Matsuyama and Wankyu, by Kitagawa Utamaro

An image of Matsuyama and Wankyû. Michiyuki koi no futozao. On the road: Love songs for the thick-necked shamisen. Utamaro, Kitagawa (Japanese, c.1753-1806). Book printed in colour from woodblocks, 3 volumes, each with two single-page and seven double-page illustrations, hanshibon format with fukuro-toji binding, in original dark blue covers painted with gold design and printed title slips 'numbered' jô (top) chû (centre) ge (bottom). Previously undescribed colour edition using the first state line-blocks. Edo Period. 1802. Based on real life, the story of Matsuyama and Wankyû was told in Ihara Saikaku's 'floating world' story book, The story of the life of Wankyû (Wankyû isse no monogatari), 1685, and first dramatized on the puppet stage in 1708 in Ki Kaion's play Wankyû and Matsuyama, the pine-clad mountain (Wankyû sue no Matsuyama), with a Kabuki version premiered around the same time.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Matsuyama and Wankyû. Michiyuki koi no futozao. On the road: Love songs for the thick-necked shamisen. Utamaro, Kitagawa (Japanese, c.1753-1806). Book printed in colour from woodblocks, 3 volumes, each with two single-page and seven double-page illustrations, hanshibon format with fukuro-toji binding, in original dark blue covers painted with gold design and printed title slips 'numbered' jô (top) chû (centre) ge (bottom). Previously undescribed colour edition using the first state line-blocks. Edo Period. 1802. Based on real life, the story of Matsuyama and Wankyû was told in Ihara Saikaku's 'floating world' story book, The story of the life of Wankyû (Wankyû isse no monogatari), 1685, and first dramatized on the puppet stage in 1708 in Ki Kaion's play Wankyû and Matsuyama, the pine-clad mountain (Wankyû sue no Matsuyama), with a Kabuki version premiered around the same time.

Image data

Accession Number: P.47-2006
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Aperture: f/18.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Andrew Norman
Image height: 1024 pixels
Image width: 751 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Macintosh)
Filesize: 323.17kB
Exposure time: 1/60
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 18/1
Captured: 2013:07:12 13:45:23

Key words

19th Century 458392 Date Department Edo Period Fitz_PDP Japanese Kitagawa Utamaro Medium Nationalities Object Type Other Keywords Utamaro Workflow _WF_AdOK _WF_KWD _WF_OPACtd _WF_not_for_PC book clothes clothing costume courtesan erotic female geisha hair hairstyle hanshibon intercourse intimate kanzashi hairpin kimono lovers male passion print sexual woman woodblock woodcut Artist/Maker

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Matsuyama and Wankyu, by Kitagawa Utamaro"
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-218545 Accessed: 2024-11-28 15:28:19

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-218545
            |title=Matsuyama and Wankyu, by Kitagawa Utamaro
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-28 15:28:19|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-188713

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp67/P_47_2006_CE.jpg"
        alt="(Michiyuki) Koi no futozao"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Matsuyama and Wankyu, by Kitagawa Utamaro</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>