Anonymous / unknown
(artist )
Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿)
(artist ca 1753 – 1806)
Meiji period shunga after Utamaro - Pulling Komachi, no.5
ca 1900
14.25 in x 9.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
British Museum - link to the original Utamaro version This print is a Meiji reproduction/version of No. 5, the Higashioji, from Utamaro's 1802 Ehon Komachi-biki (絵本小町引) or 'Pulling Komachi'. The original prints is referred to as 'young lovers in front of chrysanthemum and brushwood-fence screen' The woman is a member of the shogun's household. She is wearing a paper or cloth headdress, a tsuno-kakushi (角隠し), a bride's head-dress.
"The third and final of the great colour-printed erotic albums by Utamaro, following Utamakura of 1788... and Negai no ito-guchi of 1789... Similar in terms of subjects and presentation to Negai no ito-guchi, the style is if anything even more voluptuous."
Quoted from: The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro by Shūgō Asano and Timothy Clark, page 283 of the text volume. The original printed version is illustrated in color in the 'Plates' volume on page 254, number 492.
erotic prints (shunga - 春画) (genre)
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)