Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Beauties of the Four Seasons

A full catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Japanese bijinga (beautiful women) prints by Mitsuko Watanabe (published Oxford, 2005).

Beauties of the Four Seasons by Mitsuko Watanabe

Publications online: 54 objects

Reference URL

Actions

Send e-mail

Contact us about this object

Send e-mail

Send to a friend

Akasaka Station

  • Literature notes

    During the Bunsei era (1818-30) the Eisen style of bijinga became popular, displacing that of Kikukawa Eizan. Although he was a landscape artist similar to Hiroshige, his style of portraying beauty was dramatic and gives a feeling of decadence, differing from previous artists. Eisen incorporated beauties and landscape into his series of the Bijin Tōkaidō which consists of 40 images. In each image, a beauty stands in the foreground while, with a Genji-kumo (Genji-style cloud) as a partition, a scene of a landscape is depicted in the background. In an earlier version of this series, published in the end of Tenpo era (1831-40), there are poems inscribed on each of the scenes.

    This print show a beauty putting on her padded blue kimono at the 36th station of the Tōkaidō, the Akasaka-yado. The combination of the lady with various kimono accessories including a box containing wigs on the ground, and people wearing straw hats in the snow in the background, suggests winter or ealy spring.
  • Details

    Series
    Beauties for the Tōkaidō Road
    Associated place
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of creation)
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Asia Japan (Akasaka Station) (subject)
    Date
    1843 - 1847
    Artist/maker
    Keisai Eisen (1791 - 1848) (designer)
    Associated people
    Tsutaya Kichizō (active c. 1830 - 1880) (publisher)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, with bokashi (tonal gradation), printed with water-based vegetable pigments
    Dimensions
    mount 55.9 x 40.6 cm (height x width)
    print 37 x 25.4 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Christ Church College, University of Oxford, 1983.
    Accession no.
    EA1983.77
  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 August-30 November 2005, Beauties of the Four Seasons, Mitsuko Watanabe, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 36 on p. 76, illus. p. 77

Glossary (2)

nishiki-e, vegetable pigments

  • nishiki-e

    Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.

  • vegetable pigments

    Vegetable pigments were used to create coloured dyes for Japanese prints, paintings, and textiles. These pigments often faded over time due to the chemical reactions they underwent.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Beauties of the Four Seasons by Mitsuko Watanabe

    Beauties of the Four Seasons

    During the Bunsei era (1818-30) the Eisen style of bijinga became popular, displacing that of Kikukawa Eizan. Although he was a landscape artist similar to Hiroshige, his style of portraying beauty was dramatic and gives a feeling of decadence, differing from previous artists. Eisen incorporated beauties and landscape into his series of the Bijin Tōkaidō which consists of 40 images. In each image, a beauty stands in the foreground while, with a Genji-kumo (Genji-style cloud) as a partition, a scene of a landscape is depicted in the background. In an earlier version of this series, published in the end of Tenpo era (1831-40), there are poems inscribed on each of the scenes.

    This print show a beauty putting on her padded blue kimono at the 36th station of the Tōkaidō, the Akasaka-yado. The combination of the lady with various kimono accessories including a box containing wigs on the ground, and people wearing straw hats in the snow in the background, suggests winter or ealy spring.
Notice

Object information may not accurately reflect the actual contents of the original publication, since our online objects contain current information held in our collections database. Click on 'buy this publication' to purchase printed versions of our online publications, where available, or contact the Jameel Study Centre to arrange access to books on our collections that are now out of print.

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum