CC0 · no rights reserved
Koto from the series The Six Arts in Fashionable Guise
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Chinese classical education consisted of the Six Arts: performing rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. The Chinese qin, a stringed musical instrument in the zither family, customarily symbolizes the art of music. In this print a similar Japanese instrument, the koto, replaces the qin. The fashionable Japanese entertainer playing it stands in for an accomplished Chinese scholar.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineKoto from the series The Six Arts in Fashionable Guise, c. 1793–96. Chōbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756–1829). Color woodblock print; ink and color on paper; sheet: 36.6 x 25 cm (14 7/16 x 9 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith, 1985.301
Similar works
Young Lady Playing a Musical Instrument
The Courtesan Hanaōgi of the Ōgiya Brothel (Ōgiya Hanaōgi), from the series Beauties of the Pleasure Quarters as Six Floral Immortals (Seirō bijin rokkasen)
The Courtesan Hinazuru of the Chōjiya Brothel (Chōjiya Hinazuru), from the series Beauties of the Pleasure Quarters as Six Floral Immortals (Seirō bijin rokkasen)
The Courtesan Ariwara of the Tsuruya Seated by a Smoking Chest (From the series A Collection of Modern Beauties)
The First Month (Sho gatsu), from the series "Fashionable Twelve Months (Furyu junikagetsu)"
Ono no Komachi: Number Two (Sono ni), from the series Stylish Parodies of the Six Poetic Immortals (Fūryū yatsushi rokkasen)