Japanese Works of Art
Two Beauties Reading a Letter by MORI GYOKUSEN 森玉僊 (1791–1864)
Image: 94 × 30cm (37 × 11 3/4in)
Provenance
Private Collection London.
International Research Center for Japanese Studies. "Nishimura Jūjōen." Tanzaku Database.
Heian Jimbutsu Shi (Who’s Who in Kyoto). 1822 and 1830 editions. Cited in Timothy Clark, British Museum curatorial notes, July 2002.
Works by Gyokusen are held in international collections such as the Tokyo National Museum, British Museum, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
Two Beauties Reading a Letter by MORI GYOKUSEN 森玉僊 (1791–1864)
This refined kakejiku (掛け軸, hanging scroll) by Mori Gyokusen captures two seated courtesans in an intimate, shared moment typical of the aesthetic that defined the Bunsei era (1818–1830). One woman holds a shamisen (三味線, three-stringed lute), its plectrum momentarily abandoned on the floor as she leans in to listen to her companion read from a long, unfurling letter. Despite the warmth of the spring evening alluded to in the painting’s accompanying poem, the women remain bundled in heavy, sophisticated winter robes with high collars which suggest a lingering chill of early spring. Small, delicate particles drift through the air, perhaps representing the final snowflakes of the season or falling cherry blossoms, adding to the painting's contemplative atmosphere.
Mori Gyokusen’s elite training is evident in the precise, subdued patterns of the courtesans’ robes. One wears a matsukawa-bishi (松皮菱, pine bark lozenge) motif over a cartwheel design, while her obi features white hares. The other wears a light grey outer kimono bound by an obi with large chrysanthemum medallions. Both wear an indigo undergarment with white flower designs. The painting’s colors are characteristically restrained, favouring indigo, deep greens, and greys with touches of bright red over the flamboyant palettes of earlier decades, reflecting the sophisticated taste of the 19th-century social elite.
This painting is presented in modern silk mounts by the Kimura Seikōdō atelier and is preserved with its original ivory kirijiku (桐軸, wooden roller ends) in a wooden storage box and a modern protective cardboard slipcase. The painting is signed Gyokusen-ga (‘painted by Gyokusen’) with two seals, Gyoku and Sen. The scroll is enriched by a calligraphic inscription, presumably by Nishimura Jūjōen (d. 1830), a Kyoto-based painter and poet listed in the Heian Jimbutsu Shi (the Kyoto "Who's Who") of 1822. The poem reads:
このもしききみ / Kono mo shiki kimi / This moment with you, my love
月花よりも / Tsuki hana yori mo / More precious than moon flowers
ねはつかにて / Ne wa tsukanite / Whose value is beyond estimation
春宵の一時 / Haru yoi no hitotoki / A moment on a spring evening
Mori Gyokusen (1792–May 4, 1864) was an ukiyo-e and Yamato-e painter active in the late Edo period, best known for his vivid depictions of regional life in Owari (present-day Aichi Prefecture). Born in Teppo-chō, Nagoya, he worked under numerous art names during his career. His Yamato-e works were signed under the name Mori Takamasa.
Gyokusen received a diverse artistic education. He first studied the Kano school under Yoshikawa Ikkei in Owari, then Southern painting (nanga) under Nakabayashi Chikudo. Unable to accompany Chikudo to Kyoto, he turned to ukiyo-e and bijin-ga under Maki Bokusen, a leading regional ukiyo-e artist and former pupil of Katsushika Hokusai. Gyokusen became one of the most representative ukiyo-e painters of the Owari domain, producing numerous works that portray the people, customs, and lively urban culture of the region.
From the Bunka era onward, Gyokusen gained prominence through illustrations for local publications, including the 1817 edition of Kyōka Ronkashū. He was especially admired for his hand-painted portraits of beautiful women, which he produced consistently from his early career into old age. His reputation was further enhanced when he painted the Nagoya Tōshōgū Shrine Festival Scroll at the request of the domain lord Tokugawa Nariakira, a work celebrating the prosperity of Nagoya.
In 1835, a decade after Bokusen’s death, Gyokusen and his pupils entered the Tosa school under Tosa Kōfu. Adopting the name Koga, he focused on Yamato-e–based genre painting and the study of court customs. This was a strategic effort to attain higher artistic status in a period when Kano and Tosa lineages were socially privileged over ukiyo-e painters. Even after this transition, he continued to produce bijin-ga, maintaining ties to his earlier style. His work remains an important visual record of regional culture and artistic life in late Edo-period Owari.
ROLLESTON LTD
104A Kensington Church Street - London - W8 4BU
Telephone: + 44 (0) 207 229 5892
Email: advice@rollestonantiques.com
