Eight Views of Night Visiting

(Yomairi hakkei, 夜参八景)

Publisher:  Iba-ya Senzaburô

c. 1845

 

The title of this series refers to night visits to Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.  Each print combines a picture of a beautiful woman from the waist up with a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine in the background.  The women portrayed in these prints are identical to those in the series Women in Tazuna-striped Fashions Visiting Shrines on Festival Days.  This series is listed as number 102 in Kuniyoshi by Basil William Robinson (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1961).  The prints are each about 14 by 10 inches (36 by 25 centimeters), a size known as ôban.

 

 

Beauty: Washing her hands at Benzaiten Shrine in Hitotsume (一ッ目)

Background: The Sumida River and the Ichi-no-hashi Bridge

Schaap: 10.1

 

Beauty: Stroking a statue of Inari, the guardian fox of the Nezu Gongen Shrine in the city of Yokkaichi (四日市)

Background: The Sumida River, a bridge and storehouses

Schaap: 10.2

 

Beauty: in prayer holding an umbrella

Background: temple entrance at Kagurazaka Hill

Schaap: 10.3

 

Beauty: wiping her hands with towel

Background: Asakusa (浅草), Kannon Temple in Asakusa

Schaap: 10.4

 

Beauty: holding coins wrapped in paper for an offering

Background: Kuramae Temple (蔵前)

Schaap: 10.5

 

 

Beauty: with a fan and a ring of ground cherries (hozuki)

Background: Yakushi-do Buddhist Temple in Kayabachô

Schaap: 10.6

 

Beauty: drying her back with a towel

Background: Massaki Inari Shrine at Emonzaka on the Sumida River

Schaap: 10.7

 

Beauty: holding a small blindfolded doll, a miniature fox (inari) mask and a small box

Background: Emonzaka Hill in moonlight near the Sodezuri Inari Shrine

Schaap: 10.8

 

“Schaap” refers to listing in Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi by Robert Schaap (Hotei Publishing, Leiden, 1998).

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