Live Auction 2426Japanese & Korean Art
Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770)
Lot 906 Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky

Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770)

Women at the Seashore with Poem by Minamoto no Shigeyuki, from an untitled set of poems from the Thirty-six Immortal Poets, ca. 1766-67

Closed23 March 2011

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USD 84,100

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Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770)
Women at the Seashore with Poem by Minamoto no Shigeyuki, from an untitled set of poems from the Thirty-six Immortal Poets, ca. 1766-67
Woodcut mitate-e (allusive picture) of two women at the seashore, one holding her hat in the high wind and looking at what her maid points to offshore, the wind, rock and waves representing the imagery in the poem by Minamoto no Shigeyuki (d. around 1000) in the cloud cartouche above, signed Suzuki Harunobu ga--very good impression, waves rendered by gauffrage, very good color, good condition
chuban tate-e: 10 7/8 x 8 1/8in. (26.6 x 20.7cm.)
The poem reads:
Kaze o itami
iwa utsu nami no
onore nomi
kudakete mono o
omou koro kana

Driven by the wind
waves break into spray on a rock--
alone I suffer
as my heart and contentment
smash into pieces.

Specialist note

For another impression in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Bequest of Richard P. Gale, 74.1.92) access or see J[ack] Hillier, Catalogue of the Japanese Paintings and Prints in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard P. Gale (London: Robert G. Sawers Publishing, 1970), pl. 92. For impressions with the woman's robe in purple and red, maid's robe green, see Chiba City Museum of Art and Hagi Uragami Museum of Art, eds., Seishun no ukiyo-eshi Suzuki Harunobu--Edo no kararisuto tojo Suzuki Harunobu, Ukiyo-e artist of the Springtime of Youth: Entry on Stage of the Edo Colorist, exh. cat. (Chiba and Hagi: Chiba City Museum of Art and Hagi Uragami Museum, 2002), pl. 157; David Waterhouse, trans., Tobita Shigeo and Kaneko Shigetaka, Harunobu, supplement to Bosuton Bijutsukan Museum of Fine Arts, Boston of Ukiyoe shuka (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1982), pl. 115 (Spaulding Collection, 21.4535) and online at .