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

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The Courtesan Morokoshi of Echizen-ya

  • Literature notes

    This series is very loosely based on the six greatest poets of the ninth century. The courtesan Morokoshi was enrolled in the Echizen-ya between 1791 and 1799, and she was sometimes depicted by Eishi and Utamaro even though she was not of the highest rank of the courtesan. Morokoshi was famous as a poet and in this print she is holding a writing brush, thoughtfully contemplating her poem. She is wearing a black summer kimono with green pine tree design. Her obi shows a white decorative design using gauffrage and her collar has an applied coating of mica on the yellow ground. The label of the series and title is on the top of the left side and includes a red lily.
  • Details

    Series
    The Six Poetic Beauties of the Green Houses
    Associated place
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of creation)
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Date
    c. 1794 - c. 1795
    Artist/maker
    Hosoda Eishi (1756 - 1829) (designer)
    Associated people
    Nishimuraya Yohachi (c. 1751 - c. 1870) (publisher)
    Morokoshi of Echizen-ya (active c. 1800) (subject)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, with gauffrage, printed with water-based vegetable pigments and mica
    Dimensions
    mount 55.5 x 40.1 cm (height x width)
    print 36.2 x 24.8 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    inorganicstone mica
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased, 1970.
    Accession no.
    EA1970.111
  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 August-30 November 2005, Beauties of the Four Seasons, Mitsuko Watanabe, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 20 on p. 40, illus. p. 41

Glossary (3)

gauffrage, nishiki-e, vegetable pigments

  • gauffrage

    Decorative embossing technique. In Japanese prints, it is also sometimes called 'blind printing'.

  • 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

    This series is very loosely based on the six greatest poets of the ninth century. The courtesan Morokoshi was enrolled in the Echizen-ya between 1791 and 1799, and she was sometimes depicted by Eishi and Utamaro even though she was not of the highest rank of the courtesan. Morokoshi was famous as a poet and in this print she is holding a writing brush, thoughtfully contemplating her poem. She is wearing a black summer kimono with green pine tree design. Her obi shows a white decorative design using gauffrage and her collar has an applied coating of mica on the yellow ground. The label of the series and title is on the top of the left side and includes a red lily.
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.

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