The Love Letter

The ukiyo-e print tradition was part of a lively popular culture, and its artists often made humorous allusions to plays and poems as well as prints by other artists. Here Kiyonaga parodies a print depicting Act VII of the popular Kabuki play Chushingura, or "Loyal League of Forty-seven Ronin." The drama relates how the ronin avenged the death of their lord. In this scene a courtesan, instead of the leader of the ronin, stands on the veranda of a teahouse reading a letter. The subject is presumably love rather than revenge. Another courtesan, hidden beneath the veranda, like the spy in the play, reads the long letter as it unrolls. On the balcony above, a teahouse client reads the letter with the help of a mirror, a travesty of the selfless woman in Chushingura, who sold herself to the teahouse to raise the money her husband needed to join the ronin.

The format of the hashira-e, or pillar print, is ideally suited to depict this vertical scene. "With a few hints of architecture, Kiyonaga has divided the picture plane into three levels. Our eyes are directed up and down the vertical expanse by the observers at the top and bottom, who focus on the "performance" at the center.