Hanging Up a Mosquito Net

Suzuki Harunobu's 'Hanging Up a Mosquito Net,' dated to about 1762, transforms a routine summer household task into a moment of quiet domestic poetry. The mosquito net (kaya), a large fabric canopy suspended from cords in the corners of the room, was a familiar feature of Edo interiors during the hot, humid months, and the act of putting one up at dusk was as ordinary as it was carefully observed. Harunobu's figures, drawn with the slender elongation he favoured, navigate the textile with measured gestures that turn the chore into something approaching choreography. The Art Institute of Chicago, the museum source for this record, dates the impression to about 1762, before the full polychrome nishiki-e revolution of 1765 in which Harunobu played such an influential role. Even in its limited palette, the design demonstrates the artist's instinct for the tension between fabric and figure: the diaphanous green of the net is registered through the disciplined economy of line and tone, and the bodies of the women are made to move within its translucent volume. For collectors of Suzuki Harunobu, prints of mosquito-net hanging belong to the broader project of Edo bijin-ga, in which the domestic interior, lit by daylight or lamp, is treated as a worthy and even poetic stage for contemporary women. Few artists were as influential as Harunobu in establishing that interior as a serious subject of Japanese woodblock prints.