Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
A Scene of Spring Rain (Harusame no kei - 春雨乃景)
ca 1827
30 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
五渡亭国貞画
Publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi
(Marks 595 - seal 04-007)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Art, Boston
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - right panel
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - left panel
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - center panel
Harvard Art Museums - whole triptych
Van Gogh Museum
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University - the right-hand panel only
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University - the center panel only
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University - the left-hand panel only There is more going on here than first meets the eye. The woman, leaning against the post, is passing a note - a love letter? or a poem? - to the woman on the left. That woman is looking to her right, I suppose to make sure that no one sees this secretive transaction. Perhaps the letter has been given to the woman in the center by a male suitor who can't deliver it himself. This was a common theme in Tokugawa Japan and in earlier times, too.
The woman on the right with the child in her lap playing the koto is wearing robes decorated with the images of the shells painted with scenes from the Tale of Genj. The hanging scroll (or screen) next to her of sail boats in a harbor may be another clue to the theme of this composition. Maybe it is a reference to the 'Returning sails at Yabase' from the series of the '8 View of Lake Biwa'.
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We have added a jpeg to this page so you can compare the differences between an early edition and a later one. The Lyon Collection example is from a later edition - the same as the example in the Van Gogh Museum. It is shown on the left. The example on the right side is more precisely printed. Notice the edge along the hanging scroll.
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There is another copy of the right panel at the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil.
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Illustrated:
1) in color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 8, p. 109, #265.
2) in full-page color reproductions on pages 133-135 in the Catalogue of the Van Gogh Museum's Collection of Japanese Prints by Charlotte van Rappard-Boon, Willem van Gulik and Keiko van Bremen-Ito, 1991.
Yamamotoya Heikichi (山本屋平吉) (publisher)
beautiful women (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)