Gyeran

This Kaei-era color woodblock print ([nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e)), dated 1848-1852 and held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at the Legion of Honor (accession number 54755.646), bears the title "Gyeran" in the museum's catalogue record, an identification that almost certainly refers to a subject from the Nō or Kagura repertoire treated by Utagawa Yoshiume in the small chūban format characteristic of Osaka kamigata-e. The sheet measures approximately 24.5 by 17.4 cm, the standard kamigata chūban size, and belongs to a group of related Kaei-era prints by Yoshiume in the Legion of Honor's holdings. These prints together comprise a sustained Osaka-style series in which the artist treats Nō, Kagura, and other classical subjects in the meticulous decorative manner characteristic of mature kamigata-e. The print is part of the museum's collection of Japanese woodblock prints and gives a sense of the kind of esoteric classical subject matter Yoshiume undertook for the Osaka kabuki and theatre-club audience.