Kushi (Utamaro)

Kushi (櫛, "Comb", c. 1795–96) is a title given to a print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro. It depicts a woman looking through a clear glass comb.

Kushi, Utamaro, multicolour woodblock print, c. 1795–96

Background

Ukiyo-e art flourished in Japan during the Edo period from the 17th to 19th centuries, and took as its primary subjects courtesans, kabuki actors, and others associated with the "floating world" lifestyle of the pleasure districts. Alongside paintings, mass-produced woodblock prints were a major form of the genre.[1] In the mid-18th century full-colour nishiki-e prints became common, printed using a large number of woodblocks, one for each colour.[2] A prominent genre was bijin-ga ("pictures of beauties"), which depicted most often courtesans and geisha at leisure, and promoted the entertainments of the pleasure districts.[3]

Kitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753–1806) made his name in the 1790s with his bijin ōkubi-e ("large-headed pictures of beautiful women") portraits, focusing on the head and upper torso, a style others had previously employed in portraits of kabuki actors.[4] Utamaro experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background. Utamaro's individuated beauties were in sharp contrast to the stereotyped, idealized images that had been the norm.[5]

Description and analysis

A woman holds up a transparent comb, most likely of glass. Her lower face can easily been seen through it.[6]

It was published in ōban size (about 39 by 26 centimetres, 15 in × 10 in) c. 1795–96 by Ōmiya Gonkurō.[6]

Utamaro made a hand-fan painting similar to this print c. 1802–03 called Giyaman Oshima (ぎやまんおしま). The name is inscribed on the fan. Giyaman is an Edo-period Japanese word for "glass", so the name translates as "Glass Oshima". She was likely a popular beauty in Edo of the day.[6]

Giyaman Oshima, hand-fan painting, c. 1802–03
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References
  1. Fitzhugh 1979, p. 27.
  2. Kobayashi 1997, pp. 80–83.
  3. Harris 2011, p. 60.
  4. Kobayashi 1997, pp. 87–88.
  5. Kobayashi 1997, p. 88.
  6. Kobayashi 2006, p. 43.

Works cited
  • Fitzhugh, Elisabeth West (1979). "A Pigment Census of Ukiyo-E Paintings in the Freer Gallery of Art". Ars Orientalis. Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan. 11: 27–38. JSTOR 4629295.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Harris, Frederick (2011). Ukiyo-e: The Art of the Japanese Print. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-4-8053-1098-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Kobayashi, Tadashi (1997). Ukiyo-e: An Introduction to Japanese Woodblock Prints. Kodansha International. ISBN 978-4-7700-2182-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Kobayashi, Tadashi (2006). Utamaro no Bijin 歌麿の美人 [Utamaro's Beauties] (in Japanese). Shogakukan. ISBN 978-4-09-652105-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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