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| Collection Spotlight One of the most charming Japanese paintings in the museum’s collection is an ukiyo-e painting entitled Courtesan and Boy Dancing at New Year, formerly in the renowned Ralph Harari Collection. The image is currently on view in the museum’s exhibition Reflections of Beauty: Women of Japan’s Floating World. It depicts a slim young courtesan swaying gracefully with a fan in one hand. At her side is a young boy who also dances with a fan. Both figures are painted with extremely fine yet confident brushwork, and the details of their clothing are painstakingly rendered. The artist, Shishin (fl. 1760-70), is not very well known, but his few paintings of beautiful women echo the sweetness and delicacy of his more famous contemporary Suzuki Harunobu (1724-70).
This delightful image is all the more interesting for the information its many details provide for us. In the background is a dwarf pine (kadomatsu), which suggests that the occasion for the dance is a New Year’s Day celebration. Beside the pine is a bamboo plant. Typically, these two plants are grouped with a third, the plum, to form the “Three Friends of Winter” (shochikubai). At first glance it appears that the plum is missing, until we search the painting carefully and spot a sprig of plum blossom depicted on the woman’s fan. Upon further investigation we notice a horse portrayed on the boy’s fan, which tells us that the specific year being celebrated is the Year of the Horse. This information actually helps us to date the work itself, since it would have been painted as a New Year’s image. The only occurrence of the Year of the Horse during the period when the artist Shishin flourished was 1762. Such visual games in which reality and play are blended together with great artistry are an important element of ukiyo-e paintings. Meher McArthur This artwork is no longer available for viewing at the museum
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