Isoda Koryûsai (1735-1790)
Lovers under a blanket, while having a short rest, the woman asks for sake, another curtesan is filling a pipe with tobacco. The tiny little woman is sitting in front of the raised blanket. In the background a wall with the Genji Mon. On the tobacco pouch as a „hidden“ signature the signs of „Koryû“.
Series: Haikai meoto Mane’emon (Poems of the Male and Female Mane’emon)
Date: ca. 1770/71
Size: Chûban, 18,6 x 25,4 cm
Very nice impression, with relief printing. Colours still nice. Paper a little bit trimmed, lower left corner a tiny bit soiled. Very good condition due to its age. Items from this early shunga series by Koryûsai sometimes had been attributed to Harunobu. This picture - quite unusually - shows a tiny little woman instead of a little man. Very rare item!
Compare Evans, Shunga, New York / London (1975), p 175 and Fig. 6.17. Screech, Sex and the Floating World, London 2009 (2.A.), pp 220 and Fig. 78. Klompmakers, Japanese erotic prints. Shunga by Harunobu & Koryûsai, Leiden 2008 (2.A.), p 23. Harvard Art Museum / Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
sold