Antique Japanese Original 1850's Woodblock Print Kuniyoshi Three Women 17"H Framed

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) Original Ukiyo-e Woodblock Print: Three Women at a Shrine Festival, Edo Period

Japan, Edo period, circa 1850s

12.25″W × 17.25″H (31 × 44 cm), framed

This is a Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳, 1797–1861), signed 一勇斎国芳戯画 (Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi giga), one of the leading print designers of the late Edo period. The composition presents three women in a lively genre scene: a heavyset woman laughing broadly at center, an elegantly dressed woman in a dark striped kimono at right, and a young woman kneeling in a kimono patterned with chrysanthemum roundels in the foreground. Full color nishiki-e printing throughout, with fine outline work and multiple layered pigment blocks giving the robes their pattern and shading.

A large red paper lantern inscribed with festival text and a pair of doves in flight fill the upper right corner, placing the scene at a temple or shrine festival day (縁日, ennichi). Vertical cartouches of kyōka verse run down the left margin, a device Kuniyoshi favored in his genre prints to pair image with witty commentary on the figures shown. Two round date/censor seals sit beside the artist's signature at lower right, along with a smaller square seal, consistent with Utagawa school production practice of the period.

The print is set in an old wood frame with a Strom Alpert Frames label (Boston, Massachusetts) on the backing paper, indicating a long-standing American collection history. The composition sits close to the sheet's right edge, suggesting this may be one panel of an originally larger multi-sheet design; no companion sheets are included with this piece.

Form: Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban sheet, in an old wood frame
Construction or Decoration: Multi-block woodcut printing with hand-applied color; ink signature and seals at lower right
Mark: Signed 一勇斎国芳戯画 (Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi giga)
Period: Edo period, circa 1850s
Dimensions: 12.25″W × 17.25″H (31 × 44 cm), framed
Weight:
Condition: Small area of old insect (beetle larva) damage to the sheet and light scattered foxing; otherwise strong, saturated color and crisp linework. Housed under glass in its old frame; not examined out of the frame.