Description
During the Tokugawa period (徳川時代) the ladies of the Edo Castle (江戸城) trained in the use of swords and naginata (薙刀). There was also a specially trained unit who guarded the women’s quarters of the shogun’s residence. The artist Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延), among the last witnesses of a world that was disappearing, depicts some ladies in waiting, of what had become the Imperial Palace Castle (宮城), while practicing those ancient martial arts.
The precious triptych of polychrome woodblock prints, made in April 1896 by the publisher Fukuda Hatsujiro (福田初次郎) owner of Gusokuya (具足屋), is entitled “Practicing Naginata” (長刀稽古) and is taken from the series “Chiyoda Inner Palace” (千代田之大奥).
The prints on Japanese washi paper (和紙), despite the right patina of time and a small imperfection in the lower right corner of the central panel, are in very good general condition.
