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Musashino (武蔵野,c. 1798–99) is atriptych print by the Japaneseukiyo-e artistKitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753 – 1806). It is amitate-e parody picture that alludes to the story in the 12th section ofThe Tales of Ise.
Ukiyo-e art flourished in Japan during theEdo period from the 17th to 19th centuries, and took as its primary subjectscourtesans,kabuki actors, and others associated with the "floating world" lifestyle of thepleasure districts. Alongside paintings, mass-producedwoodblock prints were a major form of the genre.[1] In the mid-18th century full-colournishiki-e prints became common, printed using a large number of woodblocks, one for each colour.[2] A prominent genre wasbijin-ga ("pictures of beauties"), which depicted most oftencourtesans andgeisha at leisure, and promoted the entertainments of the pleasure districts.[3]
Kitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753–1806) made his name in the 1790s with hisbijinōkubi-e ("large-headed pictures of beautiful women") portraits, focusing on the head and upper torso, a style others had previously employed in portraits of kabuki actors.[4] Utamaro experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background. Utamaro's individuated beauties were in sharp contrast to the stereotyped, idealized images that had been the norm.[5]
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The three sheets are multicolournishiki-e prints inōban size, about 37 by 24 centimetres (15 in × 9 in) each. The set forms atriptych and was published inc. 1794–95 byTsutaya Jūzaburō.[6]
The picture is amitate-e parody alluding to a scene from the 12th section ofThe Tales of Ise, aHeian-period collection of poems and associated narratives. In the story, a man kidnaps a woman and hides her inMusashino Plain, where their pursuers discover them just as they are about to set fire to the grasses with their torches.[7] Though she had been kidnapped, many paintings of the scene depict the woman sheltering the man with the large sleeve of her kimono.[6]
In Utamaro's picture, the search party has become fashionably-dressed, pleasure-seeking women who carrychōchin paper lamps rather than torches.[7] To the left, a youngsamurai crouches and covers his head in a cloth while a young woman dressed like ageisha blocks the view of him. The scene is set in field of thickly-growingpampas grass, behind which rises an exaggeratedly large Moon. The Moon is dusted withmuscovite to give it a glittering effect.[6]
