Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Beauty Dancing
Mihata Jōryō Japanese
Not on view
Both the red obi tied behind her and coiffed tsubushi Shimada hairstyle suggest that Jōryō has painted a geisha performing a graceful dance to welcome the New Year. The artist’s training in the Shijō style is evident in the bold pattern of snow-covered pine trees on the dancer’s kimono and the bamboo grass with snow pattern on her gray underrobe. The effect achieved with this strong patterning and the fluid movement of the figure is entirely unlike that of standard bijin artists who aimed for delicacy and elegance in the usual ukiyo-e styles. The inscription, composed in Chinese and signed Sōkyo Dōjin, reads:
She handles a fan so gracefully.
Her cheeks are flushed like spring.
I do not yet know her family,
Someday I wish to search for her.
Composed when drinking with [Jōryō]
on a day in winter, 1841.
—Trans. John T. Carpenter
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