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Courtesan of Kyoto, Center Sheet of a Triptych (Kyô, sanpukutsui chû)


「京 三幅対 中」
Hirose Shigenobu (Japanese, active about 1716–1736)
Publisher: Murataya Jirobei (Eiyûdô) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1735 (Kyôhô 20)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (urushi-e); ink on paper, with hand-applied color and nikawa
Dimensions Hosoban; 30.6 x 14.4 cm (12 1/16 x 5 11/16 in.)
Credit Line Denman Waldo Ross Collection
Accession Number06.1109
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Waterhouse, Images of Eighteenth-Century Japan (1975), #45 (R only, 1st state); TNM Ukiyo-e cat. 1 (1960), #s 117-9 (complete, 2nd state); Gunsaulus, AIC cat. I (1955), p. 72 (uncut, 2nd state); Ukiyo-e taisei 2 (1931), #161 (C only, 2nd state)
DescriptionApparently the third state, with replaced head as in second state, and other changes.
The theme of the triptych is "Courtesans of the Three Cities," with Edo represented in the right sheet, Kyoto in the center sheet, and Osaka in the left sheet. In the second edition, the heads were replaced and their position was reversed; see Waterhouse for discussion of states.
Right sheet, first state: 21.5883
Center sheet, third (?) state: 06.1109
Left sheet, first state: 21.5884
Signed Hirose Shigenobu hitsu
広瀬重信筆
ProvenanceMarch 8, 1906, gift of Denman Waldo Ross