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Yanagawa Shigenobu 柳川重信

A Courtesan and Her Guest

Maker

Yanagawa Shigenobu 柳川重信 (1787-1832
worked in Edo and Osaka, Japan)

Title

A Courtesan and Her Guest

Period

Edo Period

Year

probably 1823, 1st month

Medium

  • Polychrome woodblock print with embossing and metallic embellishments (surimono)

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Polychrome woodblock print with embossing and metallic embellishments (surimono)

Materials

ink and color

Supports

  • paper

Geography

Origin: Japan

Dimensions

Shikishiban: 22.2 x 18.9 cm (8 3/4 x 7 7/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscription Text/Poem: 玉琴を ききさしてみる 朧夜に 二十五けんの 橋のゆきかひ
- 北窓梅善
Translation: We pause from listening to the zither, to watch people coming and going on a misty moonlit night across a twenty-five-ken bridge.

(Translated in Carpenter, Reading Surimono, p. 350)

Seals: Designer's seal: 柳川 Yanagawa
Block carver's seal: 谷清好 Tani Seikō
Poetry group emblem: Golden crane

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of George Pierce Metcalf

Object Number

56.039.9

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

Deep Cuts
Stories from Japanese Surimono Prints
May 23, 2026 – Oct 04, 2026
Seeing with the Mind's Eye
The Art of Printmaking in Japan
Dec 31, 1999 – Mar 19, 2000

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

Yanagawa Shigenobu 柳川重信 (1787-1832
worked in Edo and Osaka, Japan)
Tani Seikō 谷清好 (1822 - 1831, Edo and Osaka, Japan), block carver
A Courtesan and Her Guest , probably 1823, 1st month
Polychrome woodblock print with embossing and metallic embellishments (surimono)
Shikishiban: 22.2 x 18.9 cm (8 3/4 x 7 7/16 inches)
Gift of George Pierce Metcalf 56.039.9

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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