Yoshiwara courtesans entertaining a male client in a pleasure boat

Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), also known as Toyokuni III, was the most popular and prolific designer of ukiyo-e in 19th century Japan. He is estimated to have produced between 20,000 and 25,000 designs for woodblock prints during his lifetime. His reputation was clinched when he was in his early twenties; it was as great as that of his teacher Toyokuni I, and lifelong. His status was largely unchallenged in his lifetime, though his reputation was long unfairly neglected because of cyclical attitudes to Japanese prints. Frank Whitford recognised this early on: ‘Perhaps because of his huge output… Kunisada has not been treated well by the historians of ukiyo-e, although much of his work… reached the highest standards.’ His reputation was rescued considerably later than those of Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi, really only dating from the 1990s through the scholarship of Jan van Doesburg and Sebastian Izzard. Kuniyoshi showed the versatility typical of print designers; while best known for his depictions of kabuki and his yakusha-e actor prints, he was also a specialist in bijin-ga (beautiful women) as here, illustrations from The Tales of Genji and more luxurious surimono prints.

This impressive triptych, one of three currently in Te Papa's collection, dates from the mid-19th century in the later part of Kuniyoshi - or more properly Toyokuni III's - career. It depicts what the Boston Museum of Fine Arts entitles as 'Flowers of Edo Enjoy the Evening Cool on Pleasure Boats'. This has been rendered more prosaically, perhaps, as 'Yoshiwara courtesans entertaining a male client in a pleasure boat', though actually the print depicts three such boats, two cropped in the foreground and the large, focal one, where the entertainment is taking place. It is evening and lanterns are aglow, casting a light on the exquisite kimonos worn by the women.

Sources:

Boston Museum of Fine Arts, https://ukiyo-e.org/image/mfa/sc173117

 

Sources:

David Bell and Mark Stocker, 'Rising sun at Te Papa: the Heriot collection of Japanese art', Tuhinga, 29 (2018), pp. 50-76.

Frank Whitford, Japanese Prints and Western Painters (London, 1977).

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   May 2019