Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Somenosuke of Matsubaya

Size: 32.5cm by 21.5cm (12.80 in by 8.46 in) | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [L] ?

Designer: Chokosai Eisho

Era: Post-war | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: ¥ 9,000$ 69.00£ 54.50€ 63.50 [Item has been sold]

Description: This print design by Chokosai Eisho is the left panel of the triptych entitled: “Courtesans as the Three Goddesses of Waka Poetry”. It depicts a young Yoshiwara courtesan named Matsubaya Somenosuke.

During the Edo period, the courtesans of Yoshiwara were sometimes likened to "bodhisattvas of song and dance," and were seen as idols by the common people. Therefore, artistic works were eventually created depicting the most beautiful women in triptychs. Following this symbolic perspective, Eisho represented a Yoshiwara courtesan in each of this mentioned triptych to represent the three deities who protect waka poetry: on the right panel, Hinazuru Chojiya, kneeling in front of a folding screen and holding a long pipe. In the center, Ogiya Hanaogi, posing as if holding up a hair comb, and on the left panel is Matsubaya Somenosuke, the print that we see here.

She is wearing a very elegant and auspicious outer robe, while delicately holding and reading a long paper scroll. There are some books in cases and scrolls on the cart beside her that can be interpreted as symbols of her interest and curiosity in the intellectual matters and her refined personality.

This particular print is a reproduction published by Ishu Kanko-kai and produced by Kajikawa Kobo probably in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

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