- XVIII

P-0235

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 81.4; Larghezza: 33.1; Varie: Altezza montatura: 159 cm
Larghezza montatura: 42 cm

inchiostro e colori su seta

La Rinascita della Pittura Giapponese. Vent'anni di restauri al Museo Chiossone di Genova - Genova, Museo d'Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone - 28/02 - 29/06 2014

In the Yoshiwara pleasure district, a complex etiquette prevailed that, in regulating and formalizing the relationship between courtesan and client, required that after each meeting the two exchange passionate letters, reconfirming and strengthening their bond. The images of yūjo intent on writing, opening and reading love letters represented a great flattery for male narcissism: it is possible that this painting by Shunman and one with the same theme by Shinsai were commissioned by the danna, the courtesans' mainman. This important socio-cultural, aesthetic and figurative phenomenon of the "cult of the courtesan" pervaded the intellectual and literary ukiyoe circles of Edo during the 1780s, expressing a strong idealization of women of pleasure, of their literary and poetic wisdom, of their refined qualities of culture and humanism. Painting with original sujiwari hyōgu mount in light gray shikegami paper with purple edges; jikusho in wood and red lacquer. The work depicts a standing courtesan represented in three-quarters. The woman is intent on reading a long love letter that she holds open, unrolled in her hands. Her hair is loose and she wears an overcoat decorated with a plum tree in blossom, forming a rich rounded train at the base of the figure. The dress is decorated with stylized shingled waves. The obi, tied in a loose and billowing knot with the two flaps hanging down the front, is adorned with a design of scattered fragments with three "tortoise scales".