KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
JAPANESE PRINTS FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN COLLECTION
KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)

Courtesans, their kamuro and apprentices on a balcony overlooking a moonlit river

Details
KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Courtesans, their kamuro and apprentices on a balcony overlooking a moonlit river
Woodblock print, signed Sori aratame Hokusai ga, privately issued, circa 1799, framed and glazed
Ebankiri surimono: 8 1/8 x 21 3/8 in. (20.6 x 54.3 cm.)

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Takaaki Murakami
Takaaki Murakami

Lot Essay

Two high-ranking courtesans, each attended by a geisha and shinzo (young apprentice geisha), view an autumn moon from the balcony of a fashionable teahouse. Remnants of an evening meal are beside a shamisen box with a plectrum on top. A folding screen bears a poem which has been translated by The Cleveland Museum of Art:
What liveliness! Geisha, shinzo, and jesters
fill the room, all guests of the moon.
The same print is in the collection of The British Museum, museum number 1945,0210,0.7 and The Cleveland Museum of Art (go to: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.4).

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