On an evening in early autumn, with the weather still warm enough to warrant a mosquito net, a courtesan sits with the gauze of the net trailing over her shoulders, reading a letter from her lover, unable to sleep as she waits for him to arrive. Her kimono, with a design of trailing purple clematis, is outlined with ample, fluid strokes that echo the curves of the mosquito net; yet above all it is her bewitching, almost impish, face which draws the viewer's attention.
The poem inscribed on the painting, probably by Joryu herself, derives from a verse by Princess Shokushi (no. 1204 in the Imperial 'Shin kokin waka shu' anthology of AD 1201, with a modified last line) and articulates the woman's longing:
Thinking to wait for my love
I do not even enter the bedchamber,
But stay at this door of precious wood.
Moon of the autumn night that shines here
Do not set so fast!
In Ukiyo-e prints and paintings parallels are often drawn in this way with episodes of courtly love from Japan's classical past, suggesting an audience well educated in literature and poetry.
Literature:
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, no. 104.