The contents of this item, including all images and text, are for personal, educational, and non-commercial use only. The contents of this item may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of Scripps College. Any form of image reproduction, transmission, display, or storage in any retrieval system is prohibited without the written consent of Scripps College and other copyright holders. Scripps College retains all rights, including copyright, in data, images, documentation, text and other information contained in these files. For permissions, please contact: Scripps College, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery Attn: Rights and Reproductions, 1030 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711
Description
At New Year's playing with silk thread balls / itomari was popular among girls and women. Such hand balls / temari were filled with natural sponges for bouncing or with cloth or hair if used for rolling, tossing or just decoration. Here two older women and a girl are on the verandah of a mansion; the garden beyond is not shown, but camellia flowers and plum blossoms extend into the view and indicate the late winter season. The woman standing at right has on outer robe with patterns of clouds and flying cranes, appropriate for the new year celebrations. The printer has embossed the white under robes of the womens' kimonos. The print series "Depictions of Women's Activities of the Tokugawa Era / Tokugawa jidai kifujin no zu," which included more than 20 triptych designs, was issued by the publisher Hasegawa over several years, from 1895 until about 1898. While all the prints have the same title written in script that floats in a blank area of the composition, the specific characters / kanji and kana, vary, and some titles have subtitles. Most of the images show 3 women, usually one is a girl, in a somewhat generalized space, but their elaborate kimono and elegant pastimes suggest that these are women of the highest social class, associated with the shogun and daimyo during the early to mid 19th century. Chikanobu was growing up at that time in the residential compounds of the military class in Edo and castle towns, so these are probably based in part on his recollections and in part on fantasies. As with the "Chiyoda Inner Palace / Chiyoda Ooku" series of triptychs and "East / Azuma" series of single sheets issued at the same time (1895-1896) by the publisher Fukuda, these depictions of wealthy women are as much about fashion as about lifestyles - and all done with an idealized canon of beauty. The audience for such prints was probably the emerging Meiji middle class, who were curious about the late Edo world of such cloistered women. Historical accuracy was important, but not really the point for such nostalgic looks at the recent past.
If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.
Share your story
Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.
