Lot 51: Katsushika Hokumei (fl. 1804-30)

Katsushika Hokumei (fl. 1804-30)
Standing beauty
Signed Katsushika Hokumei hitsu, sealed Kimo dasoku
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
28 3/8 x 11 5/8in. (97.4 x 29.4cm.)

"Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo/Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art," shown at the following venues:
Sendai City Museum, 1988.6.11--7.17
Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, 1988.9.6--10.9
Sogo Museum, Yokohama, 1988.10.20--11.13

Azabu Museum of Art and Crafts, Tokyo, "Edo no fasshon, Kaikan kinenten part 1: Nikuhitsu ukiyoe ni miru onnatachi no yosooi/Fashion of Edo: Women's dress in Ukiyo-e Paintings," 1989.6.14--7.2

Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, "Hokusai ichimon nikuhitsuga kessakusen: Hokusai DNA no yukue" (Exhibition of masterpieces of paintings by Hokusai-school artists: The traces of Hokusai's DNA), 2008.9.6-- 10.13

Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, Tokyo

Previously sold in these Rooms, 27 October, 1998, lot 93

PUBLISHED:
Narazaki Muneshige, Hokusai, vol. 7 of Nikuhitsu ukiyoe (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1982), pl. 41.
Azabu Museum of Art, ed., Azabu bijutsukan: Shuzohin zuroku (Azabu Museum of Art: Catalogue of the collection) (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art, 1986), no. 46.

Azabu Museum of Art and Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, eds., Nikuhitsu ukiyoe meihinten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo/Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Art; Osaka: Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1988), pl. 86.

Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, and Japan Institute of Arts and Crafts, eds., Edo no fasshon: Kaikan kinen ten 1: Nikuhitsu ukiyoe ni miru onnatachi no yosooi/Fashion of Edo: Women's dress in Ukiyo-e paintings (Tokyo: Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts, 1989), pl. 68.

Okamoto Hiromi, "Variations on the Theme of 'Two Courtesans': Bijin Paintings by Hokusai and his Pupils," in Hokusai Paintings: Selected Essays, ed. Gian Carlo Calza, with the assistance of John T. Carpenter (Venice: The International Hokusai Research Centre, 1994), pl. 6--15.

Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyoe taikan (Compendium of ukiyo-e paintings) (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), no. 41.

Sasaki Eriko, ed., Hokusai ichimon nikuhitsuga kessakusen: Hokusai DNA no yukue (Exhibition of masterpieces of paintings by Hokusai school artists: The traces of Hokusai's DNA) (Tokyo: Itabashi Art Museum, 2008), pl. 64.


The inscription on the painting is signed "Mitsuo," presumably the name of the courtesan shown:
taoyame no With her maidenly smile
emai o mitsu no drawn in three fine strands,
itsosuji ni is there a man
kokoro o hikanu whose heartstrings
hito wa arashina cannot be plucked?

The word itsosuji, or threadlike strands, also refers to the strings of a shamisen or koto, suggesting that the heartstrings of the courtesan's patrons can be plucked like a musical instrument. The reference to a smile composed of "three strands" was likely intended as a pun on the name Mitsuo (which includes the word mitsu, "three"), and a smile can also be drawn with a configuration of three lines.