A young woman carrying a basket of eggplants, with Mt Fuji in the background

Accession Number
1948/1.165

Title
A young woman carrying a basket of eggplants, with Mt Fuji in the background

Artist(s)
Isoda Koryūsai

Object Creation Date
1764-1788

Medium & Support
color woodblock print on paper, pillar print

Dimensions
25 15/16 in x 4 9/16 in (65.88 cm x 11.59 cm)

Credit Line
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker

Label copy
This print is half of a famous pair of images made for celebrating the New Year. A young woman in a fashionable plaid kimono is shown walking along with one hand coyly placed at her cheek, while in the other hand she carries a basket of the delicious round eggplants of Suruga province. Mt. Fuji, a hawk, and and eggplants are considered the "three auspicious emblems" for New Year's Day, because of a punning phrase: hatsu yume fujitaka nasu, which can be rendered as "May the first dream of the new year (hatsu yume) be (nasu) of unsurpassed greatness (fujitaka).
The tall narrow format is typical of the so-called pillar print (Japanese, hashira-e): these prints were often tacked or pasted to walls, and so rarely survive in good condition. This particular example is quite dark from overexposure to light in the past.
M. Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
June 2006

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
color print

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
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Keywords
ukiyo e

3 Related Resources

Japan Pax Tokugawa 1600-1868
(Part of: Empires and Colonialism)
Samurai
(Part of 5 Learning Collections)

& Author Notes

Web Use Permitted