Koryûsai: Young couple enjoying the snow
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Isoda Koryûsai (1735-1790)

A young man carefully removing a lump of snow from the high geta sandal of a beauty with a umbrella, who is leaning lightly on him. Behind them snow-covered bamboo.

Publisher: (Nishimura-ya Yohachi, Eijudô)

Size: Hashira-e, 53,3 x 12,3 cm

Date: c. 1780

Very good impression, age-appropriately good colours. Trimmed on top and bottom, omitting signature and publisher's seal. Unbacked. Paper a little age-toned, a little soiling and a few small defects. Overall still very good.
Prints in this long narrow hashira size ("pillar print") were much more frequently trimmed, mounted and worn than other formats.

An extraordinarily charming and erotic scene. Rare.

Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum. Ukiyo-e Prints, Tokyo 1974, vol. 1, No. 721. Pins, p. 161, No. 336. Hockley, p. 265, No. 1. Cf. also MFA Boston, Spaulding Coll., No. 21.8371; Honolulu Museum of Art, Michener Coll., No. 20051.

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