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

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

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Women outside the Ebisuya emporium

Glossary

vegetable pigments

  • 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

    The two beauties depicted on the left have probably just met with the other woman with child on her back by chance in front of the emporium, Ebisu-ya. The Ebisu-ya was one of the biggest mercers in Owari-chō in Edo, which lies in Ginza 4-chōme of present-day Tokyo. The curtain behind them shows a large head of Ebisu (one of the Seven Gods of Fortune) and the word ‘gofuku' (cloth for kimono) on the top left. Next to the woman carrying her child, there is a black box with the inscription, 'Owari-chō ni-chōme'. The logo, comprised of the Chinese character ‘Ebisu' surrounded by a circle, was included in some prints by Utamaro and Eizan, as a form of advertisement, which may imply that this print too, was for advertising purposes. Although Toyohiro is known to have preferred the theme of summer beauties, here he portrays one of the women wearing furisode with a design of pine trees and also the image of Ebisu, which are probably indicative of the New Year season.

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