Returning Sails of the Towel Rack

Two courtesans share a private moment in a room overlooking a veranda and small interior garden. In this quiet scene of domestic activity, one of the women sits on the tatami inside the room stitching a garment — the fabric held taut by a bamboo stretcher attached to the tatami with a curved metal hook. Her sewing box with a red pincushion rests on the doorframe beside her. A round fan and pillow lie just inside the door, hinting at the heat of the room and their leisurely intimacy. The other woman, dressed in a kosode with a starch-resist-dyed pattern of white arrowheads and flowing water and a wood-grain–patterned obi, scoops water from a basin to wash her hands. Next to her is a bamboo curtain, presumably leading to the toilet from which she has just emerged. On the veranda beside her a hand towel (tenugui) hangs from a rack, ready for use. The towel flutters in the breeze, hinting at this print’s hidden subject matter.
Though there is no printed title, this image is known to be one of a series of eight prints produced by Harunobu on request of the haikai poet Okubo Kyosen ( Jinshirō, 1722–1777). The prints, considered among Harunobu’s masterworks, are mitate playing on the Chinese-derived traditional painting motif of “Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers,” later adapted by Japanese artists as the “Eight Views of Ōmi” (Lake Biwa). This print playfully reworks the theme “Returning Sails off Yabase,” substituting the hand towel on its rack for the sailboats usually shown. The idea of appropriating these iconic, sophisticated themes in an intimate scene of mundane pastimes was not invented by Harunobu and Kyosen, but the elite poetry-circle clientele for which they were produced would have appreciated their sophisticated approach to the subject matter.
Scholars have identified three states for this series, the first bearing Kyosen’s seal and the third adding Harunobu’s signature. As this impression has neither, it is presumed to belong to the second state, reissued for commercial distribution.