Yoshikawa Kotodo 50th Anniversary Work: "Young Wife Like First Cherry Blossoms"

Image Description:

"Young Wife Like First Cherry Blossom"

Author: (Japan) Torii Kiyohiro

Red folding page

42.5cm*30.2cm (Original size)

1760 Year

Mann Collection, Highland Park, Vote, USA

       Although Torii Kiyohiro was a Torii painter, his kabuki paintings were not as outstanding as his portraits of beautiful women. He excelled at depicting vivid and captivating stories, intentionally exposing the beautiful skin of women.

       This painting depicts two women washing. On the right, a young woman, seemingly a new bride, has just finished bathing and is trimming her toenails while wearing a comfortable bathrobe. On the left, a younger girl appears to have just returned from outside and is washing her feet. The anonymous inscription in the upper right reads "Ko-shō nu uchi ga nyōbō no hatsuzakura"" (roughly meaning "A young wife, like a first cherry blossom, before having children"), which echoes the soft postures of the figures in the painting and subtly hints at a touch of eroticism. Paintings like these, with their suggestive undertones, were called "dangerous paintings"" (あぁなふ) in the Edo period. They refer to portraits of beautiful women that intentionally reveal a part or most of the skin, such as figures bathing or in water, loose bathrobes after bathing, and skin revealed due to mischievous acts of small animals like gusts of wind, children, cats, or monkeys causing disarray under kimonos. These were all opportunities to create such an atmosphere.

　　In fact, at the beginning of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, Shunga (erotic art) was openly sold in public stores, so there was no concept of "dangerous paintings" at that time. The earliest record of "dangerous paintings" appeared in the ukiyo-zōshi "Kōshoku Monogatari-e" published in 1686 (Jōkyō 3), which described paintings that "even a glance could move one's heart and make one restless." This shows that concerns about the moral implications for teenagers from such metaphors had long been a subject of education. The Tokugawa Shogunate's ban on Shunga in 1722 (Kyōhō 7) also contributed to the emergence of "dangerous paintings." As a new genre, the popularity of "dangerous paintings" reached its peak during the Hōreki era (1751-1763). This coincided with Torii Kiyohiro's most prolific period, during which he created many delicate, wholesome, and subtly erotic "dangerous paintings."