Three Beauties of the Present Day is a nishiki-e colour woodblock print from c. 1792–93 by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro. The triangular composition depicts the profiles of three celebrity beauties: geisha Tomimoto Toyohina, and teahouse waitresses Naniwaya Kita and Takashima Hisa. Each figure in the work is adorned with an identifying family crest.
About Three Beauties of the Present Day in brief
Three Beauties of the Present Day is a nishiki-e colour woodblock print from c. 1792–93 by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro. The triangular composition depicts the profiles of three celebrity beauties: geisha Tomimoto Toyohina, and teahouse waitresses Naniwaya Kita and Takashima Hisa. Each figure in the work is adorned with an identifying family crest. The print was published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō and made with multiple woodblocks, one for each colour. It is believed to have been quite popular, and the triangular positioning became a vogue in the 1790s. It depicts the celebrity beautie of the Edo period, but not courtesans, as was expected in uki yo-e art. These three models were frequent subjects of Utamari’s art, and often appeared together together in other works. In the work, TomimotoToyohina is a famed geisha, having made her name playing shamisen-bushi music on the shamisen. Like the other models, she has two hair styles, one of which has her hair in a braid and the other in a ponytail. The three models are idealized, and at first glance their faces seem similar, but subtle differences in their features and expressions can be detected.
The portraits are a contrast with the stereotyped beauties in earlier masters such as Harunobu and Kiyonaga, who were known for their large-headed pictures of women. The pictures were printed using a large number of woodblocks and the background was dusted with muscovite to produce a glimmering effect. The luxurious print is considered one of the best examples of the ōkubi-e genre, which focus on the heads of women in Japan in the late 17th and early 18th century. It was printed using multiple woodblock prints and was made with a number of different colours for each of the three colours. The prints are believed to be the only examples of this type of print in existence at the time of the print’s publication. Ukiyoe art flourished in Japan during the 17th to 19th centuries, and took as its primary subjects courtesan, kabuki actors, and others associated with the \”floating world\” lifestyle of the pleasure districts.
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