Koikawa Shôzan (1821-1907)
In the middle of the night, a courtesan wakes her surprised lover to make love to him; the heavy sleeping kimono has been thrown aside and the headrests have been toppled over. In the background of the room a screen with blossoming cherry trees.
Series: Shiki no orifushi (Moments in the Four Seasons)
Date: 1858
Original Japanese colour woodblock print, nishiki-e. Size: Horizontal Aiban, 21 x 32 cm (image)
Excellent impression and colours. Fine deluxe print, with embossing and metal pigments (partly oxidized). Minor creases, in margins vertical folds flattened, else excellent condition.
Ofer Shagan, Japanese Erotic Art. The Hidden World of Shunga, London 2013, p. 152f, no. 16 a-l. In Shagan, Encyclopedia of Japanese Erotic Art: Shunga, Vol. I, Tokyo 2011, p. 094 ff illustrated with preface, the title given as Shiki no orifute. This preface is signed with Shôzan's pseudonym Insuitei.
Cf. also Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, no. 1973.9.5 (attributed to Kunisada).
These exceptionally splendid prints are special broadsheets for an album; they later appeared again in a book edition, the three-volume ehon "(Renjô) Iro shiki shi" (The Colours of Love in the Four Seasons), cf. Freer/Sackler, Pulverer Collection, FSC-GR-780.10.1-3
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