Kitagawa Utamaro I (1754 – 1806)

This design is from a set comprising eleven prints, each with an inset cartouche containing a scene from one of the eleven acts of the famous drama Treasury of the Loyal Retainers (Chushingura), above the main design which is an everyday scene with elements in common.

The picture inset into the rectangle in the upper left corner shows the famous scene from act VII of Chushingura. Oboshi Yuranosuke secretly reads a letter from Lady Kaoyo on a balcony by the light of a lantern, oblivious that the letter is also being read by Okaru, using a pocket mirror, and at the same time by the villain Ono Kudayu, who is hiding under the veranda. The main design shows a woman leaning against the balcony railing in the evening summer heat. Her husband is reading a letter inscribed with the names of various fish and their prices: "mackerel - 50 mon, tuna - 100 mon" etc. The villain Kudayu is impersonated by a dog under the veranda.¹

For another impression in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, accession number 1925.3081, go to:
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/24040

1. Shugo Asano and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro, (London, 1995), cat. 384