Footnotes

• 花魁図　蹄斎北馬筆　一幅　絹本着色　江戸時代（文政時代1818-1829年）
  
  Provenance: acquired from Hugh Moss Ltd., London, in 1974.
  
  Literature: Aoki Shinzaburo, Ukiyo-e paintings of beauties in Japanese collections, pl.nos.31-33 and 35, edited by Shibui Kiyoshi, Mainichi Shinbun-sha, Tokyo, 1983.
  
  Liza Dalby, Kimono, fashioning culture, Vintage, London, 2001.
  
  Kobayashi Tadashi, Boston Bijyutsukan Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e, vol.3, edited by Tsuji Nobuo, Kodansha, Tokyo, 2000.
  
  Nagata Seiji, Iki no bi, ukiyo-e (The beauty of chic, ukiyo-e), vol.7 of Meiga to deau bijyutsukan , col.pl. p.40, Shogakukan, Tokyo, 1992.
  
  Tanaka Tatsuya, Teisai Hokuba ni tsuite, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e: Hokusai, vol.7, edited by Narazaki Muneshige, Shueisha, Tokyo, 1982.
  
  Among the numerous followers of Hokusai (1760-1849), Hokuba is recognised as his leading student and the painter of greatest distinction. Although he was a prolific painter and printmaker his pictures of women are considered to have a refinement unusual in an artist of the Ukiyo-e school.
  
  In this painting Hokuba shows two elegantly-attired young geisha arranged in three-quarter profile, set against a plain background in an informal interior scene. The women appear to have just returned from their evening performance in Yoshiwara. Both beauties have their immaculate coiffure adorned with a number of tortoiseshell hairpins and combs reflecting the fashion of the time. The standing bijin is about to loosen her obi whilst her companion, seated on the floor in front of a tray of food, offers her a cup of sake. A discarded plectrum and samisen are lying on the ground to her right.
  
  In contrast to the artist's standard repertoire of paintings produced in the Tempo era (1830-1844), of comparably more sterotypical, Kunisada-esque beauties situated in a famous Edo landmark such as the Sumida river, where the figures tended to amalgamate with the landscape setting, the protagonists in this painting are the central focus of the composition.
  
  Arguably traces of Hokusai's influence are discernible from the positioning and form of the two figures - the slender form of one beauty with her head bent forward and the seated pose of the other - but the stylistic rendition of the figures, particularly with regard to the delineation of the faces, marks a departure from the influence of his Master. The Bunsei era was a pivotal point in the artist's career when he established his own style before developing the distinct 'Hokuba style' of the familiar bijin-ga in the Tempo era - works for which he is more instantly recognised.
  
  The artist's skilful brush technique and deliberate use of subdued colour and patterns (as opposed to the overt and gorgeous brocades of the Genroku era) embodies the aesthetic ideal iki (nonchalant chic) that the wealthy and taste-conscious urbanites of Edo society strove to emulate. In fashion geisha were the most iki of women, and they came into their golden age at this time. They were the fashion avant-garde. Their taste in stripes, dark shibui colours and subtle patterns - as are represented by their kimono here - would have propelled the mode of iki into the consciousness of an age. It is not surprising therefore why the artist's oeuvre was a particular favourite among this important and sophisticated social group.

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Category: Asian Art / Japanese Art

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