo period (1615–1868). Mizuno Toshikata was a favored student of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), and took over his post as a newspaper illustrator."

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Illustrated in color Playthings and Pastimes in Japanese Prints by Lea Baten, Weatherhill, 1995, page 124.
Akiyama Buemon (秋山武右衛門) (publisher)
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)