File:Man with letter, woman with fan, dog beneath pool, a parody of Chishingura (5759416010).jpg

Display Artist: Kitagawa Utamaro Display Title: "Man with letter, woman with fan, dog beneath pool, a parody of Chishingura" Series Title: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers Suite Name: Chushingura Creation Date: 1798-1800 Medium: Woodblock Height: 14 15/16 in. Width: 10 1/16 in. Display Dimensions: 14 15/16 in. x 10 1/16 in. (37.94 cm x 25.56 cm) Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Cora Timken Burnett Label Copy: "The artist of this print has designed his own clever and risqu parody of a climactic moment of the play. The hero Yuranosuke has retreated to Kyotos red-light district in the hopes that his enemys spies will report his whereabouts and think he has given up on the vendetta. While hiding in a brothel, the hero receives a secret scroll from an ally detailing the names of the conspirators and their plans for an imminent attack. As soon as he sees that the prostitute Okaru is looking on curiously, he realizes that a spy could also be examining the vital plans. The artist conveys this realization through a visual pun: the spy is portrayed as a dog, since the Japanese word inu can mean either spy or dog. The smaller scene in the upper left shows the accurate actions of the play on which Utamaros parody was based. "