Edo prints
| Design: | Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) | |||||
| Album title: | Poem of the pillow | |||||
| Size: | 24.5 x 37.7 cm (ōban) | |||||
| Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Originally published in 1788 by publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō (1750-1797). The accompanying information sheet mentions that this later edition was published by Isyu-Kankokai, that the blocks were carved by Ishii Torao (石井寅男), and that the printer was Irie Yoshimitsu (入江義光).
This is one page from the famous shunga album 歌まくら, which is pronounced as Utamakura and translates into ‘Poem of the Pillow’. We see a couple up on the second floor of a restaurant, presumably having finished their meal.
The poem on the fan reads:
蛤に
はしをしっかと
はさまれて
鴫立ちかぬる
秋の夕ぐれ
which is pronounced as:
Hamaguri ni
hashi o shikka to
hasamarete
shigi tachi-kanuru
aki no yūgure
and translates into:
Its beak caught firmly
In the
clamshell
The snipe cannot fly away
Of an autumn evening
References
- Asano, Shūgō, and Clark, Timothy (1995). The passionate art of Kitagawa Utamaro (2 volumes in slipcase). Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.
Provenance: the Flea Market of Mokuhankan