Music

Three girls in an elegantly appointed room play music in a shakyo ensemble. The kokyū, on the left, is a stringed instrument played with a bow; it joins two more familiar instruments, the shamisen and koto. At the top right the character kin (also read koto) identifies the scene as “Music” from a set of the Four Accomplishments (kinkishoga), a theme, common in earlier paintings, that alludes to the Chinese gentlemanly pursuits of music, strategy games, calligraphy, and painting. Here Toyoharu follows a tradition of Edo period artists who reenvisioned the theme by substituting beauties in modern costume for Chinese scholars. References to contemporary fashion include chic wardrobe items like the kokyū player’s striped, ikat-dyed obi.
This elegant design was printed on thick paper in the largest size used for ukiyo-e prints. Special permission would have been required to bypass government restrictions on paper size, indicating that this was a private commission. We cannot be sure that it is the case here, but luxury prints of this type have been found mounted in albums made for daimyo or other high-ranking samurai collectors. Of this rare set the Grabhorn Collection has a second print, “Painting” (no. 65); the Tokyo National Museum has “Painting” and “Calligraphy”; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has a full set plus two other impressions of “Strategy Games.”