Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908)
A young woman sitting at her sewing cabinet. Slightly smiling and a little embarrassed, she holds her kimono sleeve in front of her mouth, presenting her outstretched hand with a ring to an older woman with a pipe, who is sitting next to the hibachi. Behind them at the back of the room a byôbu (folding screen) with a painting of a couple mandarin ducks gives another hint to an impending marriage.
Untitled (Yoku to yoku - desire and longing)
Seal: Toshikata
Kuchi-e (frontispiece print) for the novel "Yoku to yoku" by Uchida Fuchian, in "Bungei Kurabu", Vol. VI,4
Publisher: Hakubunkan, Tokyo
Date: 1900
Original Japanese colour woodblock print. Size: Horizontal Aiban, 22 x 30,5 cm (overall).
Very good impression and colours, with lustre printing. The two usual vertical folds. Narrow dark discolouration at lower right margin, a short tear in top right margin repaired, a small spot at left margin, otherwise very good condition. A pair of mandarin ducks usually symbolize marriage.
Cf. Honolulu Museum of Art, Philip H. Roach Jr. Collection, No. 27486; National Library of Australia, (Clough Collection of kuchie) No. 5744802; ARC Ritsumeikan arcUP6822.
Literature: Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints, Honolulu 2000.
sold