Description
Kitagawa Utamaro shows Yamauba playing with the young Kintarō in a close image, her dark hair falling around her face. The child looks upward against green and pale cloth. The legendary pair acquire an immediate human relationship through their proximity, making a familiar act of attention more prominent than a distant narrative setting.
Made around 1795, the nishiki-e woodblock print uses ink and color on paper. Utamaro treats the pair through an ordinary form of closeness, allowing legendary identity and everyday feeling to coexist. The work’s interest lies in that meeting, where a familiar act of playing becomes a way to encounter the represented characters. Its appeal rests on a relationship that can be understood through human attention as well as through the names supplied by the story.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.
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