Description
A woman observes two children playing blindman’s buff through a screen fitted with a sliding paper door. The screen frames her as a picture within the picture, while the children occupy the space of the game itself. Kitagawa Utamaro makes their different ways of participating part of the encounter, joining the excitement of play to the quieter act of watching.
This 1790s ink-and-color woodblock print belongs to Futabagusa nana Komachi. The title’s Komachi association recalls the ancient poet admired for beauty and literary skill, a name also applied to admired women. The architectural frame brings the woman’s appearance into focus while preserving her separation from the children, allowing a familiar domestic activity to become a carefully layered scene of attention.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.
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