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Women Playing a Hand Game

Women Playing a Hand Game

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Utagawa Toyohiro

In this diptych, two women of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter engage in a hand game called “catch the fox”—similar to “rock, paper, scissors”—while kneeling on a wooden-plank veranda. Competitions between beautiful courtesans and geisha became popular around the turn of the century, and Toyohiro and contemporaries like Kitagawa Utamaro capitalized on their appeal. Women Playing a Hand Game is one of Toyohiro’s most celebrated designs. His graceful, elongated bodies and faces set his figurative work apart from that of fellow Utagawa-school artists. An older woman, at left, wears a semitransparent black, silk, short-sleeved kimono, rendered with chiaroscuro that highlights the technical skill of both the block carvers and printers. The young woman on the right is in a pink linen long-sleeved kimono. A shell-inlay lacquer tray, holding a glass goblet, a glass bowl, and ceramic and lacquer dishes, is placed between the dueling women.
Artist
Utagawa Toyohiro
(Japanese, 1773 - 1828)
Title
Women Playing a Hand Game
Date
1800-1805
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
358 x 254 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3121a
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 79, no. 29
  • Hitachi, Ltd. "Ukiyoe" [calendar]. Japan: Hitachi, Ltd., 2009. April
  • Osumi, Takeshige, ed. "Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection Ukiyo-e Masterpieces Exhibition." Tokyo: Bun You Associates, 1999.

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/2/2009–11/26/2009
  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 : Chazen Museum of Art, 3/21/2008–6/15/2008
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008
  • Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 10/13/1999–6/30/2000

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