Abalone Divers
Original title: Abalone Divers
kurzbeschreibung
Two women on a shoreline, occupied with gathering abalones: the right-hand sheet of a triptych by Kitagawa Utamaro from 1788, made as a colour woodblock print (ukiyo-e) in ink and colour on paper.
Description
Upright on the left stands a woman wrapped in a red robe; a headband holds back her long black hair, and she carries an object in her hand. The woman on the right kneels, holding a shell and placing something into a basket before her; her robe is patterned, her hair dressed in black and red. Gentle wave lines suggest a coastal landscape behind them. Warm tones—red, beige, and brown—dominate the colouring, with sharp contours and clear flat areas of colour. Characters appear at the upper right.
Context
Created in the late Edo period, when ukiyo-e prints circulated widely in Japan. The motif of the diving women (ama) was highly popular in the eighteenth century, combining everyday representation with erotic undertones. This sheet belonged to a triptych that unfolded a continuous scene across three sheets.
Impact
Calm and balanced, the layout keeps the figures clearly separate and wholly absorbed in their work. The warm palette and even distribution of light draw the eye to how the women handle the seafood—a quiet, concentrated atmosphere emerges.
Technique
A woodblock print (ukiyo-e) in which water-based pigments were printed on paper. Sharp contours and flat colour define the process, which used several woodblocks—one for each colour.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)