File:Utamakura 歌まくら (Poem of the Pillow) (BM OA+,0.133.12 2).jpg
![File:Utamakura 歌まくら (Poem of the Pillow) (BM OA+,0.133.12 2).jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Utamakura_%E6%AD%8C%E3%81%BE%E3%81%8F%E3%82%89_%28Poem_of_the_Pillow%29_%28BM_OA%2B%2C0.133.12_2%29.jpg/800px-Utamakura_%E6%AD%8C%E3%81%BE%E3%81%8F%E3%82%89_%28Poem_of_the_Pillow%29_%28BM_OA%2B%2C0.133.12_2%29.jpg?20200512205145)
Original file (1,600 × 1,108 pixels, file size: 240 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Captions
Captions
Summary
[edit]Utamakura 歌まくら (Poem of the Pillow)
(![]() ![]() ![]() |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Artist |
Print artist: Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Title |
Utamakura 歌まくら (Poem of the Pillow) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Description |
English: Shunga, colour woodblock print. No. 12 out of 12 illustrations from a printed folding album (sheets mounted separately). Elderly Dutch couple. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Date | 1788 (New Year, preface) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medium | paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Dimensions |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Collection |
institution QS:P195,Q6373 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Current location |
Asia |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Accession number |
OA+,0.133.12 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Notes | This image, from a standard set of twelve, is unusual in showing international sex, even two Europeans together, rather than the more often encountered Western male with a Japanese female (Clark et al 2013, cat. nos. 117, 119). It is also one of the earliest such images; the date is important because it confirms that the set was produced while the Dutch East India Company was still making its annual trips to Edo, to pay respects to the shogun. Since these took place in the spring, ‘Dutch’ and ‘spring’ were regarded as linked terms. In associative poetry, for example, they invoke each other. The spring connotation made Westerners a good fit with shunga (‘spring pictures’), but nevertheless, there are relatively few such images. The members of the Company were government guests and as such it would not have been politic to depict them too wantonly. This explains why almost all representations of European sex post-date the termination of the annual Dutch trip to Edo in 1790. Although we cannot suppose this image to be a portrait, it is possible that Utamaro witnessed one of the company visits. That of 1788 (the date of this album) was led by Johan, Baron van Rheede (the only titled European to visit Japan until Count Tolstoy came on a Russian ship in 1804). The man’s wind-chiselled face does seem to attest to a more empirical gaze than that of the woman, who unlike him is anachronistically dressed. Almost no European women came to Japan until the brief visit in 1817 of Titia Bersman, wife of the head of the Company trading factory, Jan Cock Blomhoff, with her sister and an Indonesian maid (see Clark et al 2013, pp. 390–3). This is a particularly strong example of the tendency of shunga to dispose of the body, and concentrate only on the genitals and the heads. [TS] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Source/Photographer | https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_OA-0-133-12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Permission (Reusing this file) |
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Other versions |
|
Licensing
[edit]This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate {{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag. ![]() |
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 20:51, 12 May 2020 | ![]() | 1,600 × 1,108 (240 KB) | Copyfraud (talk | contribs) | British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Eroticism in the British Museum 1788 image 3 of 3 #1,434/1,471 |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
The following page uses this file:
Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Software used | IrfanView |
---|---|
Date and time of digitizing | 05:34, 9 March 2013 |
File change date and time | 03:32, 29 March 2013 |
Date metadata was last modified | 03:32, 29 March 2013 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:53D3CC5B8A97E211A0E8867DEB8AA7DB |