Folding Fan Seller, Round Fan Seller, and Barley Pounder - Kitagawa Utamaro
Archival giclée
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Description
A classic Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Kitagawa Utamaro, depicting three women in costume for the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival.
This woodblock print by Kitagawa Utamaro belongs to the series Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival (Seiro niwaka onna geisha no bu). The Niwaka festival was a popular annual event in the Yoshiwara pleasure district, where geisha performed skits and impersonations. In this composition, Utamaro depicts three women dressed as street vendors: a seller of folding fans, a seller of round fans, and a woman engaged in barley pounding.
Utamaro is known for his okubi-e, or large-headed portraits, which focus on the facial expressions and psychological presence of his subjects. Here, the three figures are arranged in a tight, overlapping formation that fills the frame. Their faces share the characteristic elongated features and small, delicate mouths typical of the artist's mature style. The use of a grey, mica-like background adds a sense of depth and refinement, drawing the viewer's attention to the subtle variations in the women's expressions and the textures of their garments.
The print demonstrates the technical precision of the Edo-period woodblock process. The lines are clean and controlled, defining the contours of the faces and the folds of the kimono with economy. The colour palette is restrained, relying on soft tones of green, peach, and charcoal to create a balanced visual experience. By portraying geisha in the roles of common labourers, the artist plays with the social artifice of the festival, where the boundaries between the elite entertainers and the working class were temporarily blurred for public amusement. This work provides a glimpse into the cultural life of late 18th-century Tokyo, capturing a moment of theatrical performance within the Yoshiwara district.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Folding Fan Seller, Round Fan Seller, and Barley Pounder - Kitagawa Utamaro
Artist Biography
Kitagawa Utamaro
Almost nothing is certain about his early life. He was born around 1753, possibly in Edo, possibly in Kyoto, possibly in Kawagoe. He began publishing prints in the 1770s under the guidance of the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo, who recognised what Utamaro could do with a portrait of a woman.
What he could do was unprecedented. He invented the okubi-e format: large head-and-shoulders portraits of individual women, mostly from the Yoshiwara pleasure district, printed in close-up with minimal background. Before Utamaro, bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) showed groups of figures in full length. He isolated the face, the tilt of the head, the expression. The prints are psychologically specific in a way that had not existed in Japanese printmaking.
He also published books of insect studies and volumes of shunga (erotica), and he made portraits of ordinary town women, not just courtesans. Ohisa and Okita, two shopgirls who appeared in his Three Beauties of the Present Day, became famous across Edo because of his prints. He turned real people into celebrities, which may be the first documented instance of an artist functioning as a kind of media platform.
Tsutaya Juzaburo died in 1797. Utamaro was reportedly devastated. Some critics feel his work never reached the same level afterward. He produced over two thousand prints in his career.
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