Jihei of Kamiya Eloping with the Geisha Koharu of Kinokuniya, from the series “True Feelings Compared: The Founts of Love” (Jitsu kurabe iro no Minakami)ca. 1798–99
The paper merchant Jihei and the courtesan Koharu steal away together by lantern light, the doomed lovers of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s play The Love Suicides at Amijima, first staged in 1720. More about this work
About this work
The paper merchant Jihei and the courtesan Koharu steal away together by lantern light, the doomed lovers of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s play The Love Suicides at Amijima, first staged in 1720. Utamaro’s series True Feelings Compared: The Founts of Love paired famous couples from the puppet and kabuki theatre in close, half-length compositions, using their intertwined figures and faces to convey tenderness and impending tragedy. Contemporary audiences knew how the story ended, which gave such images their poignancy.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Colour woodblock print
- In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.
Kitagawa Utamaro
Japanese, c.1753–1806
Utamaro trained with the painter Toriyama Sekien and rose to fame in the 1790s with the support of the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō. He is best known for his half-length portraits of women, the ōkubi-e or “large head” pictures, which give close attention to expression, gesture and the texture of hair and fabric. He also produced finely observed books of insects, shells and birds. In 1804 he was punished by the authorities for designs depicting the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Ukiyo-e
Japanese woodblock prints of the floating world: actors, courtesans, landscapes and the sea.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- JP2738
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Prints
- Department
- Asian Art
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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