喜多川 歌麿: 雪月花

choi

Lee Lawrence, A Journey of Discovery. Wall Street Journal, Jan 11, 2017.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/emba ... of-japan-1484084764
(exhibition review)

Note:
(a) "One of Japan's highly regarded ukiyo-e, or floating world, artists, KITAGAWA Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 (c 1753-1806), is the subject of three successive shows centered on three unusual works: wall-size paintings first displayed together in Japan in 1879 and later in Paris showrooms in the 1880s. One belongs to the Smithsonian's Freer-Sackler; another to Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; and the third—rediscovered in 2012 after disappearing in 1948—to the Okada Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan. Each museum is organizing a show, the first being 'Utamaro and the Lure of Japan' at the Wadsworth (through March 26), where its 'Cherry Blossoms at Yoshiwara' (c 1793) hangs kitty-corner to the Okada Museum's 'Fukagawa in the Snow' (c 1802-06). Across the gallery is a full-scale reproduction of 'Moon at Shinagawa' (c 1788); the original is in the Freer and cannot travel."
(i) The "ki" and "Ta' are Chinese pronunciations for kanji 喜 and 多, respectively.
(ii) Wadsworth Atheneum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadsworth_Atheneum
(Founded in 1842 and opened in 1844, it is the oldest continually operating public art museum in the United States; in downtown Hartford, Connecticut -- was constructed on the site of the family home of Daniel Wadsworth)
(iii)
(A) About the Museum. Okada Museum of Art 岡田美術館, undated
www.okada-museum.com/en/about/
(opened in 2013; "exhibits Japanese, Chinese, and Korean works of art ranging from ancient times through to the present age, collected by the businessman OKADA Kazuo 岡田 和生 [1942- ; 賭博機器製造, such as pachislot]. Okada founded the Museum")
(B) Hakone is a town 神奈川県足柄下郡 箱根町, a 観光都市. Noted for hot springs, being at the foot of Mount Fuji and having the advantage of being close to Tokyo.

choi

(e) Inventing Utamaro: A Japanese Masterpiece Rediscovered; Apr 8, 2017 – July 9, 2017. Arthur M Sackler Gallery, undated
http://si.edu/Exhibitions/Detail ... e-Rediscovered-6152
("Museum founder Charles Lang Freer acquired Moon at Shinagawa [品川の月] in 1903")
(i) 品川区 (presently a ward in Tokyo) takes its name from Shinagawa 品川, which was ancient name for the area around the mouth of 目黒川 (which also flows through Tokyo).
(ii) You might have noticed that (d)(ii) identifies it as "Moonlight Revelry at Dozō Sagami 土蔵相模での月夜の宴."
(A) 土蔵
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%9F%E8%94%B5
(B) For 土蔵相模, see 品川宿
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/品川宿#.E5.90.8D.E6.89.80.E3.83.BB.E6.97.A7.E8.B7.A1
(東海道五十三次の宿場の一つ; section 3 名所・旧跡: "土蔵相模- 幕末の志士たちが、時に密議を凝らし、時に遊女と遊んだ宿")

I assume the area is near 相模川.
(C) Japanese-English dictionary:
* shukuba 宿場 【しゅくば】 (n): "(See 宿駅) relay station (esp. on Edo-period highway); post station"
(by horses of course)
(iii) Moonlight Revelry at Dozo Sagami. Freer l Sackler, undated (accession number F1903.54).www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan ... .54&bcrumb=true

(f) "A lively US-Japan trade soon followed—ceramics and over-the-top cloisonnés 景泰藍 fill a grandiose wooden cabinet from the Colts' residence and assortments of sculptural netsuke, knife handles and tsubos [sic; the singular form should be 'tsuba 鍔' (sword guards [to protect the hand that holds the hilt) illustrate the tastes of local collectors at the turn of the 20th century."

netsuke  根付
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsuke

choi

(d) "The only other time the Wadsworth displayed [its own] 'Cherry Blossoms [at Yoshihara] 吉原の花' was in an eclectic assortment of museum treasures. Here, curator of European art Oliver Tostmann uses the painting to introduce the museum’s connection to the Japan craze of the late 1800s. It starts with firearms magnate Samuel Colt [1814 – 1862], a Hartford resident whose widow bequeathed much of their collection to the museum. Colt made sure the 1852-54 US naval expedition to Japan, headed by Commodore Matthew Perry, included among its diplomatic gifts the latest Colt Revolvers. The shogun, in return, sent Colt gifts, of which we see two swords and a length of brocade teeming with dragons and phoenixes."
(i) Utamaro and the Lure of Japan; Jan 7, 2017—Mar 26, 2017. Wadsworth Athenaeum, undated.
https://thewadsworth.org/exhibit ... -the-lure-of-japan/
("At the center of the exhibition lies the reunion of two monumental scroll paintings by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806): the Wadsworth Atheneum's own Cherry Blossoms at Yoshiwara and its recently re-discovered companion Fukagawa in the Snow 深川の雪 from the Okada Museum in Hakone, Japan")
(ii) The announcement of rediscovery did not say how.

Press release: Utamaro's 'Fukagawa in the Snow' on Display for the First time in 66 Years. Okada Museum of Art, Mar 2, 2014
www.okada-museum.com/en/exhibiti ... -release_140307.pdf
(" 'Fukagawa in the Snow' is one of a set of three paintings, known as 'Snow, Moon and Flowers,' of which the other two are 'Moonlight Revelry at Dozo Sagami' (property of Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA) and 'Cherry Blossoms at Yoshiwara' (property of Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, USA).  The earliest record of the three paintings being displayed together is by a wealthy merchant of the Zenno family 善野 家 ['当地の豪商'] at Jōgan-ji Temple 定願寺, Tochigi Prefecture in 1879")
(A) Japanese-English dictionary:
* gōshō 豪商 【ごうしょう】 (n): "wealthy merchant"
(B) 定願寺, of 天台宗 (a sect of Buddhism), is located at 栃木県 栃木市 (which is not capital of the prefecture).

You may go to images.google.com to view 定願寺, a temple fronted by a gate. Both are beautiful.
(C) Tochigi Prefecture 栃木県
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tochigi_Prefecture

is north of Tokyo.
(D) 学名 of 栃の木 is Aesculus turbinata.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_turbinata
(iii) Fukagawa, Tokyo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukagawa,_Tokyo
("Fukagawa is named after its founder, FUJAGAWA Hachirōzaemon [sic; should be 'Hachirō-emon' -- without 'za'] 深川 八郎右衛門. Originally, parts of Fukagawa below the Eitai river (excluding Etchūjima [越中島, which was popular name for 中州 (地帯)] ) was sea; Hachirozaemon developed these areas with landfills")

Again "Eitai" is not a river but a bridge 永代橋 (over Sumida River 隅田川), named after 永代島.

choi

(c) "Long attributed to Utamaro, the three paintings have historically been viewed as a trilogy. A most helpful brochure produced by the Freer and available at the Wadsworth notes that Japanese audiences would recognize in these images the fleeting nature of pleasure evoked in a couplet by the Chinese poet Bai Juyi (722-846): 'Snow, moon and flowers—in these moments I think longingly of you.' Here the association extends to geishas and courtesans"
(i) 雪月花
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/雪月花
("是日本的慣用語之一，代表自然界的美麗景物，其典故出自中國唐朝詩人白居易的七言律詩《寄殷協律》")

* 殷協律 was the name of a man.
(ii) 雪月花
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/雪月花
("白居易の詩「寄殷協律」の一句「雪月花時最憶君（雪月花の時 最も君を憶ふ）」による語")

choi

(b) "All three depict Japan's so-called pleasure quarters, but unlike the intimate portrayals of Utamaro's woodblock prints—four of which hang nearby—they [are paintings that] fill the walls * * * These scenes [in the paintings] are as carefully choreographed as the public promenades in which a courtesan described by novelist IHARA Saikaku 井原 西鶴 [born 平山 藤五; 1642 – 1693; author of 好色一代男] in 1689 'arranges her clothing so that her red crepe de chine undergarment will flip open to reveal a flash of white ankle, sometimes as high as her calf or thigh,' causing many a man to part with his mind and treasure."
(i) crepe de chine
(A) crêpe (textile)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crêpe_(textile)
(section 1 Types: "Crêpe de chine: A fine, lightweight silk, cotton, or worsted, with a plain weave and crêpe-twist filling")

* The title of the Wiki page has "textile" in parentheses, to distinguish the same French word for food (looking like "wrap").
(B) crepe de chine
https://www.merriam-webster.com/ ... 3%AApe%20de%20chine
(pronunciation)
(ii) The quotation ("arranges her clothing so that * * * ") appears in
David Bell, Explaining Ukiyo-e. University of Otago, 2002, at page 216 (PhD thesis)
https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/b ... 16C4E223?sequence=3

, where footnote 64 stated,

"Ihara Saikaku, in Saikaku and ISOGAI Sutekawa 礒貝 捨若 [they were co-authors], Shin-Yoshiwara Tsunezunegusa [新 吉原 常々草] ([English:] Perennial Grass of the New Yoshiwara), 1689, Teihon Saikaku zenshū [定本 西鶴 全集], Vol 6 [第六巻], 1:253, Seigle, p 77"
(A) "Seigle" signifies Cecilia Segawa Seigle (or simply Cecilia S Seigle), a Japanese woman who came to US to study and stayed on (likely married a man surnamed Seigle) and currently professor emeritus of University of Pennsylvania. Her only book is:

Cecilia S Seigle, Yoshiwara; The glittering world of the Japanese courtesan. University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
(B) Apparently the notation in (b)(ii) means Seigle handpicked the Japanese sentence from 定本 西鶴 全集, and translated it into English, which can be found in page 77 of her book.
(C) courtesan
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/courtesan

Oxforddictionaries.com has exactly the same definition.
(D) Japanese-English dictionary:
* tsune-zune 常々【つねづね】 (adv,n): "always; usually"