Itō Shinsui (伊東深水) (artist 02/04/1898 – 05/08/1972)
Hair Style of a Married Woman (Marumage)
07/1924
10.25 in x 15.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Shinsui saku (深水作)
Artist's seal: Itō
Publisher: Watanabe Shōzaburō
Date: Taishō jūsannen shichigatsu Shinsui saku
Taishō 13 (July 1924 )
大正十三七月
Art Institute of Chicago
Harvard Art Museums
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Toledo Museum of Art
The National Museum of Asian Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Yale University Art Gallery
Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo - small black and white reproduction "Woman with a fan is described in the 1930 Toledo catalogue as Woman of marumage, no doubt a reference to the round chignon worn by married women. The young woman is set against a light mica background."
Quoted from: The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, p. 190 - illustrated in color.
Marumage (丸髷) is a traditional married woman's hair style with an oval chignon on top.
****
Scholten Japanese Art noted: "Although Shinsui was the leading (and most prolific) bijin-ga artist of the shin-hanga movement, he did not, like so many of his contemporaries, produce many prints with mica ground. Perhaps his early experiences with exploring the print medium and utilizing the textures achievable with the manipulation of pigments and the baren made him less inclined toward further embellishments. It may be that it was Watanabe who rarely felt mica was needed. It is doubtful that it was an issue of expense, as Watanabe's standards for print production, particularly for works by Shinsui, were very high. Regardless of the reason, there were few full mica ground Shinsui prints issued."
****
There is another copy of this print in the Worcester Art Museum.
****
Illustrated:
1) In a small black and white image in Modern Japanese Prints by Dorothy Blair, Toledo Museum of Art, #18. The catalogue entry notes that this print was published in an edition of 200.
2) In color in Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, 20, p. 93.
3) In color in a full-page reproduction in 伊東深水全木版画 (All the Woodblock Prints of Itō Shinsui, Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, 1992, #44, p. 73.
4) In The Female Image: 20th Century Prints of Japanese Beauties, 2000, p. 58, pl. 44.
5) in color in The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, Bamboo Publishing, Ltd. and Hotei Publishing, 1993, page 190, no. 248.
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
modern prints (shin hanga - 新版画) (genre)
Watanabe Mokuhan Bujitsu Gahō (渡邊木版美術画舗) (publisher)
Taishō era (大正時代) (genre)