Two women on a balcony overlooking the Kamo River at Shijo in Kyoto
by Ogata Gekko
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
- Image courtesy of
- Japanese Art Open Database
Description
Two women stand on a yuka — a riverside dining platform or balcony — overlooking the Kamo River at Shijo, Kyoto's most active entertainment district during the Meiji period. The women are likely associated with one of the many ochaya or restaurants lining the riverbank, their dress rendered with the attention to contemporary fashion typical of Gekko's bijin-ga work. The composition blends bijin-ga and meisho-e conventions, using the figures to animate a specific and recognizable urban geography: the Kamo River corridor between its west bank teahouses and the opposite shore. A railing or balustrade in the foreground functions as a compositional threshold, with the river and far bank receding into a soft middle distance. Gekko was adept at situating female figures within contemporary settings that gave his bijin-ga prints the character of social documents as well as aesthetic objects.
More Prints by Ogata Gekko
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The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
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Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Two women on a balcony overlooking the Kamo River at Shijo in Kyoto was created by Ogata Gekko (尾形月耕).
Two women on a balcony overlooking the Kamo River at Shijo in Kyoto depicts landscapes.