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

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The Mad Woman Who Unrolls Her Lettersfront

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The Mad Woman Who Unrolls Her Letters

  • Description

    Chiyo was a servant in the house of the great warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After her husband left her she went mad. In this print she stands in the street unrolling a long letter from her husband, which seems to startle a young boy running home after his lessons. Despite her beautiful, elaborately-patterned robes, Chiyo looks unkempt and deranged. The poem above suggests a tangled love affair, the cause of which is another woman.

  • Details

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    Series
    Take-offs Based on the Ogura Version of the ‘One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets’
    Associated place
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of creation)
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Date
    1845 - 1847
    Artist/maker
    Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 - 1861) (designer)
    Yokogawa Takejirō (active c. 1852) (block cutter)
    Kawara Sadaijin (AD 822 - 895) (author)
    Associated people
    Ibaya Senzaburō (active c. 1820s - c. 1870s) (publisher)
    Muramatsu Genroku (active c. 1843 - c. 1852) (censor)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, with bokashi (tonal gradation)
    Dimensions
    mount 55.5 x 40.4 cm (height x width)
    print 35.5 x 23.2 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    printed › relief print › woodcut › colour woodcut
    Object type index
    visual representation › print
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by George Grigs, Miss Elizabeth Grigs, and Miss Susan Messer, in memory of Derick Grigs, 1971.
    Accession no.
    EA1971.116

Glossary

nishiki-e

  • nishiki-e

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

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.

 

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