Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Beauty Holding a Rice Cracker Wrapper

Size: 40.0cm by 26.5cm (15.75 in by 10.43 in) | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [L] ?

Designer: Kitagawa Utamaro

Era: Post-war | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: ¥ 8,000$ 58.00£ 43.50€ 50.00 [Item has been sold]

Description: This is a post-war Ishu Kanko-kai reproduction of a design by Utamaro, one of his famous ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" from the 1790s.

The hair is cut in what is known as yae-ge style, where each group of hairs curves into the next. This is far more difficult for the carver, but Okura Hanbei (Adachi's top carver during this period, who presumably would be the person who did this) has done it very nicely.

The print is also unusual in that it is an early example of 'product placement' ... the publisher must have made an arrangement with the maker of the sembei (rice crackers) being advertised on the package she is holding. The woman appears to be Ohisa Takashimaya, famous in her own right as one of the ladies working at a tea shop in Asakusa in that era.

There is no record of whether or not she shared in the promotion payment ... :-)

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