Artist:
Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞], a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代 歌川 豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865).
Signed:
Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a yellow double-gourd cartouche.
Publisher unknown (privately printed?)
Media: Rigid fan print (
Aiban Yoko-e Uchiwa-e, 合判横絵 団扇絵), 228 x 298 mm.
Series title: Six Jewel Faces (六玉颜, mu tama-gao), a pun on
Six Jewel Rivers (六玉河, Mu Tamagawa).
The date seal and censor seal are absent.
Another print from the same series in the Metropolitan Museum of New York reads:
The colorful background, with explosions of tie-dyed floral motifs, is a reminder of how Kunisada made all his thousands of Genji-print designs a visual record of different textile patterns of the day. The title Six Jewel Faces (Mu tama-gao), along with its allusion to the literary theme of Six Jewel Rivers, suggests that this set of fan prints captures the appearance of a half-dozen attractive individuals, and, indeed, the other five works in the set show images of beautiful women, mostly courtesans of the pleasure quarters.
Mitsuuji with Mountain Roses (Yamabuki), from the series “Six Jewel Faces” (Mu tama-gao).
MET Accession Number:2019.3
References:
1) [
LIB-2967.2022] Utagawa Kunisada: His world revisited / Catalogue 17, Exhibition March 17-21, 2021. — NY: Sebastian Izzard, LLC., 2021.
2) [
LIB-3428.2025] Christie’s, New York: Japanese Prints, Paintings, and Screens, Monday, 24 November 1997 / Sales Catalogue, №№ 84-89.
Description by the latter: "aiban uchiwa-e (22.7 × 29.8 cm.); a beauty against a background of tie-dyed fabric patterns holding a pipe looking at toy birds hanging from bamboo, from the series Mutamagao “Six jewel faces”, the bird decorations alluding to the Jewel River in Noda (Chidori no Tamagawa) in Rikuzen province, signed Kunisada ga".