Kunichika: Beauty with Umbrella (Sold)

Artist: Toyohara Kunichika
Title:  Beauty with Umbrella
Series: Harboring Waves of Women’s Love (Koi no minato menami no uchiyose)
Date: 1875

Recent portrait of Mie of Notoya (Shinsha Notoya Mie). From a series of eight beauties in which all the beauties wear similar hair styles and kimono that are decorated with one large white flower design on the shoulder. They are dressed in a female version of the male Kabuki otokodate style: a kimono with a dramatic design and a huge obi musubi, sash belt knotted behind, carrying a shakuhachi flute, a sword, and a very modern umbrella, on which the name of a tea house is written. Otokodate are the brash male heroes in some kabuki plays; their costume also features a jauntily tied neck towel, as worn here. In the title cartouche there is a poem written by the pictured beauty. There is blindprinting on the white umbrella and mica on the obi. The deep red background provides dramatic contrast.

SKU: KCA044