Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival
About This Series
Kitagawa Utamaro's "Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival" (Seiro niwaka onna geisha no bu) is one of the artist's most engaging multi-figure bijin-ga cycles, dedicated to the celebrated autumn festival held annually within the licensed quarter. The Yoshiwara Niwaka was a four-week celebration during the eighth lunar month in which the residents of the quarter staged improvised dramatic performances and processional parades through the main avenue, with the geisha and lower-ranking courtesans taking the leading performance roles while the high-ranking oiran observed. The series was published by Tsuruya Kiemon and is generally dated to around 1795, and presents the female geisha of the quarter in the elaborate male and animal costumes they wore for the festival's processional and theatrical components. The sheets are oban tate-e and depict the figures in full-length compositions that capture the active gestures and improvised costumes of the festival, with the geisha shown carrying or wearing dragons, lions, masks, and other festival regalia in animated movement. The series operates simultaneously as a documentary record of the festival, a fashion catalogue of geisha costume, and a celebration of the social register of the geisha as professional entertainers distinct from the courtesans of the quarter. Utamaro's contribution captures the energy of the festival in a way that distinguishes the series from his more typical static bijin-ga compositions, and the prints rank among the most vivid records of Yoshiwara festival culture in the late-eighteenth-century print canon. Impressions are held in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the British Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Chiba City Museum of Art, and the Honolulu Museum of Art, where the series figures in the standard literature on the artist's mid-1790s production.
Prints in This Series (3)
Complete series — all 1 prints catalogued.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kitagawa Utamaro's "Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival" (Seiro niwaka onna geisha no bu) is one of the artist's most engaging multi-figure bijin-ga cycles, dedicated to the celebrated autumn festival held annually within the licensed quarter. The Yoshiwara Niwaka was a four-week celebration during the eighth lunar month in which the residents of the quarter staged improvised dramatic performances and processional parades through the main avenue, with the geisha and lower-ranking courtesans taking the leading performance roles while the high-ranking oiran observed. The series was published by Tsuruya Kiemon and is generally dated to around 1795, and presents the female geisha of the quarter in the elaborate male and animal costumes they wore for the festival's processional and theatrical components. The sheets are oban tate-e and depict the figures in full-length compositions that capture the active gestures and improvised costumes of the festival, with the geisha shown carrying or wearing dragons, lions, masks, and other festival regalia in animated movement. The series operates simultaneously as a documentary record of the festival, a fashion catalogue of geisha costume, and a celebration of the social register of the geisha as professional entertainers distinct from the courtesans of the quarter. Utamaro's contribution captures the energy of the festival in a way that distinguishes the series from his more typical static bijin-ga compositions, and the prints rank among the most vivid records of Yoshiwara festival culture in the late-eighteenth-century print canon. Impressions are held in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the British Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Chiba City Museum of Art, and the Honolulu Museum of Art, where the series figures in the standard literature on the artist's mid-1790s production.
The Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival series contains 1 prints, created by Kitagawa Utamaro.
The Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival series was created by Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿).
We currently have 3 of 1 known prints from the Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival series indexed in our collection. Browse them all on this page.
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