Bijin Junikagetsu (Beauties in the twelve months): March, Miyagawa Shuntei, artist, 1898, Tokyo, woodcut, Miyagawa Shuntei (1873-1914) was a specialist in kuchi-e (literally: mouth piece frontispiece prints) which heralded a new discourse on the social construction of girlhood and womanhood in its focus on sentimental Western notions of romantic love in Japan. He worked in a neo-traditional ukiyo-e mode, evocative of the past but making obvious to anyone that his prints were from the turn of the century. In compositions reminiscent of earlier Yamato-e Japanese-picture genre scenes, Shuntei celebrates the worlds of middle-class women and children at leisure. These themes are reflected in print series titles like Customs of Children (1896) and his celebrated triptych series Bijin junikagetsu (Beauties in the twelve months). In each of the latter series, Shuntei depicts groups of women and children gathering shells and swimming, enjoying picnics in gardens, playing games, and enjoying the changing seasons according to the month. Te Papa acquired three of these compositions from the Heriot collection.

Bijin Junikagetsu (Beauties in the twelve months): March, Miyagawa Shuntei, artist, 1898, Tokyo, woodcut, Miyagawa Shuntei (1873-1914) was a specialist in kuchi-e (literally: mouth piece frontispiece prints) which heralded a new discourse on the social construction of girlhood and womanhood in its focus on sentimental Western notions of romantic love in Japan. He worked in a neo-traditional ukiyo-e mode, evocative of the past but making obvious to anyone that his prints were from the turn of the century. In compositions reminiscent of earlier Yamato-e Japanese-picture genre scenes, Shuntei celebrates the worlds of middle-class women and children at leisure. These themes are reflected in print series titles like Customs of Children (1896) and his celebrated triptych series Bijin junikagetsu (Beauties in the twelve months). In each of the latter series, Shuntei depicts groups of women and children gathering shells and swimming, enjoying picnics in gardens, playing games, and enjoying the changing seasons according to the month. Te Papa acquired three of these compositions from the Heriot collection.

Album / quintlox

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5940 x 2950 px | 50.1 MB

50.3 x 25.0 cm | 19.8 x 9.8 in (300 dpi)