The Cloth-Fulling Jewel River, a Famous Place in Settsu Province (Tōi no Tamagawa, Settsu no meisho), from an untitled series of Six Jewel Rivers (Mu Tamagawa)
Original title: The Cloth-Fulling Jewel River, a Famous Place in Settsu Province (Tōi no Tamagawa, Settsu no meisho), from an untitled series of Six Jewel Rivers (Mu Tamagawa)
kurzbeschreibung
This colour woodblock print by Suzuki Harunobu, made around 1766–67, presents two women at textile work inside a Japanese interior. The sheet links the celebrated place Tōi no Tamagawa with an everyday scene of Edo-period life.
Description
Two women sit facing one another over cloth: the one on the left holds scissors, the one on the right a strip of fabric. Two small windows open onto landscapes, and beside them a wall picture shows fruit and bamboo. The layout feels balanced, the tones restrained, pale garments set against a darker ground. Light falls from the front, picking out faces and the movement of hands.
Context
Harunobu made this sheet as part of a series on the Six Jewel Rivers, a venerable motif of Japanese poetry. The series belongs to the years when the multicolour woodblock print, nishiki-e, was emerging. A landscape motif handed down in literature is here interwoven with a genre-like scene of daily life, which is characteristic of Harunobu.
Impact
From the balanced arrangement and the muted colouring grows a quiet, familiar mood. The women's pale robes stand out clearly against the darker ground, so that the eye rests on what they are doing.
Technique
The sheet is executed as a woodblock print (nishiki-e) in ink and colour on paper, in the medium format (chūban). Crisp contours and closed areas of colour are entirely in keeping with the technique of the Japanese colour woodblock print.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)