Love-Letter Arrow, By Suzuki Harunobu, Edo period, 18th century
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 10
August 20, 2013 (Tue) - September 16, 2013 (Mon)
Suzuki Harunobu (1725?–70) was active as an artist of e-goyomi (picture calendars) swapped by people at customary calendar-exchanging gatherings in 1765. As a result of his groundbreaking works, multicolored nishiki-e prints became a mainstream of ukiyo-e prints, hence he is regarded as the artist who created the nishiki-e print. This exhibition displays different examples of his work, from early-career benizuri-e polychrome prints, which mainly used red and green, via his series of more colorful prints, Yatsushi (Parody) of Seven Stories of Ono no Komachi, to multicolored works produced after the establishment of nishiki-e techniques. The displayed works include mitate parodies alluding to literary events, works based on the world of waka poetry, and depictions of popular beautiful women of the time. Through Harunobu’s works, this exhibition introduces a broad range of ukiyo-e woodblock prints.
Exhibit includes:
Mitate (Parody) of Kikujido, By Suzuki Harunobu, Edo period, 18th century (Important Art Object)
Love-letter Arrow, By Suzuki Harunobu, Edo period, 18th century
Kasamori Osen and Fan Hawker, By Suzuki Harunobu, Edo period, 18th century