Suzuki HARUNOBU (1725-1770)

Click here to view image full size.

A chuban print from an untitled series showing a courtesan lying under a futon waiting for her kamuro to prepare her pipe in the adjoining room. A fusuma partially separates the two rooms and has a painting of a mountain pheasant on a craggy rock (alluded to in the poem above which is by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, one of the famous Thirty-six Immortal Poets). This poem, which is also interpreted by Hokusai in his set One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse, is complex and speaks of long nights dragging by like a mountain trail or a pheasant’s tail. Published c 1768. A particularly rare Harunobu: Another impression is in the BM: A_1937-0710-0-18.

Fine impression with beautiful blind-printing delineating her body. The material hanging behind her is also gauffraged. Very good colour. Minor soil and signs of mounting au verso, otherwise very good condition. Signed on the fusuma Suzuki Harunobu ga.

Status: Sold