Woman Putting on Finger Plectrums to Play the Koto
early 19th century
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
31 5/16 x 10 1/4 in. (79.6 x 26 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Charles Stewart Smith Collection, Gift of Mrs. Charles Stewart Smith, Charles Stewart Smith Jr., and Howard Caswell Smith, in memory of Charles Stewart Smith, 1914
Accession Number
14.76.43
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the serene elegance of Edo-period Japan (1615–1868), Utagawa Toyiro captures a quiet moment of preparation in *Woman Putting on Plectrums to Play Koto*. Created in the early 19th, this hanging scroll depicts a graceful woman meticulously fitting tsume—small, curved plectrums—onto her fingers to play the koto, a traditional 13-string zither central to Japanese courtly and domestic music. Toyohiro, a master the Utagawa school mentor to the famed Hiroshige, infused his works with the vibrant spirit of ukiyo-e, celebrating the "floating world" of everyday beauty, geisha culture, and refined art...
About the Artist
Utagawa Toyohiro · 1763–1828
Utagawa Toyohiro (1763–1828) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist and painter who founded a major branch of the Utagawa school and is best remembered as the teacher of Utagawa Hiroshige, one of the greatest landscape print designers in Japanese art history. Born in Edo (present-day Tokyo), he studied under Utagawa Toyoharu, the founder of the Utagawa school, who was noted for introducing Western perspect...