Description
Precious triptych of woodblock prints made by the artist Utagawa Yoshitora (歌川芳虎) and entitled “The House of the Golden Vase, in the Edomachi Block of Shin Yoshiwara District: Depiction of an Instrumental Trio in the Imamurasaki Hall” (新吉原江戸町 金瓶楼 今紫座敷三曲之図). In the splendid setting of the magnificent rooms of the house of pleasure Kinpeiro (金瓶楼), three oiran (花魁) courtesans are playing three traditional musical instruments: a shamisen (三味線) lute, a koto (箏) zither and a kokyu (胡弓) vielle.
In the red rectangles placed next to the ten courtesans we read, from right to left, their names: Sakarumurasaki (盛紫), Imamurasaki (今紫), Shiratori (白鳥), Karamae (唐前), Kosaisho (小最章), Shosho (瀟湘), Hokushu (北洲), Morokoshi (唐土), Kodayu (小太夫) and Shizuka (静).
The prints on Japanese washi paper (和紙), produced in 1871 by the publisher Tsunajima Kamekichi (綱島亀吉), have horizontal fold marks as well as a slight pressure mark of a paper clip on the top margin of each sheet.
