- XIX

P-0316

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 55; Larghezza: 119; Varie: Altezza montatura: 168.3 cm
Larghezza montatura: 128.3 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

The Seven Sages are seven Chinese Taoist scholars of the third century who, rejecting Confucian thought and Wu shamanic practices, retired to a hermitage to be independent and perpetuate the Wuwei philosophy. From the eighteenth century onwards, in Japan, parodic depictions of this theme began to appear, where the seven sages were replaced by seven beautiful women or courtesans, as in this case. These women, from different social backgrounds, are each depicted in a pose that best highlights the strong points of each dress (from the sumptuous dress of the courtesan decorated with a tiger, through elegant kimonos to simple bath robes, yukata) which suggests that the painting was commissioned by a tailor shop as a sales gimmick, to show the quality and wide range of products on sale, accessible to all classes. The woman in the center, holding a teacup, wears a casually blue yukata robe with stylized blue bats in flight. The fact that the artist and the patron decided to publicize this motif is evidence of how popular and in demand it was. Painting with original Tamato rinbo silk mount: ichimonji in polychrome atsuita with geometric Bishamon-kikkō motif; chūberi in blue-ground patterned fabric with swirls and peonies; jōge in ivory-colored satin; jikushu in wood and brown urumi urushi lacquer inlaid with thin iridescent mother-of-pearl with hōsōge flowers. The work depicts seven women in a large room closed at the corner on the left side by a large two-panel screen, painted in ink with some bamboo plants near a stream. Four figures are seated while the rest are standing. It is a parodic representation of the Seven Philosophers of the Bamboo Forest. The subject is used as a pretext to represent female types from different social backgrounds: an oiran, a city girl who is busy writing a poem on a tanzaku scroll, a geisha with a shimasen, the wealthy wives of a merchant and a craftsman, two maids.