# The Shika Teahouse

**Utagawa Toyokuni** (Japanese, 1769–1825)  
early 1790s  
One of a triptych of color woodblock prints  
39.1 x 25.6 cm (15 3/8 x 10 1/16 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916.1113.a. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.1113.a).

## About this work

Exotic birds and tobacco—Western imports—feature in this composition. Peacocks and parrots were brought to Japan by Dutch traders in the 1700s. Many of the visitors to this teahouse, which specialized in displays of foreign birds, admire the unusual fowl while sipping tea and smoking long pipes. The birds have attracted curious courtesans, entertainers, samurai, merchants and their wives, and even a Buddhist monk.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Utagawa Toyokuni designed this in the early 1790s, aged about 21. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### 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.
- **Triptych.** Three sheets designed to sit side by side and read as one wide picture.

### [Utagawa Toyokuni](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/utagawa-toyokuni)

Japanese, 1769–1825

Toyokuni studied with Utagawa Toyoharu, founder of the Utagawa school, and made his name in the 1790s with vivid portraits of kabuki actors and pictures of fashionable women. His full-length series of actors in their roles, issued in 1794–96, rivalled the best of the day, and his commercial success made the Utagawa line the dominant force in Edo woodblock design. Among his many pupils were Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, who carried the school into the next generation.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- The artist was about 21
- Real size: about 15 × 10 in (39 × 26 cm). The 12 × 16 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/465.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/465/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-shika-teahouse-cma-95353).