- Provenance
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Private collection, Japan [1]
To 1995
Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, to 1995From 1995
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Mayuyama & Co. Ltd. in 1995Notes:
[1] This object was offered in auction at Christie's, New York in 1994 and failed to sell; it was returned to its owner in Japan and remarketed through Mayuyama and Co. (see Curatorial Note 3, James Ulak, December 1995, in the object record).
- Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)
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Mayuyama & Co., Ltd.
- Label
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This scene of a courtesan emerging from beneath a mosquito net as her cat returns her gaze alludes to a well-known episode from the eleventh-century literary work The Tale of Genji. Prince Genji’s wife, the Third princess, was concealed from public view, as was the custom among women of high status. When her cat pushed aside a bamboo blind, however, the Third princess was revealed to the courtier Kashiwagi, and thus began a secret affair between the two. Mitate (incongruous comparisons between courtly literature and modern urban life) were a popular visual device in Edo art.
Inscribed at the top of the painting is a poem by Honda Jinzaburo (1781–1861), whose pen name was Tenmei Rojin. The poem alludes to the source of mosquito nets—the vendors from Omi near Lake Biwa—and to the trysts of courtesans beneath the netting on steamy summer nights.
No matter whom
the maiden meets
under the omi net,
her arm shows the mark
of a mosquito’s stinger.
Translation by John Carpenter
- Published References
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- Aya Kusch. Cats in Spring Rain: A Celebration of Feline Charm in Japanese Art and Haiku. San Francisco, CA, May 10, 2022. p. 31.
- Collection Area(s)
- Japanese Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
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This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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International Image Interoperability Framework
FS-5176_10