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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Women and children watching archery in March

  • Literature notes

    Utagawa Toyohiro was the teacher of the leading landscape artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Toyohiro produced several bijinga, many book illustrations, and a small quantity of landscapes.

    The series ‘The Twelve Months Designed by Two Artists, Toyokuni and Toyohiro’ was a collaborative work of two great rival artists, Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) and Toyohiro, who were both pupils of Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814). These probably comprised twelve prints of the months of the year with a seasonal theme as triptychs but only seven versions have yet been found including ‘New Year’, ‘April’ and ‘May’ by Toyokuni, and ‘February’ ‘March’, ‘June’ and ‘July’ by Toyohiro, respectively.

    This print, an image of 'March’, is the left sheet of the triptych. Ladies and children of a samurai class family are watching a man at yabusame (horse archery) in the full bloom of the cherry blossom season. The complete image ‘March’ illustrates three different families wearing kosode and furisode who are watching the yabusame held in the large grounds the other side of the brown curtain. In this print, a girl is wearing a pink kimono with a crane design that matches the colour of the cherry blossom, while the lady on the left is wearing a chic brown kimono with a grey ōbi decorated with bashō (banana leaves).

    The red seal in the bottom right-hand corner is that of Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906) who was a Japanese art dealer in Paris during the latter part of the 19th century.
  • Details

    Series
    The Twelve Months Designed by Two Artists, Toyokuni and Toyohiro
    Associated place
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of creation)
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Date
    1790s
    Artist/maker
    Utagawa Toyohiro (1773 - 1828) (designer)
    Associated people
    Nakano Sanshirō (active 1790s – 1811) (publisher)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, printed with water-based vegetable pigments
    Dimensions
    mount 55.5 x 40.5 cm (height x width)
    print 37.4 x 25 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Mrs Allan and Mr and Mrs H. N. Spalding, 1952.
    Accession no.
    EAX.4146
  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 August-30 November 2005, Beauties of the Four Seasons, Mitsuko Watanabe, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 24 on p. 52, illus. p. 53

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

    Utagawa Toyohiro was the teacher of the leading landscape artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Toyohiro produced several bijinga, many book illustrations, and a small quantity of landscapes.

    The series ‘The Twelve Months Designed by Two Artists, Toyokuni and Toyohiro’ was a collaborative work of two great rival artists, Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) and Toyohiro, who were both pupils of Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814). These probably comprised twelve prints of the months of the year with a seasonal theme as triptychs but only seven versions have yet been found including ‘New Year’, ‘April’ and ‘May’ by Toyokuni, and ‘February’ ‘March’, ‘June’ and ‘July’ by Toyohiro, respectively.

    This print, an image of 'March’, is the left sheet of the triptych. Ladies and children of a samurai class family are watching a man at yabusame (horse archery) in the full bloom of the cherry blossom season. The complete image ‘March’ illustrates three different families wearing kosode and furisode who are watching the yabusame held in the large grounds the other side of the brown curtain. In this print, a girl is wearing a pink kimono with a crane design that matches the colour of the cherry blossom, while the lady on the left is wearing a chic brown kimono with a grey ōbi decorated with bashō (banana leaves).

    The red seal in the bottom right-hand corner is that of Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906) who was a Japanese art dealer in Paris during the latter part of the 19th century.
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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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