Autumn, from the series Women’s Pleasures of the Four Seasons
Utagawa Kuniyoshi Japanese
Not on view
After governmental restrictions of the 1840s were loosened, Kuniyoshi made a sumptuous series of prints of women in the four seasons. All four of the triptychs in the series present three women with a child. This print, the best of the four, illustrates the women and a boy viewing the moon from boats. The misty clouds covering the moon are delicately depicted with light ink and silver powder (presently tarnished). Kuniyoshi included a severely cropped bridge support pole in the right border and arranged the reflection of the lantern in the waves
In the cartouche at the upper right corner a poem by Genkō is inscribed "Look at that, then look up at the sky, and admire the moon with geese."