Apollo Magazine

Pick of the fair: Galerie Tanakaya

TEFAF Maastricht 2017 | Representations of and allusions to the six rivers and their associated classical poems were popular among Edo printmakers in Japan

Mu Tamagawa (The Six Jewel Rivers), Kinuta Tamagawa (detail) (c. 1795–96), Kitagawa Utamaro. Galerie Tanakaya, price on application

Mu Tamagawa (The Six Jewel Rivers), Kinuta Tamagawa (detail; c. 1795–96), Kitagawa Utamaro. Galerie Tanakaya, price on application

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Mu Tamagawa (The Six Jewel Rivers), Kinuta Tamagawa
(c. 1795–96), Kitagawa Utamaro

The subject of the six rivers and their associated classical poems was not favoured by painters, but was popular among Edo printmakers in Japan. Their treatments included both representations and allusion pictures, in which beautiful women – presumably courtesans – were depicted in appropriate settings. This characteristic Utamaro beauty is reading from a 12th-century poem by Minamoto no Toshiyori.

Mu Tamagawa (The Six Jewel Rivers), Kinuta Tamagawa (c. 1795–96), Kitagawa Utamaro. Galerie Tanakaya, price on application

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