Woman holding a tobacco pipe
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1814-1815
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)
notes: label: Description
content: Poem above. Signature and seal.
label: Signatures
content: Signed: Hokusai Taito hitsu.
label: Inscriptions
content: Above the figure of the girl is a comic ode signed Shoku Sanjin:
label: Inscriptions
content: Uzumi-bi no
label: Inscriptions
content: Shita ni sawarade
label: Inscriptions
content: Yawaraka ni
label: Inscriptions
content: Ii-yoran koto no
label: Inscriptions
content: Hatabako no gana.
label: Inscriptions
content: This is a play upon words signifying the wish that he might in some gentle way make tobacco convey his love.
label: Inscriptions
content: This is a play upon words signifying the wish that he might in some gentle way make tobacco convey his love.
label: Label
content: Toying with the tobacco pipe in her left hand, a woman gazes pensively upward and exhales deeply. The use of pale flesh tones rather than white for the skin of the face, hands, and breast places this work in Hokusai's "Taito" period. The wave pattern (tachimaki) on the woman's sash frequently occurs in his paintings of beautiful women, and the subdued coloration of her garments suggests she is married. Women of worldly experience feature regularly in Hokusai's paintings of the Taito period. Indeed, such works represent the ultimate expression of voluptuous sensuality among the artist's many paintings of women.
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: Edward S. Hull Jr., New York to 1898 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Edward S. Hull Jr. in 1898 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Kakemono List, L. 167, pg. 37, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Edward S. Hull Jr. was Ernest Francisco Fenollosa’s (1853-1908) lawyer. Hull often acted as an agent, facilitating purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa, as well as purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa's
label: Provenance
content: well-known associate, Bunshichi Kobayashi (see correspondence, Hull to Freer, 1898-1900, as well as invoices from E.S. Hull Jr., 1898-1900, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives). See also, Ingrid Larsen, "'Don’t Send Ming or Later Pictures': Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum," Ars Orientalis vol. 40 (2011), pgs. 15 and 34. See further, Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art, (Washington, DC and New York: Freer Gallery of Art and H. N. Abrams, 1993), pgs. 133-134.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Hokusai: Mad About Painting (November 20, 2019 to January 9, 2022)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 2 (March 8 to October 19, 2008)
label: Exhibition History
content: Hokusai (October 25, 2005 to May 14, 2006)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Edward S. Hull Jr. (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: child
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: ukiyo-e
label: Topic
content: kakemono
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1898.107
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink and color on silk
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 71.9 × 26.9 cm (28 5/16 × 10 9/16 in)