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Chōfu Jewel River
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Details
- Series
- The Six Jewel Rivers
- Associated place
- Date
- 1760 - 1770
- Artist/maker
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Suzuki Harunobu (1725 - 1770) (designer)
- Material and technique
- nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, printed with water-based vegetable pigments
- Dimensions
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mount 55.7 x 40.6 cm (height x width)
print 27.5 x 20.9 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Accession no.
- EAX.3954
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Further reading
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 August-30 November 2005, Beauties of the Four Seasons, Mitsuko Watanabe, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 2 on p. 4, pp. xii & 47, illus. pp. xii & 5
Glossary (4)
mitate, mitate-e, nishiki-e, vegetable pigments
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mitate
Mitate, or riddle, is a form of visual and literary parody on a classical theme. It required prior knowledge in order to decipher it.
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mitate-e
Mitate-e, or riddle, is a form of visual and literary parody on a classical theme. It required prior knowledge in order to decipher it.
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nishiki-e
Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.
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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
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- 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
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Beauties of the Four Seasons
The theme of the Jewel Rivers was often chosen by classical poets during and after the Heian period. The subject became popular among ukiyo-e artists during the Edo period. This was a response to the building of the great aqueduct to supply fresh water from the Tamagawa for the city of Edo in the Musashi region in 1654. The six rivers comprise Tama River of Chōfu in Tokyo, Ide in Kyoto, Ogi in Shiga, Noda in Miyagi, Takano in Wakayama and Mishima in Osaka.
This print is a mitate utilising a poem by Fujiwara no Teika. Harunobu illustrates a harmonious scene of a mother spreading clothes to dry, with her son holding a bucket and a fishing net, beside the Tama River in Chōfu on what is probably a warm day in autumn. A wooden barrel and a hammer for beating fabrics are depicted in the background. The boy’s garment has a tortoise-shell design which was a common motive especially for the children’s wear.
Originally, both the mother’s and boy’s garments were light slate-brown in colour but this is somewhat faded in this print. -
Beauties of the Four Seasons
The theme of the Jewel Rivers was often chosen by classical poets during and after the Heian period. The subject became popular among ukiyo-e artists during the Edo period. This was a response to the building of the great aqueduct to supply fresh water from the Tamagawa for the city of Edo in the Musashi region in 1654. The six rivers comprise Tama River of Chōfu in Tokyo, Ide in Kyoto, Ogi in Shiga, Noda in Miyagi, Takano in Wakayama and Mishima in Osaka.
This print is a mitate utilising a poem by Fujiwara no Teika. Harunobu illustrates a harmonious scene of a mother spreading clothes to dry, with her son holding a bucket and a fishing net, beside the Tama River in Chōfu on what is probably a warm day in autumn. A wooden barrel and a hammer for beating fabrics are depicted in the background. The boy’s garment has a tortoise-shell design which was a common motive especially for the children’s wear.
Originally, both the mother’s and boy’s garments were light slate-brown in colour but this is somewhat faded in this print.
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