Utagawa Toyokuni II (二代目歌川豊国) (artist 1777 – 1835)
Oiran sitting on a ledge by a lattice work
ca 1827
10.25 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichiryūsai (?) Toyoshige ga
一龍斉豊重画
Publisher: Imariya Ushizō
(Marks 138 - seal 15-028)
Censor's seal: kiwame
The courtesan in the picture is wearing a robe decorated with dianthus flowers which are also called pinks, but the Japanese word is nadeshiko (撫子). It is considered one of the Seven Flowers of Autumn. She is sitting on a ledge which looks out on a river with boat traffic going by.
Elsewhere we have written: "In a WordPress posting from July 1, 2010 Royall Tyler, one of the most credible sources of accurate information on Japanese culture anywhere wrote: "“Gillyflower” and “pink” seem to be the same flower. This was a wonderful discovery, because, in the original, TOKONATSU and NADESHIKO are the same flower, so I needed two different words for the same thing."
[Our notes on what Royall Tyler has said above: According to the Oxford English Dictionary: "The name pink is applied to various species of dianthus with fragrant white, pink, or crimson flowers, including the clove-scented pink called gillyflower. A distinction emerged between carnations, with large, long-stalked flowers, and gillyflowers , the smaller pinks."
A tokonatsu is 常夏.]"
****
If Andreas Marks dates for the publisher of this print, Imariya Ushizō, ca. 1816-1827, then the date of this image can be no later than that end date. However, we have now found prints said to have been published by this house as early as 1813 and as late as 1832.
Imariya Ushizō (今利屋丑蔵) (publisher)
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)