Prints
The Shika Teahouse
Woodblock Print
Details
- Author / creator
- Utagawa Toyokuni (Japanese, 1769–1825)
- Object type
- Date or period
- early 1790s
- Dimensions summary
- Each: 39.2 × 26.4 cm
- Place of origin
- Japan
- Acquisition method
- Donation
- Credit line
- Gift of Colonel James Thursby, 1916
- Paper / support
- Japanese paper
- State and impression
- Early impression, before the steel-facing
About this object
Exotic birds and tobacco—Western imports—feature in this composition. Peacocks and parrots were brought to Japan by Dutch traders in the 1700s. Many of the visitors to this teahouse, which specialized in displays of foreign birds, admire the unusual fowl while sipping tea and smoking long pipes. The birds have attracted curious courtesans, entertainers, samurai, merchants and their wives, and even a Buddhist monk.
Materials and technique
Triptych of color woodblock prints
