Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige [歌川 広重] a.k.a. Andō Hiroshige [安藤 広重] (Japanese, 1797 – 1858).

Signed: Hiroshige ga [広重 画] in a red rectangular cartouche.

Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1815 – 1869); seal: san (三) in a circle

Censor seal: Fuku (福) & Muramatsu (村松), 1849-51

Media: Fan print (Uchiwa-e, 団扇絵), color woodblock print, 212 × 284 mm

Series: Famous Views of Edo (江戸名所, Edo meisho)

Title: Moon (月, Getsu)

Provenance: René Scholten (Dutch, 1943 – 2001)

Reference: [LIB-3426.2025] Christophe Marquet. Hiroshige: Les éventails d’Edo / Estampes de la collection Georges Leskowicz. — Paris: In fine, 2022; p. 76, pl. 22.

This second print in the trilogy Famous Sites of Edo (Edo meisho), titled Moon (Getsu), depicts the first floor of a courtesan’s house on a beautiful autumn night during the full moon.

The fifteenth night of the eighth month—called mid-autumn (chūshū, 仲秋)—was widely appreciated for admiring the beauty of the moon. In his Illustrated Almanac of the Green-Houses (Seirō ehon nenjū gyōji, 青楼絵本年中行事), the writer Jippensha Ikku (十返舎一九, 1765–1831) noted that “in the courtesans’ houses, they composed Chinese poems and Japanese verses, enjoying a banquet throughout the night in refined company.” On this occasion, courtesans who joined such gatherings would receive an extra fee.

Hiroshige shows two courtesans, one holding a shamisen, the other a long pipe (kiseru), as they prepare to enter the banquet room, where another woman is already seated.

Bibliography

• Matsuki, Bunkyo (松木文恭). Catalogue of Japanese Prints, 1924, no. 83 (former collection of Nakamura Tatsujirō).
• Hosaka, Kazuhiko (保坂一彦). 江戸の花 浮世絵展 (Ukiyo-e Geijutsu), no. 80, 1967.
• Sugimoto, Jun. Catalogue of Japanese Prints, 1998, no. 281 (National Museum, Kraków).
• Tanba, Norio (丹波則雄). Hiroshige: Edo no Meisho, 1965, no. 42.
• Tanba, Norio. Hiroshige Fan Prints, 2004, no. 10 (Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History).
• Okuda, Yasuhiro (奥田保浩). Hiroshige Uchiwa-e, 2010, no. 11 (Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History), list no. 17.