Torii Kiyohiro, “Young Man and Woman Taking Promenade,” Before 1762.

Artist: Torii Kiyohiro鳥居清広 (Japanese, active 1750-76)

Title: Young Man and Woman Taking Promenade

Date: Before 1762 (the advent of full-color printing)

Medium: Woodblock print (Benizuri-e); ink and colors on paper

Publisher: Maruya Kohei 丸屋小兵衛

Gift of Dr. Cecilia Segawa Seigle

Dressed in lavishly decorated kimono, a young lady and a young man are walking in the spring breeze. The lady’s obi, tied at the back, indicates that she is not a courtesan. Her robes, however, lifted and parted to reveal her ankles, add an erotic tone to the print. The folding fan adorned with seasonal motifs and the beautifully-crafted comb also enhance the allure of her stylish look. The young man, with a small patch of his forehead shaved, holds in his left arm a parcel wrapped by a fabric of black-and-red chequered pattern. This pattern, associated with Sanogawa Ichimatsu, one of the hottest kabuki actors of the time, was likely to be a textile design in vogue that found favor with Ichimatsu’s kabuki fans.

Torii Kiyohiro was an ukiyo-e designer affiliated with the established Torii school, who specialized in depicting kabuki actors and beauties. Not many prints attributed to Kiyohiro survive, and all of them are benizuri-e, which feature a limited number of color blocks, usually red and green. Replacing the hand-colored prints, benizuri-e enjoyed great popularity until the advent of nishiki-e, the full-color prints, in the 1760s. This Kiyohiro print portrays two adolescents modeling contemporary fashion in Edo. Their elegant demeanor and stunning garments could easily capture the hearts of urban consumers.

No other impression of this print is known to the public.

Selected Reading:

  • Clark, Timothy. “Image and Style in the Floating World: The Origins and Early Development of Ukiyo-e.” In the Dawn of the Floating World: Early Ukiyo-e Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2001.
  • Jenkins, Donald. “The Roots of Ukiyo-e: Its Beginnings to the Mid-eighteenth Century.” In the Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, vol.1. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2005.
  • Smith, Lawrence. Ukiyoe: Images of Unknown Japan. London: British Museum Publications: 1988.
  • Pulverer Collection of Japanese Illustrated Books, Imayō kushi kiseru hinagata, http://pulverer.si.edu/node/303/title/1

Posted by Aria Diao

Nov 03, 2020