Three Beauties of the Present Day | |
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Japanese: 当時三美人 Tōji San Bijin | |
![]() First impression, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | |
Artist | Utamaro |
Year | c. 1793 |
Type | Nishiki-e colour woodblock print |
Dimensions | 37.9 cm × 24.9 cm (14.9 in × 9.8 in) |
Template:Contains Japanese text
Three Beauties of the Present Day (当時三美人, Tōji San Bijin) or Three Beauties of the Kansei Era (寛政三美人, Kansei San Bijin) is a nishiki-e colour woodblock print of c. 1792–93 by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753–1806). The triangular composition depicts the busts of three celebrity beauties of the time: geisha Tomimoto Toyohina, and tearoom waitresses Naniwa Kita and Takashima Hisa.
Utamaro was the leading ukiyo-e artist in the 1790s in the bijin-ga genre of pictures of female beauties. He was known for his ōkubi-e portraits focusing on the heads. The three beauties in Three Beauties of the Present Time were frequent portrait subjects in Utamaro's art. Each figure is adorned with an identifying family crest. The portraits are idealized, and at first glance their faces seem similar, but subtle differences in their features and expressions can be detected—a level of realism until then unusual in ukiyo-e. The print is believed to have been quite popular, and the triangular positioning became a vogue in the 1790s. Utamaro produced several other pictures with the same arrangement of the same three beauties.
Background
Ukiyo-e art flourished in Japan during the Edo period from the 17th to 19th centuries, and took as its primary subjects courtesans, kabuki actors, and others associated with the "floating world" lifestyle of the pleasure districts. Alongside paintings, mass-produced woodblock prints were a major form of the genre.[1] In the mid-18th century full-colour nishiki-e prints became common, printed using a large number of woodblocks, one for each colour.[2] Towards the close of the 18th century there was a peak in both quality and quantity of work.[3]
Kitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753–1806) studied under Toriyama Sekien (1712–1788), who had trained in the Kanō school of painting. Around 1782, Utamaro came to work for the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō.[4] Kiyonaga was the pre-eminent portraitist of beauties in the 1880s, and the tall, graceful beauties in his work had a great influence on Utamaro, who was to succeed him in fame.[5] Shunshō introduced the ōkubi-e "large-headed picture" in the 1760s, and it became a popular form for yakusha-e actor prints. Utamaro was the first adapt this form to the bijin-ga genre of portraits of beuaties,[6] and made his name in the 1790s with his bijin ōkubi-e.[7]
Description and analysis
Considered one of Kitagawa Utamaro's representative early works,[8] Three Beauties of the Present Day depicts the busts of three celebrity beauties of 1790s Edo (modern Tokyo).[9] Unlike as was common in ukiyo-e, the subjects were not courtesans, but young women known around Edo for their beauty.[10] These three were frequent subjects of Utamaro's art, and often appeared together.[11] Each is identified by an associated family crest.[12]
In the centre is Tomimoto Toyohina,[a] a famed geisha at Tamamuraya in the Yoshiwara pleasure district.[13] She was dubbed "Tomimoto" having made her name playing ja music on the shamisen.[11] On the sleeve of her kimono is a Japanese primrose design that was the Tomimoto crest.[14] Tomohisa's birthdate is unknown.[15]
To the right is Naniwaya Kita,[b] also known as "O-Kita",[9] well-known daughter of the owner of an Asakusa teahouse[16] near the temple Sensō-ji. She was sixteen in the portrait,[17] in which she wears a patterned kimono[9] and holds an uchiwa hand fan printed with her family emblems, a paulownia crest.[11]
At left is Takashima Hisa,[c][9] or "O-Hisa", from ja in Ryōgoku.[18] She was the eldest daughter of Takashima Chōbei, the owner of a rice cracker shop. He ran a roadside teahouse at his home[11] nearby in which Hisa worked attracting customers. Hisa was seventeen when the portrait was made,[17] in which an identifying daimyo oak crest adorns her kimono.[11]
- Crests of the three beauties
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Hisa's daimyo oak crest
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Toyohisa's Japanese primrose crest
-
Kita's paulownia crest
Rather than attempting to capture a realistic portrayal of the three, Utamaro idealizes their likenesses.[9] To many viewers, the faces in this and other portraits of the time seem little indivuated, or perhaps not at all; others emphasize the subtle differences.[11] There are subtle differences that distinguish the three in shapes of the mouths, noses,[9] and eyes:[16] Kita has plump cheeks and an innocent expression;[17] her eyes are almond-shaped, and the bridge of her nose high;[16] Hisa has a stiffer, proud expression,[19] and the bridge of Hisa's nose is lower and her eyes rounder than Kita's;[16] Toyohina's features fall in between,[16] and she has an air of being older and more intellectual.[17]
The print is a vertical ōban of 37.9 × 24.9 centimetres (14.9 × 9.8 in),[20] and is a nishiki-e—a full-colour ukiyo-e print made from multiple woodblocks, one for each colour; the inked blocks are pressed on Japanese handmade paper. To produce a glittering effect the background is dusted with muscovite, a variety of mica. The image falls under the genres of bijin-ga ("portraits of beauties") and ōkubi-e ("big-headed pictures"), the latter a genre Utamaro pioneered and was strongly associated with.[9]
The composition of the three figures is triangular, a traditional arrangement Tadashi Kobayashi compares to The Three Vinegar Tasters,[d] in which Confucius, Gautama Buddha, and Laozi, meant to symbolize the unity of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism; similarly, Kobayashi says, Utamaro demonstrates the unity of the three competing celebrity beauties in the print.[12]
- Portraits of the three Kansei beauties by Utamaro
-
Naniwa Kita
-
Tomimoto Toyohina
-
Takashima Hisa
Publication and legacy
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Kiyonaga_-_Evening_on_the_Banks_of_the_Sumida_River.jpg/220px-Kiyonaga_-_Evening_on_the_Banks_of_the_Sumida_River.jpg)
Evening on the Banks of the Sumida River (right half of a diptych), late 18th century
The print was designed by Utamaro and published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō in the fourth or fifth year of the Kansei era of the traditional Japanese era divisions[11] (c. 1792–93).[20] Fumito Kondō considered the print revolutionary; such expressive, individualized faces are not seen in the stereotyped figures in the works of Utamaro's predecessors such as Harunobu and Kiyonaga,[17] and it was the first time in ukiyo-e history that the beauties were drawn from the general urban population rather than the pleasure quarters.[21]
Records indicate Kita was rated highly in teahouse rankings, and that curious fans flooded her father's teahouse; it is said this caused her to become arrogant and cease to serve tea unless called for. Hisa appears to have been less popular and ranked lower, though still quite popular—a wealthy merchant offered 1500 ryō for her, but her parents refused and she continued to work at the teahouse.[22] Utamaro took advantage of this rivalry in his art, going as far as to portray the two tearoom beauties in tug-of-war and other competitions, with deities associated with their neighbourhoods supporting them: Buddhist guardian deity Acala was associated with Yagenbori, and supported Hisa; Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, was associated with the temple Sensō-ji in Asakusa, and supported Kita.[23]
The triangular positioning of three figures became something of a vogue in prints of the mid-1790s. The "Three Beauties of the Kansei Era" normally refer to the three who appear in this print; on occasion, Utamaro replaced Toyohina with Kikumoto O-Han.[11] Utamaro placed the three beauties in the same composition three or four years later in a print called Three Beauties.[e] Hisa holds a teacup saucer in her left hand rather than a handkerchief, and Kita holds her fan in both hands. To Eiji Yoshida, the figures in this print lack the personalities that were the charm of the earlier. Yoshida thought less of the further undifferentiated personalities of a later print, Three Beauties Holding Bags of Confections,[f] published by Yamaguchiya. The three again pose in the same compositon, but holding bags of confections.[8] Utamaro used the three in a number of other prints as well, individually or in pairs.[11]
There are no records of sales figures of ukiyo-e from the era in which the print was made. Determining the popularity of a print requires indirect means, one of which is to compare the differences in different surviving copies. For example, the more copies printed, the more the woodblocks wore down, resulting in loss of line clarity and details. Another example is that publishers often made changes to the blocks in later print runs. Researches use clues such as these to determine whether prints were frequently reprinted—a sign of the print's popularity.[24] The original printing of Three Beauties of the Present Day had the title in a bookmark-shape in the top right corner with the names of the three beauties to its left, only two copies of which are believed to have survived; they are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Koishikawa Ukiyo-e Art Museum in Tokyo.[9] Based on clues such as this, researchers believe this print was a popular hit for Utamaro and Tsutaya.[25]
- Group portraits of the three Kansei beauties by Utamaro
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Only the first printing named the beauties; the names are missing on this copy at the Toledo Museum of Art.
-
Three Beauties
-
Three Beauties Holding Bags of Confections
See also
Notes
References
- ^ Fitzhugh 1979, p. 27.
- ^ Kobayashi 1997, pp. 80–83.
- ^ Kobayashi 1997, p. 91.
- ^ Davis 2004, p. 122.
- ^ Lane 1962, p. 220.
- ^ Kondō 1956, p. 14.
- ^ Kobayashi 1997, pp. 87–88.
- ^ a b Yoshida 1972, p. 240.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Matsui 2012, p. 62.
- ^ Kondō 2009, p. 131.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Nihon Ukiyo-e Kyōkai 1980, p. 96.
- ^ a b Kobayashi 2006, p. 13.
- ^ Yasumura 2013, p. 66; Nihon Ukiyo-e Kyōkai 1980, p. 96.
- ^ Kobayashi 2006, p. 15.
- ^ Kondō 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Yasumura 2013, p. 66.
- ^ a b c d e Kondō 2009, p. 132.
- ^ Kondō 2009, p. 131; Kobayashi & Ōkubo 1994, p. 35 .
- ^ Kondō 2009, pp. 132–133.
- ^ a b Nichigai Associates 1993, p. 210.
- ^ Kondō 2009, p. 133.
- ^ Kondō 2009, pp. 135–137.
- ^ Kondō 2009, p. 136.
- ^ Kondō 2009, pp. 133–134.
- ^ Kondō 2009, p. 134.
Works cited
- Davis, Julie Nelson (2004). Takeuchi, Melinda (ed.). The Artist as Professional in Japan. Stanford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-8047-4355-6.
{{cite book}}
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suggested) (help) - Fitzhugh, Elisabeth West (1979). "A Pigment Census of Ukiyo-E Paintings in the Freer Gallery of Art". Ars Orientalis. 11. Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan: 27–38. JSTOR 4629295.
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- Kobayashi, Tadashi (2006). 歌麿の美人 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. ISBN 978-4-09-652105-2.
{{cite book}}
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suggested) (help) - Kondō, Ichitarō (1956). Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806). Translated by Charles S. Terry. Tuttle. OCLC 613198.
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(help) - Kondō, Fumito (2009). 歌麿抵抗の美人画 (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun Shuppan.
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suggested) (help) - Lane, Richard (1962). Masters of the Japanese Print: Their World and Their Work. Doubleday. OCLC 185540172.
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(help) – via Questia (subscription required) - Matsui, Hideo (2012). 浮世絵の見方 (in Japanese). Seibundō Shinkōsha. ISBN 978-4-416-81177-1.
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suggested) (help) - Nichigai Associates (1993). 浮世絵美術全集作品ガイド (in Japanese). Nichigai Associates. ISBN 978-4-8169-1197-2.
{{cite book}}
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suggested) (help) - Nihon Ukiyo-e Kyōkai (1980). 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (in Japanese). Vol. 7. Nihon Ukiyo-e Kyōkai. ISBN 978-4-469-09117-5.
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suggested) (help) - Yasumura, Toshinobu (2013). 浮世絵美人解体新書 (in Japanese). Sekai Bunka-sha. ISBN 978-4-418-13255-3.
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suggested) (help) - Yoshida, Eiji (1972). 浮世絵事典 定本 (in Japanese). Vol. 2 (2 ed.). Gabundō. ISBN 4-87364-005-9.
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