Page 24 - Sotheby's May 14, 2019 Fine Japanese Art. London

Tsuji-gimi [crossroads girl] or yotaka
[night-hawk] were the pejorative names
given in Edo (present Tokyo) to female
street-walkers. Utamaro beautifully por-
trays this young woman in a popular
pictorial setting of the time – she wears a
multiple-layered kimono, the black collar
features an elegant burnished geometric
pattern and the tie-dyed collar of her pink
under robe is embossed. She gently seduc-
es the viewer by biting her draping head-
scarf between her teeth and slipping her
right hand into the top of her sash (obi).
The accompanying kyoka poem on the fan
(upper left) by Saryutei Tsuchinari, titled
Love for a Street-Walker reads:

Waiting for dawn
On the dark, troubled path of love
In her thick black jacket
How terrible it must be
To have them peer at her face

Tachiakasu koiji no yami no kuronuko no
kao no sokaruru mikoso tsurakere

28

KITAGAWA UTAMARO I (1750S–1806) PROVENANCE
LOVE FOR A STREET-WALKER The Huguette Berès Collection
(TSUJI-GIMI NI YOSURU KOI)
For an impression in the collection of the
EDO PERIOD, 18 TH CENTURY Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession
初代 喜多川歌麿（1750年頃– 1806）、恋 number 21.6416, go to: https://www.mfa.org/
collections/search
歌集 寄辻君恋、江戸時代、18世紀
And for another in the British Museum, accession
woodblock print, signed Shomei Utamaro number 1909,0618,0.70, go to: http://www.
hitsu, sealed Honke [true line], published by britishmuseum.org/research.aspx
Matsumura Tatsuemon, circa 1795–96
vertical oban: PUBLICATION
36 x 24 cm., 14¼ x 9½ in. Shugo Asano and Timothy Clark, The
Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro: Text and
‡ £ 50,000-80,000 Plate, . 2 Vols., (London, 1995).
€ 59,000-94,000 US$ 66,500-106,000

22 Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right (which will depend on the individual circumstanc-
es). Refer to the Buying at Auction and VAT sections at the back of this catalogue for further information.