Open daily. Always free.
Women Playing a Hand Game

Women Playing a Hand Game

On View

Not currently on view

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
359 x 245 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3121b
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

Collection of S. Bing; by 1922, collection of Hamilton E. Field; 6 December 1922, purchased from Field Sale (No. 370) by Anna Van Vleck; 1922, gifted by Anna to her brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Cambridge, MA); 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
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 323

  • 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

The Chazen Museum of Art welcomes comments or inquiries about works in our collection. Please allow two–three weeks for a response. Chazen staff is not able to provide valuations or authentications and such inquiries cannot be answered.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.