Meisho koshikake hakkei: Young woman with a glass goblet

Accession Number
1972/2.116

Title
Meisho koshikake hakkei: Young woman with a glass goblet

Artist(s)
Kitagawa Utamaro

Artist Nationality
Japanese (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
mid 1790s

Medium & Support
color woodblock print on paper with mica ground

Dimensions
14 3/4 in. x 10 in. ( 37.5 cm x 25.4 cm )

Credit Line
Transfer from the College of Architecture and Design

Label copy
This print is from a series of bust portraits of famous tea-house beauties. The inscribed comic poem on this print reads:
In the spring breeze
Is a fragrance more lovely
Than a branch of plum
The poem suggests that the beauty in the print works at the Plum Tea-house. The glass goblet would still have been a rarity in Utamaro’s time. Although the pigment on this piece has faded, it is considered a rare work of the artist.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
color print

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
calligraphy
goblets
ukiyo e

2 Related Resources

Food Cultures
(Part of 4 Learning Collections)
Japan Pax Tokugawa 1600-1868
(Part of: Empires and Colonialism)

& Author Notes

Web Use Permitted