Hanga
Promise (Seiyaku no ukei), from the series "Eighteen Illustrations of the Ladder of Ancient Words (Kogentei juhachiban tsuzuki)" by Totoya Hokkei — Japanese Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono, 1831

Promise (Seiyaku no ukei), from the series "Eighteen Illustrations of the Ladder of Ancient Words (Kogentei juhachiban tsuzuki)"

by Totoya Hokkei

Date:
1831
Medium:
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono

Description

Two women in kimono stand at the entrance of a shop, one in a blue floral-patterned robe with an obi tied at the back, the other in a pale pink outer garment over grey-green, her head wrapped in a blue cloth; a squatting figure beside them tends a black-and-white lidded barrel or container marked with a red crest. The scene is framed by sliding shoji screens and a pink-curtained doorway lettered with characters, with bundled straw-wrapped goods hanging at right and a low table holding a vase of flowers and a covered dish at left. Colors are muted — indigo, blush pink, grey-green, and tan — and the print carries columns of kyōka poetry inscribed above the scene alongside a titled cartouche reading "Ukiyo" and "Seiyaku no Ukeji."

More Prints by Totoya Hokkei

Frequently Asked Questions

Promise (Seiyaku no ukei), from the series "Eighteen Illustrations of the Ladder of Ancient Words (Kogentei juhachiban tsuzuki)" was created by Totoya Hokkei (魚屋北渓) in 1831.