Beautiful Woman with Kinuta

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was an ukiyo-e painter in the late Edo Period who is well-known in the world, having great influence on painters in foreign countries such as Gogh and Monet. The painter native to Edo passed away at 90. He also used more than 30 pseudonyms at different times, including “Taito,” “Tamekazu” and “Manji”. This painting was created by Hokusai under the pseudonym of “Taito” during a period from 1811 to 20. Kinuta is short for kinuita (beetling block) which is a tool used to flatten woven fabrics to soften and polish the texture. You can see the tool behind a woman. Beetling cloth was traditionally night work for women and the word “kinuta” often used as a seasonal word of autumn in haiku poets as people at the time sensed melancholic notes in the sound of kinuta ringing in the night sky. The painting depicts a woman who looks back, holding a stack of cloth in her hand. It seems that she is going to take a break, taking her facecloth off from her head and holding it in her mouth. Her clothes are depicted with jaggy lines while the contour line of her body is round and soft. The woman’s ear visible behind her sidelocks and her arm seen through the thin garment are represented with great care.