Anthology of Poems: The Love Section (Kasen koi no bu) (Mono-omou koi)
Mono-omou koi
About This Series
Kitagawa Utamaro's "Anthology of Poems: The Love Section" (Kasen koi no bu), often subtitled "Mono-omou koi" (Pensive Love) for one of its most celebrated sheets, is among the artist's most admired bijin-ga cycles and a defining statement of the okubi-e mode he developed under Tsutaya Juzaburo. The series, published by Tsutaya around 1793-1794, organizes its five sheets under the five canonical categories of love poetry codified in classical waka anthologies, from the Heian-period Kokin wakashu onwards: deeply hidden love (fukaku shinobu koi), love that meets at last (au koto naki koi), pensive love (mono-omou koi), love that has not yet met (mada awanu koi), and love revealed by signs. Each sheet presents a single woman at half-length, drawn at near-life scale against a mica ground that catches the light and sets the figure off in monumental isolation. Utamaro's contribution was to argue that the categories of classical love poetry, traditionally illustrated through aristocratic narrative scenes, could be carried entirely by the psychological registration of a single contemporary female face, and the resulting prints rank among the most influential bijin-ga ever produced. The figures are drawn with subtle variations of contour, gaze, and lip placement that convey distinct emotional states, and the cartouche identifies the poetic category that each sheet illustrates. The series is widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements of late-eighteenth-century ukiyo-e and is held in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the British Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the Chiba City Museum of Art, where it consistently anchors the cataloguing of Utamaro's Tsutaya-era production.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kitagawa Utamaro's "Anthology of Poems: The Love Section" (Kasen koi no bu), often subtitled "Mono-omou koi" (Pensive Love) for one of its most celebrated sheets, is among the artist's most admired bijin-ga cycles and a defining statement of the okubi-e mode he developed under Tsutaya Juzaburo. The series, published by Tsutaya around 1793-1794, organizes its five sheets under the five canonical categories of love poetry codified in classical waka anthologies, from the Heian-period Kokin wakashu onwards: deeply hidden love (fukaku shinobu koi), love that meets at last (au koto naki koi), pensive love (mono-omou koi), love that has not yet met (mada awanu koi), and love revealed by signs. Each sheet presents a single woman at half-length, drawn at near-life scale against a mica ground that catches the light and sets the figure off in monumental isolation. Utamaro's contribution was to argue that the categories of classical love poetry, traditionally illustrated through aristocratic narrative scenes, could be carried entirely by the psychological registration of a single contemporary female face, and the resulting prints rank among the most influential bijin-ga ever produced. The figures are drawn with subtle variations of contour, gaze, and lip placement that convey distinct emotional states, and the cartouche identifies the poetic category that each sheet illustrates. The series is widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements of late-eighteenth-century ukiyo-e and is held in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the British Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the Chiba City Museum of Art, where it consistently anchors the cataloguing of Utamaro's Tsutaya-era production.
The Anthology of Poems: The Love Section (Kasen koi no bu) (Mono-omou koi) series contains 1 prints, created by Kitagawa Utamaro.
The Anthology of Poems: The Love Section (Kasen koi no bu) (Mono-omou koi) series was created by Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿).
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