Japanese Print "Young Woman Holding a Bowl with a Goldfish" by Torii Kiyotsune
Artist:Torii Kiyotsune
Title:Young Woman Holding a Bowl with a Goldfish
Date:about 1769
Details:More information...
Source:Worcester Art Museum
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Description:
A standing woman in a pink kimono holds up a glass globe in which two goldfish are swimming for a young boy who clings to her skirts to look at. Upon the field about her head a short ode is printed A beautiful young woman, holding a round fan with an iris design, is dangling a small glass bowl with two goldfish, kingyo, above the head of a small boy. She may have bought them from a street-vendor carrying kingyo-filled buckets suspended over the shoulder on a carrying pole or, more likely, she may have scooped them up with a fragile paper or wafer scoop in a game called kingyo sukui played at summer festival stalls. The design playfully complements a humorous verse, with wordplay, which suggests the coolness of shady trees on a hot summer day: