Husband and Wife Caught in an Evening Shower (Fufu no Yudachi), from the series "Three Evening Pleasures of the Floating World" ("Ukiyo San Seki")

Date:: c. 1800
Medium:: Color woodblock print; naga-oban
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Description

Husband and Wife Caught in an Evening Shower (Fufu no Yudachi), from Kitagawa Utamaro's c. 1795 series Three Evening Pleasures of the Floating World (Ukiyo San Seki), held by the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts a married couple surprised by a sudden yudachi summer rain shower in the late afternoon. Such cloudbursts were a recurring motif in Edo culture, mobilizing umbrellas, hitched-up hems, sodden patterns, and the small choreography of people shielding one another. Utamaro chooses a private subject, husband and wife (rather than courtesan and patron), and elevates this domestic vignette to one of the three 'evening pleasures' of the floating world, asserting an aesthetic interest in marriage itself. Within his ukiyo-e of the mid-1790s, this print extends Edo bijin-ga from the demimonde into the everyday: the wife's kimono, the husband's kosode, and the angle of an umbrella against rain are described with the same calibrated line and restrained color blocks he reserved for Yoshiwara stars. The design quietly insists that married affection is as worthy of seasonal celebration as any Yoshiwara assignation.

More Prints by Kitagawa Utamaro

Akashi of the Tamaya, from the series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seiro nana Komachi) (Tamaya uchi Akashi, Uraji, Shimano)

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Hour of the Tiger (Tora no koku = 4 AM) from the series Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara (Seirô jûni toki tsuzuki), Late Edo period, circa 1794

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The Greatest Beauties of Our Time (Toji zensei bijin zoroe): Somenosuke of the Matsubaya with Attendants Wakagi and Wakaba

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More Night Scenes Prints

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Evening Shower at Teradomari (Teradomari no yau), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishu)"

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Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"

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Evening Moon at Nakanoshima, Sapporo (Sapporo Nakanoshima no yuzuki), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)"

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Frequently Asked Questions

Husband and Wife Caught in an Evening Shower (Fufu no Yudachi), from the series "Three Evening Pleasures of the Floating World" ("Ukiyo San Seki") was created by Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿) in c. 1800.

Husband and Wife Caught in an Evening Shower (Fufu no Yudachi), from the series "Three Evening Pleasures of the Floating World" ("Ukiyo San Seki") depicts night scenes.