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Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉

Beauties of the Floating World as Three Musical Instruments (Ukiyo bijin mitate sankyoku)

Maker

Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉 (Japanese, 1790-1848, b. in Edo)
Moritaya Hanzō (Japanese), publisher

Title

Beauties of the Floating World as Three Musical Instruments (Ukiyo bijin mitate sankyoku)
浮世美人見立三曲

Period

Edo (Japanese period)

Year

1820s

Medium

  • polychrome woodblock print

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Polychrome woodblock print

Materials

ink, color

Supports

  • paper

Geography

Place Made: Japan; Place Made: Tokyo

Dimensions

Vertical ōban: 38.3 x 26.2 cm (15 1/16 x 10 5/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signature: Signed: Keisai Eisen ga
Seals: Moritaya Hanzo (Publisher); kiwame (Censor)

Seals: Censor's seal | kiwame

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Bequest of Isaac C. Bates

Object Number

13.1393

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

Samurai At Leisure
Nov 26, 2019 – May 24, 2020

Label copy

Sitting underneath cherry blossoms that match her soft pink robe, a young woman strums her shamisen. This three-stringed instrument was ubiquitous in the pleasure quarters, often combined with drums to entertain at parties and performances. For many of the samurai elite, courtesans accomplished in the art of music

and poetry were considered highly appealing.

This print, the right part of a triptych, would have been combined with depictions of two other women playing the zither and the fiddle.

Women of the Floating World
Nov 09, 1990 – Jan 06, 1991

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉 (Japanese, 1790-1848, b. in Edo)
Moritaya Hanzō (Japanese), publisher
Beauties of the Floating World as Three Musical Instruments (Ukiyo bijin mitate sankyoku); 浮世美人見立三曲, 1820s
Polychrome woodblock print
Vertical ōban: 38.3 x 26.2 cm (15 1/16 x 10 5/16 inches)
Bequest of Isaac C. Bates 13.1393

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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