The Flute (Hichiriki), from the series "Fashionable Musical Amusements of Children (Furyu kodomo asobi ongaku)"
- Date:
- c. 1770/72
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
From Koryusai's series Furyu kodomo asobi ongaku (Fashionable Musical Amusements of Children), held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to about 1770 to 1772, this chuban print depicts a young child playing the hichiriki, the small double-reed wind instrument used in gagaku court music. The series places children in adult musical roles, parodying the formal gagaku tradition while celebrating the precocity and elegance of Edo children. Koryusai's choice of the hichiriki, an instrument associated with the most august of Japanese musical traditions, gives the print a particular note of gentle mitate (parody) humor, transposing the courtly into the domestic. The chuban format and the carefully registered pastels of the children's robes show Koryusai's continued indebtedness to the Harunobu palette even as the figures themselves are beginning to acquire slightly more substantial proportions.
The Flute (Hichiriki), from the series "Fashionable Musical Amusements of Children (Furyu kodomo asobi ongaku)" was created by Isoda Koryūsai (礒田湖龍斎) in c. 1770/72.
The Flute (Hichiriki), from the series "Fashionable Musical Amusements of Children (Furyu kodomo asobi ongaku)" depicts children.
