Artworks

Yamauba and Kintarō: The Chestnut

Artwork · Kitagawa Utamaro · 1796–1799 · Japanese woodblock print · Tokyo National Museum

The mountain woman Yamauba teases her chubby son Kintarō, holding just beyond his reach a twig with two chestnuts; frustrated, he grabs her kimono and tries to climb her leg. By Kitagawa Utamaro, who studied with Toriyama Sekien; in 1804 a triptych of Hideyoshi with his concubines at Daigoji earned him three days in jail and fifty days in hand chains. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 287–288, fig. 328. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.