The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Tsukasa and Other Courtesans of the Ogiya Watching the Autumn Moon Rise Over Rice Fields from a Balcony in the Yoshiwara

Tsukasa and Other Courtesans of the Ogiya Watching the Autumn Moon Rise Over Rice Fields from a Balcony in the Yoshiwara

1799
(Japanese, 1760–1849)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Surimono; color woodblock print
Sheet: 56.6 x 21 cm (22 5/16 x 8 1/4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Ralph King 1943.4
Location: not on view

Description

Gomeirō is another name for the fashionable teahouse Ōgi-ya (House of Fans) in the Yoshiwara district of Edo (present-day Tokyo). Two courtesans, each attended by a geisha and a shinzō (apprentice to a courtesan) view a full autumn moon as it rises over the surrounding paddy fields. The elegance of the women's flowing robes and the serenity of the evening with a full silver moon contribute to the poetic atmosphere of this surimono, a privately commissioned print usually accompanied by text—here, a poem, which reads:

What liveliness! Geisha, shinzō, and jesters
fill the room, all guests of the moon.
  • ?–1943
    Mrs. Ralph [Fanny Tewksbury] King [1867–1949], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1943–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Bowie, Theodore Robert, James T. Kenney, and Fumiko Togasaki. Art of the Surimono: [Exhibition], Indiana University Art Museum, February 25-March 25, 1979. Bloomington, IN: The Museum, 1979. cat. no. 100
    Basch, Sophie. Le Japonisme, Un Art Français. Œuvres En Sociétés. Dijon: Les Presses du réel, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 45, fig. 20
  • Later Japanese Art Gallery Rotation (Gallery 113). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (August 25-December 2, 2003).
    Later Japanese Art Gallery Rotation (Gallery 113). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 20-May 6, 2003).
    Ukiyo-e: The Floating World Revisited. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 2-April 3, 1994).
    The View from Afar: Whistler and the Japanese Print. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 9-October 16, 1988).
    Art of the Surimono. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (February 25-March 25, 1979).
  • {{cite web|title=Tsukasa and Other Courtesans of the Ogiya Watching the Autumn Moon Rise Over Rice Fields from a Balcony in the Yoshiwara|url=false|author=Katsushika Hokusai|year=1799|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.4