Lady with Servant, Bamboo Trellis and Wisteria, unknown maker from Japan

Archive Label 2003: This two-panel screen depicts a beautifully dressed courtesan and her young attendant on an early summer outing. In composition, it stands midway between genre scenes depicting small groups of people such as Horserace at the Kamo Shrine, seen to the right, and intimate ukiyoe paintings and prints of ‘beautiful women’ such as those seen in the print corner of this gallery. Beginning with Murasaki Shikibu’s well-known Tale of Genji and other great Japanese women’s literature of the 11th century, a beautiful woman was often described by her clothing rather than by her face or figure. Here the artist has focused attention on the luxurious clothing of the two figures by isolating them against a gold ground with only a minimal rendering of wisteria and trellis to indicate place and season. The courtesan’s innermost kimono, barely showing at collar and sleeve openings, was probably dyed safflower red. Over a second, pure white, underkimono, she wears a kosode (kimono) patterned with honbitta shibori, tiny points of all-over tie-dye. Both safflower dye and honbitta shibori were very costly to produce and often prohibited by Tokugawa government luxury laws, adding to their allure. The courtesan wears her most expensive garments under a comparatively simple black kosode decorated with scattered fans. She has set off her understated elegance by dressing her attendant more gorgeously, with a red kosode and gold obi sash. The little girl holds a long European pipe.